Grilled Quail with Red Pepper Risotto and Tomato and Sage Essence

This is a based on a recipe out of Not Afraid of Flavor: Recipes from Magnolia Grill (not including the risotto). It was ambitious (probably too ambitious) to even try to replicate one of the Barker's recipes, but I certainly tried. I used The Pioneer Women's Red Pepper Risotto recipe for the risotto. The risotto (which I have cooked before) turned out great, as usual, however the quail and tomato and sage essence  came out so-so, and was not really worth the effort that I put into it.
The cookbook is great for reading, however (especially after making this dish) I find most of the recipes to be too complicated. It is obviously composed of recipes from the Magnolia Grill  kitchen (which actually just closed its doors for good about a month ago), many of which include sauces, ingredients, and techniques that are either too time consuming or too expensive to make it worth making for one meal.