Quail Pancakes, Yabbie Gnocchi, Chocolate and Raspberry Cake = Another successful Cookup Part 1

Ok ... lets just go ahead and say it now - RESULT!!

We had our 2nd cookup of the year spurred on by a variation on Peking Duck found on Chubby Hubby's essential (!) blog using quail instead of duck. And the sweetener was the promise of a recipe to make the Mandarin Pancakes from scratch!! And a rather quaint illustrated version it was indeed.

Subsequently, having seen Esposito from Esposito at Toofey's fame cook a lobster and gnocchi dish with Guy Grossi on Italian Food Safari, we had found our main course. Although in the era of the GFC, we pondered the use of Yabbies (readily available round the corner in Footscray) instead of lobster, which meant paying $40 to the kilo instead of $68.

P was hooked on this chocolate and raspberry tart recipe which he found in the Australian Financial review. So it was really just a matter of locking in a day. Cue the long weekend. Perfect!

I had to prepare the quail before hand. It required at least 12hrs marinading time with the preference of 2 days. And so many different elements went into this marinade, Let me tell you.

First I had to learn how to debone the little blighters. I found a brummie friend on youtube who had a sharp knife and plumper quails to work with. I had neither. So I'm afraid to say that it was a hatchet job and I pretty much mangled the little birds. Although I figured it wouldn't matter too much as they were eventually going to be cut into strips anyway.

It was then simply a matter of combining the various sauces, bruising some spring onions and mashing some garlic. The meat went in, bowl covered, and  safely esconced in the outdoor fridge. No further action required until the day itself.