Quail Leg with Foul Mousse and Pear Foam

Motivation
I need to make an appetizer with the theme of "12 Days of Christmas" for a supper club.  I decided to focus on partridge in a pear tree.  This is actually the very first thing I thought of, mostly because it's the combination of two dishes I had during a very excellent dinner at Bo Innovation recently.

I ended up making up this recipe, although I did get a bit of guidance from two sources.  The Professional Chef cookbook suggested to make a savory mousse you just need to get meat to the consistency of pastry cream then add whipped cream until happy.  The Hydrocolloid Recipe Collection had a recipe for watermelon foam which I patterned my pear foam after.

Ingredients
8 Quail
2 Cornish Game Hens
1 Duck Breast
Duck Stock
1/4 cup Honey
3 tsp Soy Sauce
Butter
Heavy Cream
500 ml Pear Juice
5 g Gelatin

Mise En Place
For Quail Legs:
Remove the leg and thigh as one piece from the quail.  I often got a very small (and sharp!) bone connected to the top of the thigh that I had to carefully remove after dislocating and removing the thigh.  Season leg and thigh with salt and pepper then vacuum seal in bag to prepare for sous vide.  Heat sous vide to 175 degrees F and cook for 4-5 hours.

For Remaining Meat:
Heat Charcoal Grill.  Season quail (minus thighs and legs), Cornish game hens (I removed the backbones and halved mine), and duck breast with salt and pepper.  I then basted them honey and soy sauce.  I heated honey and the soy sauce in the microwave for 20 seconds then brushed it over everything.  I grilled everything over medium-low heat until it looked done.  I pulled the different birds off at different times.  Once the birds cooled down I picked all the meat off the carcasses and broke it into bite sized pieces.

For Pear Foam:
I used sheet gelatin (160 bloom).  Bloom gelatin in water for a few minutes until soft.  Squeeze out water then add sheets to pear foam and heat until dissolved.  Pass through fine-mesh sieve and transfer to iSi whipper.  Charge isi Whipper with N2O cartridge.  Place in fridge until chilled (at least 2 hours).

Method
For Foul Mousse:
Take reserved grilled meat and place in food processor.  Process until it resembles meat sand (I know, I know, but that's what it looks like).  I added about 3/4 cup of duck stock (the good kind that's all wiggly) to a blender and a 1/3 of the meat sand.  Start to blended and add duck stock as needed to keep blender contents moving.  Gradually add the rest of the meat sand.  Keep blending until you have a meat paste.  Pass meat paste through a fine-mesh sieve to remove any larger pieces that survived the blender (this important for a good mousse texture).   It will take a bit of work to coax it through the sieve.

Chilled mixing bowl and whipped heavy cream until you have whipped cream.  Fold whipped cream into meat paste until desired mousse consistency is achieved.  I transfered the mousse into a gallon zip-lock bag so I could easily pipe it into martini glasses for service.

For Quail Legs:
Add butter to a pan and heat on medium high until butter foams and just starts to brown.  Place sous vided quail legs (and thighs) in the pan and quickly sear on each side.  Place seared leg in martini glass with end stuck into the mousse.

For Foam:
Spray foam from iSi Whipper into a bowl then place dollops of foam on top of mousse and next to the quail leg.

Verdict
I'm not going to lie, this recipe is a whole lot of work.  Fortunately it was warmly received and I hope people picked up the vibe that they were eating something special.  I was very gratified that I was able to start with an idea and I was about to create a finished product that articulated that concept with a minimal amount of trial and error (I only did one test run).