Look at those cute little things. Each the size of one knuckle of my thumb. I just had to have them. So for a couple of bucks, I brought ten of them home with me.
But what to do with them? Well, my classic use for random ingredients on the grill is pizza. I'm not going into all the details. I've done that before.
This time, we dressed the pizza, with homemade garlic-chile oil. Coppa Molina from Knight Salumi. Thai peppers, from 99 Ranch. Shiitake mushrooms, from the Hillcrest farmer's market. Salted tomatoes. And a mixture of mozzarella and parmesan cheese. On top of the cheese, we put a few quail eggs.
Look at those pretty little guys!
The quail eggs were a little tricky to prepare. They have a pretty intense membrane inside, that needs to be torn open. Fortunately, the yolks don't seem to be fragile, as I was pretty rough with them getting them open, and didn't break the yolks. Anyone have any tricks for easier access?
Cook the pizza on indirect heat until the whites have turned white. You want to maintain a nice runny yolk (though over a charcoal fire, you can see that the back yolk solidified a bit).
Slide over direct heat for 30 seconds to brown the bottom of the crust. Remove from heat, slice and serve.
Having that lovely yolk dripping all over the pizza was awesome. I would probably pair the eggs with more delicate toppings next time - coppa isn't exactly delicate. But this was fantastic. We'll be doing this again.
I grew up eating boiled quail eggs like peanuts. You boil them in shell, and just crack and peel them like regular eggs. But convenient size for kids.
ReplyDeleteBut how about getting them open when they're raw? That membrane is rather robust...
ReplyDelete