betsy and nat

This past Monday, Mark (father-in-law kind enough to let us live with them while we search for the meaning of life, and also a kitchen-friend and mentor) decided to go with me to an Asian market.  We went to one he had been to before, down on Portland and around 77th.  We ended up with some good stuff (noodles) and some stuff we are undecided on (dried white fungus, which had a texture akin to a plastic sponge) and some stuff I am not totally happy with (the 5 cloves of garlic that started sprouting the next day… I am tempted to plant them and harvest them as green garlic in a couple months…)

The one thing I found that I had to have were these adorable quail eggs:

Actually, the whole trip was because I got this amazing cookbook from the library, and after reading it straight through the night I got it, decided I had to go to an Asian market.  Most of my grocery list was left unchecked, however, as I could not read most of the labels and the employee looked too busy to help me find what I was looking for.  Also, some of my quail eggs were well past their prime — not even passing the float test.

Anyhow… in the cookbook, the author talks about slow-poaching eggs.  The idea being that your eggs are cooked inside of the shell, but are still slippery like a poached egg (and the yolk is still runny).  So I thought I would slow-poach these cute little quail eggs, along with a few regular ones (as a control).

But then they never actually set up.  And when I cracked one open, hoping for a beautifully poached egg, I got a handful (well, part of a handful, anyway) of raw-ish egg.  That’s what we call a bad surprise.  But then I saw the inside of the eggshell, which was a good surprise:

...like an inside-out robin's egg

I tried cooking them for longer, but it just never worked out for me.  I am a slow-poaching failure.  The rest of the quail eggs were either fried up (so adorable, but not very many bites worth) or just got tossed.  After seeing how old some of them were, I didn’t feel like the rest of them were even approaching freshness.

On  a side note, after trying with two naps and lots of ibuprofen to best a sick-headache (the old-fashioned word for migraine, and so much more descriptive) today, I took myself to Target, just to get my blood moving.  I ended up with a bunch of asparagus and mushrooms and bacon, which all joined forces in what I call a quiche, but is really more of an omelette in a pie crust.  It was delish.

and there is plenty left over for breakfast!