Quail In Puff Pastry Ingredients: 6 quail 1lb. (450g) puff pastry 4 large Savoy cabbage-leaves, blanched and refreshed 1 large chicken breast, weighing 5 ounces (150g) 1 small egg-white 2/3 cup double cream 2 egg yolks Seasoning For the sauce: 1 slice bacon chopped 1 leek, chopped 2 tbsp. Butter 6 medium mushrooms 1 cup white wine 1¼ cup quail/chicken stock ½ cup cream 2/3 cup armagnac A few tarragon leaves Seasoning Oven: 400ºF / 200ºC Method: Cut the breasts and the legs off the quails. Make stock from the other bones. Take the skin off the breasts and season the meat. Take the central cores out of the cabbage leaves, wash and dry them. Set them aside while you prepare a mousse. Process the chicken breast with the egg white, blending it really thoroughly. Carefully add the cream, using the pulse button so that it doesn't curdle. Season the mixture. Roll out the pastry thinly. Cut four discs, 3½ inches (9cm) in diameter and then another four, 4½ (12cm) in diameter. On top of each smaller circle put a small piece of cabbage and two quail-breasts. Spoon some mousse on top of the cabbage, followed by one more quail-breast and a little more mousse. Cover it all with more cabbage and paint egg-yolk around the rim before putting the larger circle of pastry on top, pressing it gently together to make a small, round parcel and trimming the edges. With a little icing-nozzle or a very sharp knife cut a hole from the top to allow steam to escape, brush egg-yolk all over the top and bake on a buttered tray for 30 minutes. Make the sauce by softening the bacon and leek in butter. Add the wine and the mushrooms and reduce to 1/3 before doing the same with the stock and, after that, the vermouth, reducing every time. Finally add the cream and seasoning. Seat the quail legs on all sides and roast them for 15 minutes. Serve three around each little pie, surrounded by the sauce, garnished with a little fresh tarragon. Extras: Puff Pastry Makes approx. 5lbs. (2.5kg) Ingredients: 7¾ cups all-purpose flour 10 tbsp. well-softened unsalted butter 2 tbsp. salt 4 egg yolks 2 ¼ cups water 9 ½ cups unsalted butter 3 ½ cups all-purpose flour Method: In a large mixing bowl mix the flour, salt, egg yolks and water into a dough. Make the dough into two equal size balls, cut a cross half way down in the top and then place into the fridge. Now soften the butter, either on a table or in a mixer (not food-processor) with the 3 ½ cups of flour and blend in to one large cake before refrigerating. At this stage it is important to have the pastry and butter at more or less the same stage of suppleness when rolling out. Roll out the dough to form a clover shape, rolling each clover leaf out separately. Place the butter on the top of the dough. Bring the sides up over the butter so there are no gaps and it is well sealed. Carefully roll the dough into a rectangle shape, place on a tray and place into the fridge for 30 minutes. Afterwards, roll gently into a thinner rectangle about 1/8 inch thick, each time rolling from the center out to each end. Fold the dough back to two thirds up the rectangle and fold the final third back onto the dough. Place this in the fridge for a further 20 minutes. Place the folded dough open side facing you and roll out again. Then fold again and repeat one more time. Put into the fridge for a further 3 hours. Finally, cut up in to the required sizes, and freeze or refrigerate. Blanching and Refreshing Nouvelle This means it's been plunged into boiling water and lightly cooked; then plunged into very cold water, which quickly cools it and stops it cooking. Blanching and refreshing cooks vegetables but doesn't make them soggy. Blanching also removes some very strong tastes - like cabbage or onions. They still have flavor, but won't overwhelm the delicate flavors of the dish.