Sounds fancy doesn’t it? I picked up some quail eggs at the market, mostly because Son and Heir was fascinated by them. I’ve never cooked them for the kids before. Once up on a time in a world before kids I used to do crazy things like de-bone quail, I can’t imagine ever being motivated to do that again, impressive though it was.

But I digress. I couldn’t decided which way to go with the eggs, I knew I wanted to do a salad and had the basic structure I was after in my head. I was torn between hardboiled and fried. They’re so gorgeous either way. So in the end I decided to do a bit of both. I will confess to one omission. I had planned to steam some cocktail chats and toss them through but I completely forgot until we were eating and Son and Heir asked if the pieces of chicken sausage were potato. Which of course they weren’t but it made me remember that I had forgotten. Never mind, it was filling enough. Next time, I would add in the potatoes

Quail Egg Salad with Pomegranate Seeds
5 rashers bacon
handful baby spinach leaves per person
handful rocket (arugula) per person
3 pieces sorj bread
spray on olive oil
1 pomegranate
1 small cucumber
1 red onion
6 organic chicken sausages
16 quail eggs
8 chat cocktail potatoes
Dressing
100g Danish blue cheese
100g mayonnaise
100g sour cream

Pan fry bacon until crispy. Set aside and when cool, slice into small pieces.
Spray sorj bread with olive oil and lightly toast under grill on either side until crispy. Break into smallish pieces (roughly cracker size).
Cut pomegranate open and shake out seeds. Set aside.
Finely slice red onion and cucumber
Hard boil half the quail eggs for seven minutes (10 minutes at varoma temperature, speed 2 in thermomix)
Squeeze chicken out of skins into bite sized chunks. Fry until cooked through in bacon fat. Set aside in food warmer.
Steam the potatoes until cooked through.
Immediately before serving, fry remaining quail eggs, taking care to keep yolks intact. Use a small sharp knife to crack shell open. Fry sunny side up.
Assemble all but the pomegranate seeds in serving bowls with fried eggs on top. Dress and scatter seeds over the top to serve.
To make dressing:
Combine all ingredients in food processor or thermomix until almost smooth (15 seconds on speed 4 in thermomix)