Quail and red cabbage

There was some left-over cabbage and there were two quail in the freezer as I had bought six in one go one day in a sale. With a strip of smoked ham I turned it into a nice meal which we ate just as the television news had an item about the large quantities of food people throw away as they buy more than they can eat.

Ingredients for two

• Red cabbage (left-over from previous recipe)
• Two quail
• Lemon juice
• Two slices of cured smoked ham (Parma, Bayonne)
• Butter, olive oil, pepper

Steps

1. Clean the quail inside out.
2. Heat butter and oil in a small casserole.
3. Put the two birds in the casserole at high temperature and brown them on all sides.
4. Reheat the cabbage on a low temperature. Preheat oven at 190/200 °C.
5. When nicely browned, transfer the quail to an oval oven dish, breast side up, put a slice of ham over the breast, add some of the cooking fat to the dish and squirt a bit of lemon juice in the dish.
6. Put in the preheated oven at 180 °C for 20 minutes.
7. Take the dish with the birds out of the oven.
8. In a larger dish, put red cabbage on the bottom, place the birds on top, sprinkle with pepper and return to the oven at 150 °C for another 20 minutes.
9. After this, serve immediately or keep in the oven at 50 °C before serving.