Quail Fry (Kaada erachi varuthathu)

Some years ago, a newly married friend (one of my best friends) of mine shot me an email with the Subject, “Help, I am depressed”. She wrote in the mail,
“L.G. I like my husband and all…but I don’t think he is a good person. He even eats tiny birds. I don’t know how my marriage is going to be.”

I haven’t laughed like that in my life. I told everyone whom I could get hold of and it became the joke of the year at our office. My friend is a 100% vegan! I mean, she considers people who eat mushrooms in non-veg category. She married (yes, arranged marriage) a non-vegan, a 100% one.

Life is full of ironies, isn’t it? Before marriage she asked him everything – Smoke? No. Drink? No. Non-veg? Oh-no! Never. Well after marriage he said to her, “Oh I was just kidding to all the three. Did you take it seriously?"

Well, as any newly wed wife, eager to impress her husband, she even asked me for non-veg recipes. I think she covered her nose, mouth and eyes while cooking non-veg. And one day, her husband brought home Quail Meat or called as ‘kaada erachi’ in Malayalam. Thats how I got the email.

It is considered to be medicinal food and not easily available and hence a sought-after delicacy.

You get it here in U.S in specialty Organic stores like Wild Oats, Whole Foods etc.
Recipe:I didn’t take out the skin, since there is very minimal fat. For 4 quails (cut into 4), mix together 1 diced onion, 12 garlic cloves, 4 inch piece ginger, 4 springs of curry leaves, 10 green chilies slit, 1 tomato, 3 tsp meat masaala, 1 tsp pepper corns crushed, 1 tsp red chilipoweder, salt, ½ tsp turmeric, all crushed coarsely in a food processor.

Mix everything into the quail and keep aside for an hour. Dice 1 small potato.

Heat ½ cup of frying oil, add the potatoes and roast them for 3 minutes. Then add the quail and the mixture and in low heat, fry them. Cover and cook for 10 minutes and then turn the quail pieces and then open cover cook until done.Serve hot with rice or roti. It tastes almost like chicken but it has a different flavour, a little wild meat flavour.

She is living happily ever after with her two wonderful kids and her still-quail-eating husband :). But look who got in trouble for quail hunting.