Griddled Marinated Quail Egg Skewers with Basil Salt

So apparently, you can give a woman a fish, and she'll feed you for a day.  Teach a woman how to fish, and she'll feed you for a lifetime... until there are no more fish to be caught, and she'll have to teach her how to dig up mushrooms.

Oh man, that started out nicely but I killed it.

Besides the overfishing bit, I believe this to be true.  These marinated eggs are the result of a certain method of fishing I learned earlier this year.  The fishing lesson was Asian Style with dark soy sauce, and my new creation is Balsamic & Olive oil with Basil salt.

I never would have imagined doing this to quail eggs if it wasn't for that very first discovery, so thank you Yotam for releasing your genius in me.

Griddled marinated cherry tomatoes are also the bomb.  Thank you, Me.

Makes 18-24 skewers (depending on how many quail eggs are packed together)

Ingredients

pack of fresh quail eggs

1 cherry tomato per quail egg

toothpicks for skewers

Marinade:

3 Tbsp balsamic vinegar

juice from 1/2 lime

1 Tbsp olive oil

pinch salt

Topping:

6-7 leaves fresh basil, finely chopped

few pinches Pink Himalayan Salt or other special salt

few cracks black pepper

Directions

1.  Soft boil the quail eggs.  To do this, I placed them in my steamer basked and steamed on high heat for 3 minutes, then let them cool before peeling.  They were perfect.. not too liquid, but velvet cream style.

2.  Make the marinade by mixing the balsamic vinegar, lime juice, salt, and olive oil.  Make the skewers by placing 1 egg and 1 cherry tomato on a toothpick.  Place the skewers in the marinade.  Let marinate for at least 1 hour.

3.  Get ready to grill.  I  used my stovetop griddle pan.  Drain the eggs from the marinade and place on the very hot griddle pan for about 1 minute, making sure to turn them at least once so they get the char marks on 2 sides.  Don't discard the marinade.  Use it on a salad or drizzle it on some grilled veggies.  Don't be wasteful.  Balsamic vinegar is delicious.

4.  Top with some cracked black pepper, pink Himalayan salt, and finely chopped basil.  Don't use table salt.  If you don't have Himalayan salt, use another specialty salt or at the very least, fleur de sel.  You don't want this to have an overly salty taste  but you want it to have texture with the special salt.

Serve at happy hour or as an appetizer.

The marinade was not as strong as the Asian style griddled eggs, but the slight balsamic hint of flavor was definitely there, and much appreciated by my tasters.

This works out so perfectly because you can really taste the grilled part.  The slight char marks make a big difference in taste and texture.  This really is a fool-proof situation here.

I love the bite size-ness of quail eggs and I LOVE that they are easy to find here.  This would transfer well on large skewers on a bbq with other things as well.