Quail Eggs with Spicy Potato
New Mexico Chiles are the dried form of the Red Anaheim Pepper. This chile has a thin flesh with an earthy chile flavor and undertones of wild cherries. This chile ranges from 2 – 4 on a heat scale of 1 to 10. The New Mexico Chile may be referred to as the California Chile or Chile Colorado. New Mexico Chiles are commonly used in Red Mexican or Southwestern sauces and is grown in Mexico. This mildly hot chile. Scoville heat units 8,000 – 12,000.
Suggested Use:
New Mexico Chiles are mildly hot and very popular in Southwest cooking. Great in sauces, salsa, rice dishes, stews and soups. Add directly to the cooking liquid along with other spices. Use in stir fry, or add to chicken or fish marinades.
Ingredients:
Quails eggs- 12
Potatoes- 2 large, peeled and diced into medium size pieces
Shallots- 5 small or 1 large
Dry red chile- 2
Garlic- 10 cloves, peeled and roughly chopped
Whole peppercorn- 1 tsp
Kashmiri chilli powder- 1 1/2 tsp
Oil- 2 tbsp
Mustard seeds- 1 tsp
Curry leaves- 2 to 3 sprigs
Water- 1/4 cup
Coconut milk- 1/2 cup (optional)
Salt- to taste
Instructions:
Cook the quails eggs in boiling water for about 5 minutes. Drain, peel, slice in half and keep aside. Similarly, cook the potatoes in boiling water till about 3/4th done. Drain and keep aside.
Grind to a coarse consistency the shallots, dry red chiles, garlic and peppercorns, either using a pestle and mortar or in a food processor/ grinder. It need not be smooth.
Heat the oil in a kadai and add the mustard seeds. Once they start to splutter throw in the curry leaves followed by the crushed masala. Once the raw smell of the masala disappears, add the Kashmiri chilli powder. Sauté on medium heat till the oil starts separating, could take about 6 to 8 minutes.
Add the pre-cooked potatoes and salt and toss around, making sure they are well coated in the masala. Add the water and coconut milk, stir and close with a lid. Let it cook for about 5 to 6 minutes on medium-high heat.
Open the lid and stir, scraping the bottom if the masala has stuck to the pan. Add the sliced eggs and fold them in together with the potatoes and masala. It is ok if some of the yolk gets mixed with the masala, but don’t over do the stirring bit. Check for salt, add if required, give one final stir and take it off the flame. Serve with roti, parathas or even appam and idiappam.
Notes: The original recipe calls for ducks eggs but I just went ahead and used quails eggs instead. You can of course replace it with hens eggs, about 5 would be good enough. You just have to dice it smaller.
If you are not using coconut milk, increase the water amount to 1/2 cup.
Original recipe called for about 4 dry red chiles. I only used only 2 and we couldn’t handle the heat.
This is a semi dry preparation. If you want a gravy version, add more water or coconut milk.
From mykitchenantics.blogspot.co.uk