IMBB 16: Upside down caviar

Thanks to Viv at Seattle Bon Vivant for naming eggs as the guest of honour for the June edition of IMBB.

I was so pleased to finally have a chance to flip through the copy of Georgeanne Brennan's Holiday Eggs which I bought second-hand for $12 a couple years ago. At the time my husband said, "A whole book about eggs? Who needs a whole book about eggs?" I bought it entirely for the photos (it is a gorgeous book) and have paged through it from time to time, but have never specifically made anything out of it before.

My husband, Doubting Thomas that he was at the time of purchase, was cheering for the oeufs a la niege - poached sweet meringues floating, well, float-ily, on top of a pool of pale yellow creme anglaise and topped with fresh berries. He still might get that sometime soon, just not in time for IMBB.

Alas, the oeufs a la niege were not to be...as I was instantly smitten when I saw the recipe for quails eggs and caviar.

I love caviar (which are eggs too, now that I think about it) but the traditional sour cream/onion/toast/caviar combination topped with minced hard-cooked eggs seems so trite and boring. But if you turn it upside down, by using the caviar as a topping for the eggs...well now we're talking!

Also, I especially love that quail eggs look so cute. I have always had a soft spot for miniature anythings. A childhood trait I must have forgotten to outgrow. I came to love quail eggs when I was living in Melbourne and ever since then, one of my favourite party snacks has been hard cooked quails' eggs rolled in a mixture of sea salt and toasted ground cumin. Simple, but amazingly good.

These little caviar-topped beauties are just as simple and ever more cute than the cumin rolled ones. It's a shame that they disappear so quickly.

The secret to this, and any other hard cooked egg recipe, is to cook the eggs exactly long enough to avoid both the uncooked squishy yolk (blech) and the overcooked and highly unappealing grey yolk (double blech). Fortunately, there is a foolproof method for hard cooking both chicken and quail eggs. The method for quails eggs is contained in the recipe below. For perfect hard cooked chicken eggs, place the eggs in a pot of cool salted water, bring it to a boil over high heat, immediately remove the boiling pot from the heat and cover it. After 10 minutes, pour off the hot water and immerse the eggs in cold water. Does everybody already know this? I only learnt this last year (when I was in a hard cooked egg phase) and was shocked to find that I had been suffering through years of grey yolks for no good reason at all. I strongly suspect that I am the last person on the planet to have discovered this method.

When choosing your quails eggs remember that, at the best of times they are difficult to peel as they are quite delicate. Older eggs will peel better than fresh ones, so check the best before date on the cartons at the store and choose less fresh ones, or buy the eggs at least a week ahead and le t them sit in the refrigerator to age.

Quails eggs and caviar

• 12 quails eggs
• 1/4 cup sour cream
• 1/4 cup finely minced yellow onion
• 1 small jar black lump fish caviar

Place eggs in pot of cool salted water and bring the pot to a boil over high heat. Allow the eggs to boil for exactly one minute, before removing the pot from the heat, pouring out the hot water and immersing the eggs in cold water. Leave the eggs in the cold water until you are ready to peel them. You can boil the eggs up to a day ahead.

Peel the quail eggs carefully, making sure not to tear the egg white from the yolk as you do.  rinse and dry the peeled eggs to ensure that there are no microscopic pieces of shell on the eggs. Slice each egg in half lengthwise and place on a plate. top each egg with a tiny dollop of sour cream, a few pieces of minced onion and a dollop of caviar. you'll have quite a lot of each topping left over when you are done as each egg half uses only a microscopic amount.

Comments

[clare eats]

Lyn
that is gorgeous! I wish I was in Canada so I could have some and a chocolate martini ;)

[anthony]

I have to say, your attention to detail in choosing a plateform eggs, is commendable. Nah scratch that it's superb. Lovely work.

I think because "can't even boil an egg" is the standard of culinary incompetence we tend to assume we can do it, yet it's surprisingly tricky to master.

[Zarah Maria]

God that is so beautiful Lyn! Amazing pictures - and I agree on the cuteness of quails egg - love 'em too!

[Ana]

Beautiful pictures Lyn. I never tasted quail eggs but I love caviar this recipe would taste good even with hen eggs.

[sam]

Lyn, wow, I forgot to visit you yesterday and just look what i was missing out on! I used to eat quail eggs all the time in the UK because they were regularly on the shelves at my local supermarket. They don't seem so common in SF, in fact I don't think i have had one since I have been here.
So, thanks for the memory and the gorgeous pics.
Sam

[Jen]

just writing to say that those pictures are easily some of your best - the colours are gorgeous! Cheers Lyn.

[Chefdoc]

Hi Lyn, WOW! I visited your site but missed the IMBB post because you got your next one up so fast. Your photos are magnificent.

[Molly]

Lyn, I just *had* to chime in and tell you that these photos are lovely. And anyway, who can resist a quail egg? They're so creamy and sweet and, well, cute. Thanks for a wonderfully simple and graceful recipe that really shows them off.

[J]

hi lyn, those pictures are really exquisite...cheers,j

[elise]

What gorgeous photos! Thanks for the tip on using week-old quail eggs. Who would have thunk?