Quail Egg Satay

Have you ever eaten eggs on a stick? Skewered quail eggs are apparantly a popular type of street food in Indonesia...along with chicken livers and intestines on a stick. I have to admit, once upon a time, I thought "satay" meant something cooked or marinated in a peanut sauce. That's because whenever I bought "Satay Chicken" it would come with or without a bamboo skewer and it always seemed to have a peanutty flavour or sauce. Eventually I learned that 'satay' means food cooked on a skewer. Years ago, at least in my neck of the woods you wouldn't see chicken on skewer's described as having a peanut sauce. The term 'satay' just automatically implied "comes with a spicy, peanut sauce". These days in cookbooks, magazines and on the telly I see the words "peanut sauce" all of the time ...if it does in fact have that kind of marinade or sauce.

Terminology aside, I've created my own quick serving-sauce for these eggs-on-a-stick and it's not peanut based. After I served it & following some mental "Umm's and Ahh's"... I decided that maybe a tablespoon of coconut cream mixed-in right at the end would have been a nice touch.. but for today.. the photo's are minus coconut cream. I'll include it as an option in the recipe.

So we had these babies for dinner with rice and chicken, but they'd make an ideal 'starter' or finger food. They're quite cute actually and if you don't overcook them.. you'll appreciate their delicate creaminess. Having said that I'm reminded of the "Thousand year old" egg I tried for the first time at Taste of Melbourne this year. It looked absolutely hideous (being a blackish/greyish preserved egg), but it surprised me..and I sometimes crave that unique, creamy flavour again which in my opinion outdoes your average unpreserved egg. Final note: I paid $4.99 for 24 quail eggs which was a very good price.
Quail Egg Satay

*Quail eggs x 24 (Find at Asian grocer's or at good green grocer's)
*Water for hardboiling eggs
*Vinegar, half cup
*Onion, half medium, very finely chopped
*Garlic, 2 cloves minced
*Ginger, 1 teaspoon grated
*Honey, 1 heaped tablespoon
*Tamari or Soy Sauce, 2 tablespoons
*Water, half a cup for sauce
*Coconut cream OPTIONAL, 1 tablespoon to stir into serving sauce at the end
*Oil, about 1/4 cup to brown hardboiled eggs
*Wooden skewers, mini/half-size, at least 24
*Jasmine rice, optional for serving + chopped spring onions
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-Remove each quail egg from carton carefully and discard any cracked one's. I ended up with 19 out of 24 eggs, which is ok for this recipe.
-Carefully put quail eggs in a saucepan, cover eggs with cold water and bring to boil, then add vinegar and boil for about 4 minutes. Boiling the eggs with vinegar in the water will soften the shells and make the shell-peeling go a bit faster.
-Carefully transfer eggs into a deep bowl full of cold water, the colder the better and let cool while you prepare onion, ginger and garlic (mincing & chopping).
-Remove shells from eggs. Start by rolling each egg with a bit of pressure to gently crack one side. The first few bits of shell may seem fiddly to remove, but once you've removed 1/4 to 1/3 of the shell, the rest should easily come off in one piece. It took me about 10 to 20 seconds per egg, quicker than I imagined. Rinse each egg in water after the shell comes off, just to make sure all shell grit is gone and place eggs on a bed of paper towels.
-Heat oil in a wok or small pan, then add shelled and dried quail eggs. Paper towels will dry your eggs quickly & your oil won't spit as a result.
-Gently toss the eggs about in the hot oil, they'll start to brown quickly. Notice the white exterior's start to bubble and go from smooth to crispy.
-Pour the browned eggs from the pan into a sieve to drain and put the pan back on the heat and add the onion and soften for 2 minutes.
-Add ginger and garlic and saute another 2 minutes.
-Add honey and tamari or soy sauce, stir & reduce heat so your mixture doesn't burn.
-Add 1/2 cup of water, keep stirring, then turn heat up and get mixture to bubble.
-Add quail eggs back into this bubbling sauce and simmer for a minute.
-With a slotted spoon, remove eggs and set aside.
-Keep the sauce bubbling away, you want it to thicken and reduce (without burning)
-When sauce is thick, transfer to a pouring jug or similar.. there won't be much, but you don't need much for the finished eggs.
-Put 3 quail eggs onto each skewer (carefully impale them straight through the middle, length ways, from bottom to pointy end).
-Heat sauce right before serving and carefully add a few drops onto each quail egg.
-Serve quail egg satay's with jasmine rice & spring onions for garnish.
Ordinary hen's egg with the quail eggs (for size comparison).
Hardboiled quail eggs soaking in cold water. I had two obviously cracked egg's at the beginning but didn't think to examine each egg closely until after I boiled them, so a few more were discarded after they came out of the water, just to be on the safe side.



Starting to brown the shelled and dried quail eggs.
Tamari is a wheat-free alternative to traditional soy sauce.. use either kind.


Browned and drained quail eggs are put back in the pan once the sauce is made and they simmer for a short time before being removed. The sauce bubbles away and is reduced & ready to use when you're ready to serve the quail eggs.
Eat quail egg satay's with or without sauce... though the sauce is a lovely finishing touch. Next time I'll add some coconut cream to my sauce right at the end.



Taste of Melbourne 2011. On the left, you can see what looks like a quarter of a quail egg (on top).. done 'Century egg' style (preserved for several weeks or months). But I think the menu described it as "Thousand Year Old". It was much better than the prawn & pork rissole underneath it.