Squab Salad with Wild Mushrooms and Quail Eggs
These beautiful salads have it all — a mixture of crisp, tasty greens, tender quail slices, fragrant mushrooms, and tiny sunnyside-up quail eggs, drizzled with reduction sauce. A large serving could become a light supper.
Ingredients
- Squabs - 2, 16 ounces each
- Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
- Clarified Butter - 2 ounces
- Mixed Wild Mushrooms - 1/2 pound
- Olive Oil - 1 tablespoon
- Red Wine Vinegar - 1 tablespoon
- Squab Stock - 16 ounces (alt. chicken stock)
- Chives - 10 ounces, chopped
- Red Leaf Lettuce - 2 ounces, chopped
- Curly Endive - 2 ounces, chopped
- Belgian Endive - 2 ounces, chopped
- Mache (Lamb’s Lettuce) - 2 ounces, chopped
- Boston Lettuce - 2 ounces, chopped
- Green Beans - 2 ounces, blanched and chopped
- Vinaigrette Dressing - 4 ounces
- Quail Eggs - 8
- Boston Lettuce - 4 leaves
- Red Leaf Lettuce - 4 leaves
Instructions
Remove the breasts and legs from the squabs, reserving the trimmings for stock; they may be frozen until you are ready to make stock. Bone the squab breasts and legs. Season with salt and pepper. Saute in clarified butter in an ovenproof pan over high heat for 1 minute per side. Put the pan in the oven and cook 3 to 4 minutes, to medium-rare. Season the mushrooms with salt and pepper and saute in the olive oil until tender. Set aside; keep warm.
Remove the breasts and legs from the pan and set aside. Pour off the grease. Put the pan over medium heat and add the vinegar; stir up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Reduce about 1 minute. Add the stock and reduce by half. Remove from heat and add the chives. Set aside; keep warm.
Toss the chopped lettuces and green beans with the vinaigrette.
Fry the quail eggs “sunnyside-up” in a non-stick pan with a scant amount of clarified butter.
To serve: Arrange a bed of Boston and red leaf lettuce leaves on each serving plate. Top with the tossed lettuce mixture. Slice the squab and arrange the slices in a pinwheel on top of the greens. Spoon mushrooms around the salad. Slip 2 fried quail eggs on top of each salad. Drizzle the salads with reduced stock.
