Good mornings…
February 5, 2011
My boyfriend is a barman. Which means most evenings I have to amuse myself in the kitchen. And, although we get to have breakfast together every day, there’s only so much you can do with an egg and a slice of toast – what with me not being much of a cornflake girl.
So, when Süleyman arrived back from his early-morning gym session the other day with a box of quails’ eggs, I was a little more excited than perhaps I ought to have been at the sight of a foodstuff. (One of his workout buddies gave them to him – a slightly odd gift, maybe, but one that was much appreciated, nonetheless.)
While looking online for ideas of how to incorporate them into our morning meal, I found a very pretty picture of poached quails’ eggs, so thought I’d give it a go too. And, as you can see from the photo below, I had some success… as well as some squidgy disasters.
I served them on toast with a good splash of olive oil, some pul biber, and a few of the usual Turkish breakfast accoutrements – olives, cheese, tomatoes and parsely. Simple enough, yes, but what really surprised me was just how tasty the wee things were – a flavour that was completely unproportional to their size.
Süleyman’s off the the gym again on Monday – and I’m just looking forward to what he’ll bring back next time!
And the cupboard was bare… 
February 7, 2011 at 4:36 pm
Oh my goodness! That looks delicious…. but how did you manage to poach them? I agree about the flavour being disproportionate to the size… but so is the thickness of the shells! I tried to fry some quails eggs and made a right mess of breaking them open 🙂 Well done you!
February 7, 2011 at 5:34 pm
I know what you mean about the shells – they’re rather odd, aren’t they? Kind of soft and tough at the same time. But I had 12 of the little blighters to play with, and this was definitely the better-looking of the two plates! I poached them by heating half an inch of water and a splash of olive oil in a small non-stick frying pan, VERY carefully tipping each egg in, then just desperately trying to stop them from running all over the place with the smallest spatula I could lay my hands on. Let’s just say, it took a while!
February 9, 2011 at 7:34 pm
I’ve never tried quail’s eggs before, but that looks like a wonderful breakfast!
February 10, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Well, I’d certainly say they are worth trying – they are pretty tasty boiled, and added to salads, too.
February 10, 2011 at 10:53 pm
hi
Looks delicious – worth all that gentle egg cracking!
Thought you might like to know that I’ve just googled pul biber – and your blog was the second link below wikipedia – how’s that for fame!
February 13, 2011 at 11:50 am
Hi Helen, great to hear from you. That’s funny about google – it’s certainly a bit odd when you see something you’ve written yourself appear like that! A very modern kind of fame, eh?
March 25, 2011 at 3:34 pm
Oh they are so cute. I’ve boiled quails eggs before (not to have with soldiers I might add) but have not poached or fried them. A very nice gift indeed.
March 25, 2011 at 3:59 pm
Thanks Choclette. It was definitely a fiddly way of cooking them, but worth it in the end.
September 8, 2011 at 10:31 am
At an Armenian restaurant we were served these mezze : small squares of bread (with crust), a small strip of pastirma, and each topped with a quail egg. The whole thing popped right into our mouths. We had to order seconds!
I don’t know how they managed to poach the eggs without the whites expanding, the eggs fit nicely on the bite-size square of bread.
Would adding vinegar to the water do the trick? I’ve never tried it myself, but when hardboiling eggs for Easter, my mom adds a generous amount of vinegar to the pot. She clains it prevents the whites from seeping out of the shell if the eggs are cracked.