Thomas emailed this so I shall quote him verbatim:
“Our main course was dictated to me in a series of rather confusing answerphone messages, but I liked it as a chic alternative to the rough, Nigel Slater-ish ways of cooking quails that I normally like. For this one, you brown the quails, flambé them in brandy (this step doesn’t appear in the recipes, but, as Grand’mere said, it can’t do any harm), then braise them for 20 minutes or so in grape juice and a glass or two of white wine, adding a good number of real grapes for the last ten minutes. The proportions I had involved two pounds of grapes (half juiced, half for the pot) for six quails. I overcooked it (we had drunk quite a lot of champagne), which did the quails no harm, and meant I had a nice brown reduced sauce.”
