Ham & mushroom potato nets with fried quail's eggs

I bought quail's eggs but I have never cooked with them before. All I know about them is that they are small, have a pretty shell pattern and if you want to have a proper meal you'll probably need to eat a dozen of them. They also taste the same as chicken eggs.

I found this recipe in www.bbcgoodfood.com and decided to give it a go.

It is tasty and I can see it being a popular starter. However, the nests stuck to the muffin tin and I had to scrape a lot from the tin. Washing up was a complete headache as it wouldn't come off even after an overnight soak. I ended up having to forcibly scrub the tin and destroyed the non-stick coating. Maybe I need a new and better muffin tin? Or perhaps butter and flour the tin next time?

I want to re-do this recipe but I am dreading the washing up. Perhaps I'll leave it a few months. Time makes you forget, right?

Serves: 6 persons (starter) or 3 persons (main).

Ingredients:

• 10g butter
• 200g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 400g potatoes, peeled and spiralized into thin noodles (I don't have a spiralizer so I grated the potatoes)
• 120g ham, torn into pieces
• 125g mozzarella ball, grated
• 12 quail's eggs
• salt & pepper to taste

Method:

1. Heat the butter in a frying pan and add the mushrooms. Fry for 4-5 min until they begin to brown.
   
   
   
   
   
   
2. Stir in the garlic and cook for 1 min. Tip the mixture into a bowl.
3. Add the potatoes, ham and mozzarella to the bowl and season with salt & pepper to taste.
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
4. Generously grease the muffin tin and divide the mixture among the muffin holes. 
   
   
   
5. Bake in a 180°C for 25 min or until golden brown.
   
   
   
6. Remove from the oven and run a palette knife around the edges of the nests to make sure they are not sticking to the tin. Then use the back of a teaspoon to press down the centre of each to make an indent large enough to hold a quail's egg.
   
   
   
   
   
   
7. Crack a quail's nest into each nest and return to the oven for 8-10 min, until the egg white is set and yolk is runny.
   
   
   
8. Cool in the tin for 1-2 min, then carefully lift out with a palette knife.