Roast Quail with lemon and parsley

INGREDIENTS

• 2 quail gutted and flayed

• 2 lemons - one sliced and lemon juiced
• olive oil 

• 1 bunch parsley chopped
• salt and pepper
• 2 shallots chopped
• 2 thick slices of lemon
• 1 sweet potato cut into quarter inch thick chips
• 1 small aubergine (egg plant) cut same as sweet potato
• 1 stick of celery shopped.
• snake  beans (or whatever green vegetable you have in season)

METHOD

• Catch, kill, pluck and gut two quail. (To gut, cut down the front from anus to neck, along the breast bone and lay carcass flat.Marinate overnight in lemon juice, chopped parsley, oregano (dry or fresh) salt & pepper, olive oil.

• Pick a lemon (slice thick), a bunch of parsley,   baby aubergine (chipped), 1 shallot (diced), a couple of baby celery sticks (diced), one sweet potato (peeled chipped).

• Put a baking dish containing  the flayed birds, legs up, a handful of fresh parsley, shallot, and a thick slice of lemon on each. Beside them in a shallow baking dish. Cover the birds with foil or a saucepan lid so they don't burn.

• lay the sweet potato and aubergines and splash over the remaining marinade and roast till the vegies are soft. Take out the dish, turn the birds over and baste. Put under the griller to brown.

• Meanwhile, boil water and blanch the snake beans. At the last moment, blanch the kale and at the very last moment the sprouts. Drain.

Serve warm. lay the greens on the plate and place the birds in a nest of coiled snake beans. Serve the roast vegies with a dollop of mayo.

This can be done to any kind of poultry.