Just a few basic ingredients are required for this quick and easy dairy-free “nice cream” recipe, and you can customize it however you like to make it taste your favorite!
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 20 mins |
| Additional Time: | 20 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr |
| Servings: | 12 |
| Yield: | 12 servings |
Ingredients
- 12 quail eggs
- ¼ cup rice vinegar
- ¼ cup ketchup
- ¼ cup brown sugar
- 2 teaspoons soy sauce
- ½ cup water
- 1 drop yellow food coloring
- 1 drop red food coloring
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste
- oil for deep frying
- ¼ cup cornstarch
- bamboo skewer
Instructions
- Place eggs in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium, cover, and cook for 4 minutes. Remove from heat and let stand, covered, for 2 minutes. Rinse eggs in cold water and cool to room temperature; peel.
- Combine rice vinegar, ketchup, brown sugar, and soy sauce in a saucepan. Cook and stir over medium until sugar has dissolved, about 5 minutes. Let cool.
- Prepare batter by adding red and yellow food coloring to the water to get a deep orange color. Combine flour, salt, and pepper in a bowl; pour in orange water and stir until there are no lumps.
- Heat oil in a wok to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C).
- Gently roll eggs in cornstarch to coat and shake off excess cornstarch. Dip into orange batter so they are fully covered. Poke eggs with the bamboo skewer and drop gently into the hot oil. Deep fry until the batter is crispy, about 2 minutes per side. Remove eggs with a slotted spoon and drain on paper towels.
- You can also use hard-boiled chicken eggs in this recipe for a dish known as tokneneng.
- We have determined the nutritional value of oil for frying based on a retention value of 10% after cooking. Amount will vary depending on cooking time and temperature, ingredient density, and specific type of oil used.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 150 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 16 g |
| Cholesterol | 76 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 2 g |
| Saturated Fat | 1 g |
| Sodium | 133 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 9 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I made both this recipe and the large egg version tonkneneng also from this site – and strongly preferred the kwek kwek. The ratio of the textures is much better with smaller eggs. But I will say quail eggs are annoying to peel! I found that it helped to roll them around gently and then get under the membrane – and then use the membrane to gently get the shell off without damaging the egg itself.
This was fun! I do think the batter could have used more seasoning but that is an easy fix. I used some regular hard boiled quail eggs and some pickled hard boiled quail eggs and even though the pickled ones are not traditional, they sure were good. It almost gave them an “adobe” feel. Thanks for sharing!