When I was a teenager, I encountered deep fried, battered hard boiled eggs for the first time. Mom and I were on our way home one afternoon and I smelled something delicious being fried at a street vendor’s cart. There was a mound of orange bunlike things and he was heating up a couple for another customer. The odd orange tinted things were tokneneng.
Since I was curious, and they would make a fine afternoon merienda, Mom bought some, and selected the seasoned vinegar. We brought them home, eggs soaking in vinegar in plastic bags. After pouring them out into bowls we broke into the eggs with our spoons and swirled the hard yolks into the vinegar before taking a bite.
I was hooked. The batter was slightly sweet and soaked up the spiced vinegar, so biting into the now creamy egg yolk and white resulted in flavor squishing onto my tongue.
Their smaller cousins, made with boiled quail eggs, soaking in fishball sauce (different from the vinegar), was a staple of my college years. I would happily take a jeepney ride to UP Diliman to eat at one of the many vendors there.
I thought I would make some for Easter lunch and try out steaming eggs, as I discovered at my in-laws’ kitchen, it results in a creamy egg.
Steam 8 eggs for 12 to 15 minutes. Drop the eggs into cold water to let them cool. While they cool prepare the batter and syart heating the oil to deep fry.
In a bowl mix 1 cup flour, 3/4 cups water, 2 drops yellow food coloring and 3 drops red, and a pinch of seasoned salt. Make a batter that is thicker than pancake batter, adding more water until it reaches a consistency you find best to work with.
Peel the eggs.
Roll eggs in a plate of cornstarch before coating the egg. Rhys sort of painted the batter on as the cornstarch formed a skin around the egg. Then he carefully rolled the coated egg into the hot oil. (Between 120 and 150 degrees C.)
When the batter is slightly puffed and the trailing bits crisp take the egg out with some tongs or a slotted spoon and put to drain on a paper towl coated dish.
Cook the rest of the eggs and prepare the vinegar sauce.
In a heatproof bowl measure 1/4 cup Datu Puti white or cane vinegar. Mix in 2 tbsps of Marca Pina or Silver Swan soy sauce. Dissolve 2 tbsps of raw sugar. Heat in microwave for 20 seconds then stir vigorously before heating for another 15 seconds.
Serve eggs in a bowl with about half a tablespoon of seasoned vinegar.
For spiced vinegar, you will need 1 tiny bird’s eye chili, chopped, and 1 small shallot, diced fine, added to the above before the heating stage.
Happy Easter!
Oooh, that gives me an idea for a cross between this and “scotched eggs.” (Which I’ve never tried.)
Basically, replace the dough, here, with sausage– then dip the result in pancake batter and do it again…..
I like the thought of scotched eggs… scotched quail eggs, that is! I’ve done scotched eggs exactly once, and a single scotched chicken egg was a CHORE to get through. We had each just one, and whoooo, we were stuffed. I imagine it’d be a good protein bomb of a meal for the folks who do heavy workouts. It’d certainly be yummy!
But back to scotched quail eggs: They would be a nice lunchbox meal, IMO. 4 of them would be plenty! And they’d be so cute! But imagine a scotched egg that was then dipped in batter, then panko…
I should stop! I don’t know where I could get quail eggs.
Sausage, with the batter… Little bockwursts? I like this idea! And you could make multicolored pancake batter for easy kiddie appeal ^o^ Or sort of make corndogs (I really miss corndogs and waffle-wrapped hot dogs, oh man…)
Let me know what your experiments yield! ^_^
I should stop! I don’t know where I could get quail eggs.
I know the Asian food mart back home had them– guess it depends on which “asian” they’re focused on. And eggs in Seattle keep a bit better than those in Australia, at a guess…. no idea if there are quail there, or if they can even stand the heat. All the bird food in El Paso is labled for doves or similar, and that just means pidgeons and those live anywhere!
I’ve seen quail bird carcasses sold in packs here sometimes and I know they are a backyard poultry too. I might try see if they have some in my nearer Asian shops but they might be subject to seasonality.
Kind of wanted to see how it would be to raise them but, eh. Rentals.
But, y’know what I wanna try too? Yukihira’s Egg Tempura donburi, from chapter 170.
Somehow, I never knew that “donburi” is the name for rice bowl meals.
I think you’ve decided dinner for tonight for us.
What don will you make? ??
Modified Japanse curry– oddly, I’m mostly craving the rice! But I finally found the curry mix that tastes right (S&B Oriental Curry) and now it’s a matter of getting the stew to the “right” consistency.
Awesome side-effect, got my dad hooked on the stuff. He’d NEVER try “curry,” but “that wonderful stew that (Foxfier) makes,” that he’ll do.
I thicken mine with cornstarch dissolved in water once I have the flavor right.
Utter digression– my uncles (all went Navy during Nam) call the jeepney “Jeep-me”s. Took a few seconds for me to figure out that it must be the same vehicle.
I never really found out why the Jeep became Jeepney. Maybe it’s a corruption of jeep-me? Hmm …
No idea which came first— they don’t say “Jeep me,” like you imght say “beer me,” it’s more like a name.
Faintly remember Jeep is from an old Popey cartoon, maybe it’s related to taht?
Yea, jeep was that weird little critter in Popeye. I think it might have been the origin of the moniker.