[1] Quail eggs and chicken eggs. Quail eggs are one bite, chicken eggs are four bites (photo courtesy Petrossian).
[2] Blini with quail eggs, trout roe and crème fraîche. Here’s the recipe from Martha Stewart.
[3] Quail egg stuffed mushrooms. Here’s the recipe from Bite Delite.
[4] The quail herself (photo courtesy Red Ted Art). |
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To some fine chefs, small is better: from miniature vegetables to more “elegant”-size portions overall.
Quail eggs fit right in.
For years, we’d only seen quail eggs at Japanese restaurants, on top of an uni (sea urchin) or tobiko (flying fish roe) gunkan-maki.
Since better supermarkets now carry them, it’s time to take a closer look at quail eggs.
Quail eggs taste like chicken eggs…maybe a bit richer since they have a larger yolk-to-white ratio.
Quail Eggs Are Barely Healthier than Chicken Eggs! Compared to chicken eggs, quail eggs are slightly healthier if
You cook them the same way: boiled, fried, scrambled, deviled, egg salad, etc. If you luck into a lot of them at a bargain price, make an omelet.
> For soft-boiled eggs, gently place the eggs in boiling water (with a spoon) and boil for three minutes and place in a bowl of cold water to stop the cooking process.
> For hard-boiled eggs, boil for 4-5 minutes. Test one after 4 minutes.
Four quail eggs equal one large chicken egg.
Quail don’t have salmonella in their digestive tract, so the eggs can be used raw—in Caesar Salad or Steak Tartare, for example. This is due to an increased amount of lysozyme, an antimicrobial enzyme that forms part of the immune system of the quail*. It kills harmful bacteria.
>The body temperature of quail is also higher than that of chickens: another reason why quail don’t harbor the same harmful bacteria.
>Here’s more on the health benefits of quail eggs.
HOW TO SERVE QUAIL EGGS
You can garnish a green salad, serve three boiled eggs with asparagus, make Scotch eggs, stuff mushroom caps (photo #3), garnish a mini-latke with smoked salmon and a boiled quail egg.
You can pickle quail eggs, turning the white exterior into a vivid red (from beet juice). Don’t say what they are: Let guests be surprised.
You can pop fried quail eggs onto ramen, make breakfast tartlets, top an avocado tea sandwich, serve them raw with steak tartare…whatever your palate desires.
Here are some ideas from D’Artagnan:
Little Devils. Deviled quail eggs have a wow factor. Consider a trio of flavors: plain with smoked paprika, topped with with bacon and thyme, and a truffled egg.
Teeny Blinis For an elegant hors d’oeuvre, crown a blin (singular for blini) with a dollop of crème fraiche, half of a hard-cooked quail egg and a spoon of caviar (photo #2).
Toad-in-a-Hole. Instead of a conventional slice of buttered toast with a chicken egg in the center (recipe), use a small slice brioche with truffle butter and a quail eggs.
Golden Egg Ravioli. If you make ravioli, nestle a raw quail yolk in a little mound of herbed ricotta as the filling. The yolk will cook gently when the pasta is dropped into boiling water, its center still molten upon serving. A delicious surprise!
Petite Niçoise. Add poached quail eggs instead of halved or quartered chicken eggs to a classic Niçoise Salad. Ditto with bacon lardons in a Lyonnaise Salad or a Frisée Salad.
Spiced Bites. For an easy hors d’oeuvre, roll peeled hard-boiled quail eggs in a favorite spice mixture. A tiny slice off the wide bottom of each egg will ensure they sit upright on the platter.
Quail eggs are pricey, so they are [for most of us] a special-occasion treat.
When you find them at a good price, get ready to pounce!
THE DIFFERENT TYPES OF EGGS
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