Roast Quail on Jazz™ and Black Pudding

An impressive, but simple to cook, main course for 2, easily doubles for entertaining.

Ingredients
2 oven ready quail
A few sprigs of fresh lemon thyme
Juice of half a lemon
30g softened butter
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 Jazz™ apple
2 thick slices black pudding

For the sauce:
Splash of dry sherry or white wine, optional
2 tsp crème fraiche

Directions
1. Set the oven to 200◦C/Gass 6. Put a roasting tin in to heat up. Put a sprig of thyme in each quail, brush the birds with lemon juice and then some butter and season well. Heat a frying pan and brown the quails for about 5 minutes. Put them in the roasting tin with the slices of black pudding and cook for 15 minutes then test to see if the quail is cooked by piercing the thigh with a skewer. If the juices run clear it is cooked. Leave quail loosely covered in foil to rest for 5 minutes.

2. Meanwhile cut the top and bottom off the Jazz™ apple and then cut it in half across the core to make 2 thick slices. Remove the core, dip the slices in lemon and then brush with butter. Pan-fry the apple slices to brown them well and soften a little.

3. Take the legs off the quail, and then the wings then ease the breast meat. Reserve all the pan juices for making the sauce.

4. Use a cutter to cut the black pudding to the same size as the apple slices. Place the black pudding, with an apple slice on two hot plats. Arrange the quail breast and legs on top of that.

5. Heat the pan juices in the roasting tin, adding a really good splash of sherry or wine or water to deglaze it. Let it reduce a little then stir in crème fraiche to taste and fresh thyme leaves. Check the seasoning then spoon the sauce onto the plate.

Serve with games chips or small wedges or roast potato and peas if you like. If you cant get quail try partridge, pheasant, poussin, chicken or scallops with the black pudding and jazz apple combination.