Kwek Kwek

Boiled quail eggs in an orange batter that has to be thick enough to cling.

Egg. Vegetarian, but not vegan — contains egg.

Ingredients

• 36 quail eggs
• 150 g plain flour
• 50 g cornflour
• 200 ml water
• 2 tablespoons annatto powder, or steeped annatto liquid
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 80 g flour, for dusting
• 800 ml oil, for deep frying, which is poured off
• 120 ml cane vinegar, 2 chopped chillies and 1 chopped onion, for the dip

Method

1. Boil the quail eggs 4 minutes, cool them in cold water, and peel them. Four minutes, not three: a soft yolk breaks up when the egg is battered and fried.
2. DUST THE PEELED EGGS IN PLAIN FLOUR FIRST. Wet eggs shed batter in the oil and you get bald patches and naked eggs.
3. Whisk the flour, cornflour, annatto, salt and water to a batter THICK ENOUGH TO COAT A SPOON AND STAY THERE. If it runs off, add flour.
4. A thin batter is the whole failure mode: it slides off in the oil and leaves orange shreds floating and pale eggs at the bottom.
5. Heat the oil to 175C. Drop the floured eggs into the batter, lift them out with a spoon, and lower them in.
6. Fry 2 to 3 minutes until the coating is set and deep orange, turning them. Do a few at a time or the batter welds them together.
7. Serve on skewers with the vinegar, chilli and onion dip. Pour the oil off once cooled.

Our own recipe. This one was written for this site rather than taken from anywhere, so there is no source to point you at. The quantities and the order of the steps are choices, not the only way to do it.

Filed under Philippines · All recipes