Quail with pears and glazed onions

Now that December is here, we only have one thing on our minds: Christmas! As there are several special meals to prepare during these days and we are eager to see suggestions to start thinking about them, Leti, author of Revelando Sabores , brings us a perfect recipe to impress friends and family, which without any major complications results in a delicacy: quail with pears accompanied by some delicious glazed onions.

I don't know if you've noticed, but... Christmas is here!

If until now some of you had managed to ignore the shelves full of Christmas sweets in supermarkets, the toy catalogues at the school gates and the hints from mothers and mothers-in-law about who is preparing Christmas Eve dinner this year, I fear that from now on it will be impossible to ignore it.

And we are already in the midst of a spiral of shopping, Christmas dinners with all your friends, family and WhatsApp groups that you are lucky enough to belong to, lights and nougat advertisements left and right, but since we can't avoid it... let's enjoy it!

Make the most of it by eating a lot, we'll be dieting in January, drink in moderation, spend time with friends and family (yes, "the brother-in-law" also counts as family), play with the little ones, watch Christmas movies on TV, make cookies and then eat them, go shopping at the last minute and not find the gift you're looking for, go to New Year's Eve parties... and do anything that makes you happy.

And if you haven't thought about your Christmas menu until now and now you're in a hurry and don't know what to prepare for the family, here's an idea that has it all, because it's easy, inexpensive, it will make you look like a real cook in front of your guests and on top of that, it can be prepared the day before and thus avoid last-minute stress.

Do you want to see what it's all about? Well, let's get to the recipe.

Le Creuset Evolution round cocotte , Le Creuset skillet and Nezumi plates by Tokyo Design Studio .

Ingredients

• 4 clean quails
• 1 onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 200ml white wine
• 200ml of water
• Salt and pepper
• 1 bay leaf
• Olive oil
• 2 ripe but firm pears

For the glazed onions:

• 18 French onions or shallots
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of butter
• 1 and 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 125ml of water
• Salt and pepper

Elaboration

For the glazed onions

1. We start by peeling the onions. Put a saucepan with water on the heat and when it boils, add the onions and blanch them for 1 minute. After this time, drain and peel them. You will see that they are very easy to peel.
2. Next, we put the oil and butter in a frying pan , or in my case in a skillet , and when they start to bubble, we add the sugar and then the onions and we sauté them, turning them over, being careful not to break them, so that they brown well on all sides.
3. Once they are golden, we season them with salt and pepper and add the water.
4. We cover the pan and leave them on the heat for about 40 minutes, until the onions are tender but still have their shape, and the liquid has evaporated. We set aside.

We continue preparing the quails

1. We begin by cleaning the quails well, if they have any remaining feathers or viscera.
2. Once they are clean, we season them both inside and out, and using kitchen string , we tie their legs so that they maintain their shape during cooking.
3. We cover the bottom of the cocotte with olive oil, 3 or 4 tablespoons are enough, and we put it to heat over medium heat.
4. Once the oil is hot, we put the quails in the cocotte, in as many batches as necessary so that they fit loosely, and we brown them for a few minutes on both sides, until a crust forms that seals them and prevents them from losing juices during cooking.
5. Once they are golden brown, remove them from the cocotte and add the diced onion to the same oil, removing some of it if there is too much.
6. We sauté for a few minutes until it is tender but not gaining colour, then we add the wine and, with a spatula or wooden spoon , we gently scrape the bottom of the cocotte to recover the juices and remains that have adhered to it and thus take advantage of all its flavour ( we deglaze ).
7. We raise the heat so that the alcohol in the wine evaporates.
8. We return the quails to the cocotte and add the water, the bay leaf and the garlic clove that we have crushed in the mortar .
9. We put the lid on the cocotte, lower the heat to minimum, and cook for approximately 15 minutes.
10. While the quails are cooking, peel the pears using a sharp knife , cut them in half and remove the seeds (using a spoon to make balls is fantastic).
11. Once the 15 minutes have passed, add the pears to the cocotte and cook for another 20 minutes.
12. After this time, we check the doneness of the meat. If it is still a little tough, we let it cook for another 5 or 10 minutes.
13. When we see that the meat is tender, we add the onions that we had reserved and let everything cook together for a couple of minutes so that the flavors integrate well.

Enjoy your meal!

Le Creuset Evolution round cocotte and Nezumi plates by Tokyo Design Studio .

Grades

• Like all stews, this dish can be prepared in advance. This way, not only can we get ahead with the work in the kitchen, but the flavours of the stew will be more established and much tastier.
• If the amount of onions I indicate seems too much for the dish, you can prepare half, or prepare the amount I indicate and keep the remaining ones in the refrigerator, since they keep perfectly and are a perfect accompaniment for almost any type of meat.
• We can replace the 200ml of water indicated in the recipe with the same amount of chicken broth.

I hope you like the recipe, which has really been a hit at home, and that whatever you prepare for these days, you enjoy the food and all your loved ones very much. May they be days of much happiness...