Sausage Meat and Fried Quail Eggs Rice Bowl

It is longsilog except that the longganisa is served without the casings. This sausage meat and fried quail eggs rice bowl is a delightful all-day breakfast meal.

For non-Filipinos, longsilog is short for longganisa (sausage), sinangag (fried rice) and itlog (egg). It’s an ubibuitous breakfast meal in the Philippines served at home, in carinderias (inexpensive eateries) and even in restaurants.

But why serve the sausage meat without the casings? Well, there is a stall in Suki Market that sells longganisa teeming with garlic and chilies. We love the way the longganisa is flavored but the market is too far from where we live to make the longganisa a habit. Over a month ago, after Alex’s appointment with the dentist, she and her father passed by Suki Market and they bought four kilos of longganisa minus the casings.

Why minus the casings? Well, the sausages take longer to cook when stuffed in casing. Since it’s the sausage meat that we like so much because of the way it’s flavored, and sausage meat without casings cooks faster, why not ditch the casings?

So, the four kilos of sausage meat were stored in eight 500-gram packs in the freezer, and we’ve been cooking each pack differently. For this dish, I simply let the sausage meat brown in its own rendered fat. Then, for garnish, sliced shallots and scallions.

But why quail eggs? From late January to early February, Alex and I were in Chiang Mai and one of the cutest street food we tried there was quail eggs cooked in a special pan similar to a takoyaki pan. We have a takoyaki pan at home so I thought I’d try doing something similar. This is actually the second fried quail eggs dish I cooked. In the first one, the quail eggs were scrambled and topped with tomatoes and scallions.

Our takoyaki pan has a non-stick surface but I still dabbed the holes with a little cooking oil. Without oil, the eggs wouldn’t have a crisp bottom.

If you have kids who are getting restless at home, why not involve them with the cooking? I’m sure they will love cracking quail eggs into a takoyaki pan and enjoy even more popping the small fried eggs into their hungry mouths.

Sausage Meat and Fried Quail Eggs Rice Bowl

A simple sausage-and-egg meal made more interesting with quail eggs fried in a takoyaki pan.

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Course: Breakfast, Main Course

Cuisine: Modern Filipino

Prep Time: 10 minutes

Cook Time: 15 minutes

Servings: 4 people

Author: Connie Veneracion

Equipment

• Takoyaki pan

Ingredients

• 500 grams sausage meat
• cooking oil
• 20 quail eggs
• 4 shallots thinly sliced
• 4 stalks scallions thinly sliced
• cooked rice to serve

Instructions

• Heat a frying pan and spread the sausage meat on the entire bottom. Cook over medium-high heat to brown the underside. Stir to break up lumps and continue cooking, stirring often, until well browned. Divide into four portions, set aside and keep hot.
• Using a piece of kitchen paper (or a pasty brush if you own one), lightly grease each hole of a takoyaki pan.
• Set the takoyaki pan on the stove over medium heat and crack a quail egg into each hole (see notes after the recipe). Sprinkle with a little salt. Cook until set.
• Ladle cooked rice into four bowls. On top of the rice, arrange fried quail eggs on one side and spoon a fourth of the browned sausage meat on the other. Scatter sliced shallots and scallions in the middle. Serve immediately.

Cook’s Notes

The shell of quail egg is thinner and softer than the shell of chicken eggs. You cannot simply tap the egg on the surface of your kitchen counter or use a knife to break the shell. If you do that, the likelihood that you will pierce the yolk is quite high.

To crack a quail egg without piercing the yolk, use the back of a teaspoon to tap the shell on top. If you hold an egg vertically, one end is narrower than the other. Tap the wider end. Carefully peel off the cracked shell to create a hole just large enough to let the yolk pass through. Invert the egg into the frying pan and cook.

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