Quick and easy scotch quail eggs for parties

Tomorrow is New Years Eve, and for a lot of people that means New Years Eve parties. Whilst the main focus is going to be on beer, make a batch of these quick and easy scotch quail eggs and you’ll be loved forever. You can make them in advance and heat up as well, so it’s perfect for snacking on!

Scotch eggs are a classically British dish. Most well known for being served in pubs, appearing in picnics, and being a good choice for lunch on a work day. A soft or hard boiled egg, covered in sausage meat, patted with bread crumbs then fried. Not too unhealthy, and with lots of room for customising, they are one of my favourite things to cook.

I use quail eggs for parties because they are smaller and bite sized. I also love eating quail eggs by themselves. The one downside is how fiddly they are to peel. This recipe is a bit of a cheat, because I like to buy sausages then cut them open for their meat. You can make your own meat, using pork mince and other ingredients, but to keep things simple, just buy your favourite brand of sausages.

Ingredients

• 12 quail eggs – some places sell them ready cooked and peeled if you want to be extra lazy.
• 4 sausages – pick your favourite flavour. I personally go for ones with apple to add sweetness to them.
• 1 beaten egg
• A bag of panko/ bread crumbs
• Vegetable oil for frying

Method

1. Cook and peel your quail eggs. For runny eggs, boil them for about 2 minutes, then quickly put them in cold water. Quail eggs cook really fast and timing can be tricky.
   Practice on one first before boiling the whole batch. Hard boiled eggs take 3-4 minutes and there’s much less risk. I just personally prefer a runny middle.
2. Take the meat out of the sausages. At this point you can add any extra herbs, chilli powder or other flavourings. I don’t normally, as I pick sausages that already taste great. 
3. Take a bit of the sausage meat, and cover the quail egg with it. The layer should be even. Do this till you cover all of your eggs
4. Roll the meat covered eggs in the beaten egg mixture.
5. Cover in panko/bread crumbs. 
6. In 5 cm of oil, fry the eggs for 2 minutes until the turn golden. When removing them, using kitchen paper to soak up the excess oils.
7. At this point you can let them cool, then store them in the fridge for a day.
8. When ready to eat, heat up the oven to 180 degrees, or gas mark 4 – bake for about 5 minutes then serve them hot!

Variations

• You can use full sized eggs, just adjust the egg boiling time and also the frying/baking time for the increased size of the egg and meat used.
• Crushing black pudding and mixing that into your sausage meat makes the most amazing mixture.
• These can be eaten cold on picnics or as part of your lunch to work. You can also microwave them briefly to re-heat.