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Oct 09, 2023

Fleur de Lolly offers quail egg recipes

Growing up in the South, my parents’ home didn’t have air conditioning. We slept

Growing up in the South, my parents’ home didn't have air conditioning. We slept with the windows open during the hot and humid nights in the summertime during my childhood.

I can well remember the oddly comforting sounds of nature that wafted through the heavy night air that felt as if you could cut it with a knife: bullfrogs in the nearby lake, a pair of owls "who-ing" to each other in the woods behind our house, the eerie whippoorwills and the melancholy call of quail with their distinct "bobwhites" from one covey to another.

Recently, on a shopping trip at Publix, I noticed a carton of quail eggs for sale. And just like that, this column was in the works.

The container I purchased contained 15 eggs from Manchester Farms in South Carolina. Their website is a treasure trove of information. I learned some things: Quail eggs have three to four times the nutritional value of regular chicken eggs and five times the iron and potassium.

We’ll start our recipes today with one I adapted from their website.

HASH BROWN BASKETS WITH BAKED QUAIL EGGS

2 medium Idaho Russet potatoes

¼ cup grated parmesan cheese

½ teaspoon salt plus additional for serving

⅛ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

12 quail eggs

Freshly chopped chives for garnish

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Wash the potatoes and prick each a few times with a fork. Bake the potatoes until they start to soften, but are not entirely done, for about 20 minutes. Let cool for about half an hour. (This can be done a day ahead of time.) Leave the oven on.

Grate the semi-baked potatoes with a hand-held grater; peel them first if you like, although it's not necessary. Put the grated potatoes, cheese, salt, pepper and butter into a bowl, and toss well to combine.

Spray a 12 mini muffin tin with nonstick spray. Using about 2 tablespoons of the potato mixture for each mini muffin cup, press the potato mixture into the muffin cups, making a well in the center and pushing the potatoes up and over the sides of the cup.

Bake the hash brown "baskets" for 20 to 30 minutes, until the undersides are a golden brown and the tops are at least light golden and starting to crisp around the edges. Again, leave the oven on. Remove the baskets from the oven. Carefully crack a quail egg into a small ramekin and slowly pour the egg into the basket. Repeat with remaining eggs. Put the muffin tin back in the oven for exactly 5 minutes; you want the whites of the quail eggs cooked, but the yolks still very runny. Use an offset spatula to put the hash brown baskets on a serving plate. Sprinkle with salt and chives and serve immediately.

QUAIL EGG IN A HOLE

Most of you will be familiar with a Toad in a Hole. Here's my version!

6 1/2-inch-thick slices baguette (sliced on the diagonal)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened

2 tablespoons grated white cheddar cheese

6 quail eggs

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Chopped chives for garnish

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment. Use a paring knife to cut 1-inch circles in the center of each baguette slice. Butter both sides of the bread. Arrange the bread on the baking sheet and toast lightly in the oven, 3 to 4 minutes. Distribute half of the cheese evenly among the bread holes. Crack the eggs, one at a time, into a small ramekin. Slowly pour the eggs into each hole. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the bread. Bake until the cheese melts and the egg whites are set, but the yolks are still a bit runny, 5 to 7 minutes. Top each with chopped chives and a small pinch of sea salt, and serve.

— Adapted from Fine Cooking

QUAIL EGGS BENEDICT

Instead of poached eggs and an English muffin, I opted for lightly frying the eggs and a baguette slice. The result was yummy!

6 baguette slices, sliced into ¼ inch rounds, toasted

6 slices ham, lightly browned in a skillet (slices should be the same diameter as bread)

6 quail eggs

2 tablespoons vegetable oil

Place slices of ham onto toasted bread rounds. In a small skillet over medium-low heat, add vegetable oil. Carefully crack an egg into the skillet and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, until the white is set. With a slotted metal spatula, remove the egg from the skillet and place it on top of the ham slice. Repeat with remaining eggs. Top with hollandaise sauce and serve immediately.

For the hollandaise sauce:

2 egg yolks

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Dash of salt

Dash of cayenne

1 stick butter, melted

Place egg yolks, lemon juice, salt and cayenne in a blender. Cover. Pulse 5 or 6 times to blend. Remove the top portion of the blender (you know, the plastic or glass part that's removable, not the entire lid). With the blender set to the low setting, SLOWLY pour in melted butter. The sauce will begin to thicken. Stop blender, scrape down sides and pulse a few more times to blend.

Place sauce into a glass or metal bowl set over a saucepan of simmering water while you cook the eggs. If sauce thickens too much, whisk in a teaspoon or so of water.

Laura Tolbert, also known as Fleur de Lolly, has been sharing recipes, table decor ideas and advice for fellow foodies and novices on her blog, fleurdelolly.blogspot.com for more than eight years. She won the Duke Mayonnaise 100th Anniversary nationwide recipe contest for her Alabama White BBQ Sauce. She also is a Kansas City BBQ Society Certified Barbeque Judge. You can contact her at facebook.com/fleurde.lolly.5, on Instagram and [email protected].