South Asians love their quail, which is generally brought home by hunters. I know that when the men in our family returned from their winter shoots, what I most looked forward to eating were not the larger creatures, the deer and the geese, but the smaller ones, the duck, partridge, and quail. Here is a quick, stir-fried (bhuna implies stirring and browning) version of a dish I had in Lahore, Pakistan. This recipe may be easily doubled. Use a very large frying pan if you do so. When eating quail—and you have to use your fingers—it is hard to think of any other food, even though rice, vegetables, other meats, and legumes are nearly always part of the meal.

　　

Ingredients

serves 2

　　1 medium tomato, chopped

　　1 large clove garlic, chopped

　　One 1/2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped

　　1 medium shallot, chopped

　　3/4 teaspoon salt

　　1/2 teaspoon garam masala, homemade (page 285) or store-bought

　　1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

　　1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric

　　2 quail, split lengthways

　　2 tablespoons olive or canola oil

　　4 cardamom pods

　　

Step 1

Put the tomato, garlic, ginger, shallots, salt, garam masala, cayenne, and turmeric in a blender and blend until smooth. Pour into a bowl. Add the quail. Mix well and leave to marinate, covered, 2–4 hours in the refrigerator.

　　

Step 2

Pour the oil into a frying pan and set over medium-high heat. When hot, put in the cardamom pods. Ten seconds later, empty the contents of the bowl into the frying pan and bring to a boil. Cover, turn heat to medium, and cook about 10 minutes or until most of the liquid has evaporated. Remove cover. Now stir and brown the spice paste and quail, sprinkling the pan with water every time the spices seem to be catching. Keep doing this for about 5 minutes. By this time the quail should be lightly browned and cooked through and the spices, also browned, should form a thick paste around it.

　　Excerpted from At Home with Madhur Jaffrey: Simple, Delectable Dishes from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka by Madhur Jaffrey. Copyright © 2010 by Random House. Excerpted by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.Buy the full book from Amazon.