Quail and Rose Petal Sauce
This recipe is adapted from the movie “Like Water for Chocolate.” This movie is a beautiful but sad love story and is one of my favorites. It is a foreign film with Spanish subtitles. This movie depicts so well how our own emotions during cooking can affect the recipients who eat the food we are making for them…any emotion, either negative or positive can be infused into our meals and affect the vibration of the food we are creating for others.
This is clearly shown in the movie when a young, sweet girl named Tita creates this gorgeous and exotic creation for a man, Pedro, whom she is deeply in love with, but cannot be with. The love and care she infuses into her “quail and rose petal sauce” affects everyone at the table, in an erotic and sensual nature.
This is an absolutely stunning, lovely, and unique combination and creation that is sure to please and impress any guest you are serving. My prayer is that you infuse it with your own love to bless whoever you are feeding!
BON APPETIT!
RECIPE:
*I changed this recipe a bit from the recipe that is given in the story “Like Water for Chocolate.” The slight changes are used because some of the original recipe ingredients could be challenging to find. This recipe is for 2 people. The changes do not affect the elegance and deliciousness of this recipe.
6 fresh, organic (pesticide free) red roses – you can also use 2 cups dried rose petals which would be the close equivalence of 6 fresh roses
*As a note, try to find organic fresh roses for this recipe if possible. Making this with fresh rose petals by far exceeds the flavor of using the dried petals. Both are delicious, but fresh is always best.
*You may be able to find organic-food grade fresh roses at a Whole Foods Market but if not, here is a good dried rose petal alternative
8 almonds (finely chopped)
1-2 cups of chicken or turkey broth (bone broth is great too)
2 TBSP butter or ghee
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 drop of Rose essential oil or 1 tsp Rosewater (this is the one I use and love)
2 tsp anise seed (you can usually find this at an herb store or the specialty section of your grocery store. You can also purchase it from amazon.com too.
1 TBSP honey
6 cloves garlic (grated)
2 shallots (cut in halves)
½ cup frozen or fresh raspberries
4 small quail or 4 chicken thighs (organic, free range) thawed, not frozen
*If you would like to use the quail for this recipe (which is the original recipe), you can order from D’Artagnan-Gourmet Meats- see link below
INSTRUCTIONS:
Rose Petal Sauce
Melt the butter in a large saucepan and sauté 2 cloves of grated garlic and anise seed until lightly browned. Add the finely chopped almonds and dried rose petals. Sauté for 1-2 minutes. Place ingredients into a blender and add the honey and raspberries. Puree in the blender and slowly add 1 cup of the chicken broth and the drop of rose oil or rosewater. Add salt and pepper to taste.
Push
sauce through a sieve and press on the solids to extract as much juice as
possible. Use this strained sauce for topping your quail.
The Quail or Chicken Thighs
Season the quail or chicken thighs with salt and pepper and stuff each quail or thigh with a slice of shallot and a garlic clove. Tie the legs of the quail together with a string. If using chicken thighs, you can stuff the shallot and garlic under the skin but you will need to finely chop both for them to fit underneath the skin of the thighs.
Sauté the quail or chicken thighs in butter or ghee until lightly browned (you may also use some chicken broth for sautéing the meat) then pan roast for 15 -30 minutes at 400 degrees F, depending on the thickness or cut of the meat. Make sure the meat is fully cooked through before serving.
Add the sauce to the quail or chicken, making sure the meat is covered completely. Place in heat proof baking dish and bake for 15 minutes at 300 degrees F to infuse the flavor of the sauce into the meat.
For a beautiful finishing touch, place the quail and rose petal sauce on a serving plate with 1 fresh red rose (destemmed) on top of the meal. I also like to sprinkle fresh rose petals around the perimeter of the plate.
Serve 1-2 quail or chicken thigh per person
Serve with white Jasmine rice to absorb the fragrant sauce
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