Quail stock (1 litre)
And: Quail consommé and Ravioli with quail stuffing.
© Christianne Muusers

Ingredients:
3 quails
400 gram (4 1/2 cups) leeks
600 gram (4 1/2 cups) carrots
250 gram (1 1/2 cup) onions with skin
3 stalks of stem celery
1 sprig thyme
generous dash of freshly ground white pepper
Few small pieces of mace
2 bay leaves
100 gram (1/2 cup)tomato purée
2 decilitre (3/4 cup) red wine
4 litre water (4 quarts or 1 gallon)

Preparation in advance:
Wash, clean and cut the vegetables. The skins of the onions will give a lovely red brown colour to the broth.

Preparation:
To get a really dark stock, the quails are grilled with the vegetables in the oven. Place quails and vegetables in an oven casserole. Mix the tomato purée with the red wine, pour over the quails and the vegetables. Put the casserol into the oven for 45 minutes at 200dgC/390dgF.
Take the quails out of the pan, remove the flesh from the bones, return the carcasses to the pan. Use the quail meat for ragout, in a salad, or return it to the finished concentrated stock later. The cats will love to eat the skin of the quails. 
If you have used a small casserole transfer everything to a larger soup pan. Add water (four litres), bring to the boil and let simmer for eight hours.  

Strain the stock, and reduce to one litre, then let it cool quickly. Now you can freeze what you don't need immediately. If you want to freeze the quail meat, add some of the stock to keep the meat succulent went it is thawed again.
Do not forget to label your frozen stock, in the freezer all stocks look alike.

Quail consommé: To serve the concentrated quail stock as a consommé, dice the quail meat and return it to the reduced, strained and clarified stock, and add some dried, steeped black horn of plenty mushrooms (in French trompette de la mort and a glass of portwine. 
Ravioli with quail stuffing: Quail meat is also delicious as stuffing in home made ravioli: put in the blender, add spices and herbs (black pepper, nutmeg, thyme or something else you like), a little double cream, maybe some mushrooms, some grated Pecorino cheese, and wrap in  freshly made pasta. Boil the ravioli in salted water, serve them in some of the concentrated quail stock, or with a cream sauce.