These cute pickled quail eggs are as delicious as they are stunning to look at – served with horseradish mayo, and furikake, they make a spectacular appetizer.
Quail eggs are much smaller than chicken eggs at about one-third of their size. However, for their size, quail eggs have large yolks. Due to the many nutrients found in the yolk, some people claim that quail eggs are more nutrient-dense than chicken eggs when compared by weight. Quail eggs are smaller than chicken eggs but contain more fat, protein, iron, riboflavin, and vitamin B12 by weight. However, they’re also more expensive and harder to find than chicken eggs. I have found them at specialty grocery stores in the area.
Course: Appetizer
Servings: 3 -4
Calories: 250 kcal
INGREDIENTS
For the pickled quail eggs:
- 2 dozen quail eggs
- beet pickling marinade (recipe follows)
- 3-4 Tbsp Katsuo Fumi Furikake seasoning * (to be paired with the horseradish mayo)
- 3-4 Tbsp dukkah ** (to be paired with the garlic dipping sauce)
For the pickling marinade:
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1-2 beets, peeled and sliced
- 1 shallot, roughly chopped
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp black peppercorns, lightly crushed
- 1/4 tsp fennel seeds, lightly crushed
- 1/4 tsp mustard seeds
- 1 tsp sea salt
For the horseradish mayo:
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise (with no sugar added)
- 2 tsp prepared horseradish
- 1/2 Tbsp soy sauce
For the garlic dipping sauce:
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- 1 garlic clove
INSTRUCTIONS
- Boil the quail eggs for 3-4 minutes, then immediately place them in cold water. Peel and reserve.
- Make the marinade by combining all ingredients in a small pot, bringing to a boil, lowering the heat, and simmering for 10 minutes. Let cool.
- Place peeled eggs in a glass jar, and pour over the marinade. Let sit in the marinade overnight, or for as little as 10-15 minutes.
- Before ready to serve, mix 1/4 cup mayo with horseradish and soy sauce
- In another bowl, mix 1/4 cup mayo and crushed garlic
- Place furikake seasoning, and dukkah in separate bowls
- Serve eggs with the horseradish sauce and furikake on the side, for an Asian flavour, or with garlic mayo and dukkah for a Mediterranean flavour.
RECIPE NOTES
- It’s best to pickle the eggs the day before you plan to serve them in order to achieve this stunning colour.
- You can find Furikake in the Asian isle of your local grocery store, or online, or you can make it yourself (its easy recipe is below)
- Dukkah is an Egyptian blend of spices, nuts and/or seeds. The recipe is below and it is easy too
- You can serve with cocktail picks for ease of dipping. These are the ones I like, if you can’t find them in the grocery store you can get them on Amazon. “Miya Bamboo 100-Piece Cocktail Knotted Picks for Hors D’oeuvres”
Furikake
Furikake is a Japanese seasoning typically made with toasted sesame seeds, nori, salt, and sugar. You can also include anything from bonito flakes to chilli flakes to miso powder to shiitake powder to poppy seeds. I have included the links on Amazon to some of these ingredients that may be harder to find.
- 2 teaspoons shiitake powder (toast alongside sesame seeds in the pan)
- 1 tablespoon dulse (toast alongside sesame seeds in the pan)
- 1 tablespoon black sesame seeds
- 1-3 tablespoons bonito flakes
- ½ teaspoon wasabi powder
- 1 teaspoon kelp powder
- ¼ teaspoon red chilli pepper flakes
- 1 teaspoon miso powder
- 2 teaspoons dried shiso leaves
Cooking Instructions
- Cook all the ingredients and seasonings in a frying pan until they are dry and separated.
- Let cool completely.
- Add nori seaweed and mix
- You can save the extra in an airtight container and you can save the extra for salad or rice.
Dukkah
Dukkah recipes vary quite a bit when it comes to the proportions of ingredients and the nuts used. Here’s what you’ll need for this recipe:
- Walnuts
- Almonds (hazelnuts are more commonly used)
- Sesame seeds
- Coriander
- Cumin
- Salt
- Freshly ground black pepper
The sesame seeds and spices are staples in dukkah recipes. Typically, the spices are toasted whole. I opted to use ground spices instead, just because they’re more common in American kitchens.
Tip: If you ever want to use ground spices instead of whole, you’ll want to use one-third as much as the recipe calls for. The same is true for fresh herbs vs. dried (one tablespoon of fresh parsley is the flavour equivalent of 1 teaspoon of dried parsley).
How to Make Dukkah
The key to great dukkah is to freshly toast your ingredients. So, you’ll want to start with raw nuts and seeds. Here’s how to make this easy and accessible dukkah recipe:
- Toast the whole nuts (walnuts and almonds) in a skillet until they’re starting to smell nice and fragrant.
- Add the sesame seeds, so they get a chance to toast as well. They’re so small that they could burn if you added them along with the larger nuts.
- Remove the nuts and seeds from the heat, and transfer them to a food processor.
- Add the spices, and process the mixture until the nuts are broken down to the point that they resemble coarse sand. Don’t go too long, or you could end up with spicy nut butter (actually, that sounds pretty good, too).
