polonaise ... another great idea for hard boiled quail eggs ...

today i decide to make a favorite of mine that i have not made in months, polonaise, bread crumb, herb and egg topping. this particular polonaise is a made from fresh bread crumbs, chopped hard boiled quail eggs, curly parsley, grated parmesan and gouda goat cheeses and seasoned with fresh milled black pepper, fresh milled sea salt, english mustard powder, garlic powder, shallot powder and the finest of hungarian medium hot paprika. i have left out the drizzle of melted butter trying to mitigate the cholesterol and fat implications. typically this is a topping for vegetables such as steamed broccoli and cauliflower, but today I will put it on fish. a fillet of white snapper I got at the thai fresh market down the street.

i first remove the crust form a “sturdy” white bread slices (a sour dough baguette is also good for this purpose but not wheat or grain breads) and cut them into small 1 inch squares. i then put them into the bowl of a food processor (follow this link and you will see a model i have had for 18 years and it still runs great, even after using it in a restaurant for many of those years) that has a basic s-knife blade installed. i then pulse the processor until the crumbs are fluffy. be careful to use a good white bread, and to make certain you do not over process the crumbs to the point where they become gummy and stuck together.

i remove the bread from the processor and then put in the quail eggs. note: they should be chilled so they too do not get over processed and pureed. pulsing the processor is best for this application. remove the eggs and add them to the breading.

next, finely chop your parsley, and grate both your cheeses. add them to the bread and egg mix and stir with a fork lightly making certain not to over work the mix and make it gummy.

now add your seasonings and mix again. if you wish to add melted butter, now is the time to drizzle that into the mix and give it a final turn. set it aside.

now get out an oven proof casserole dish and either moisten the bottom with a bit of oil, margarine or butter so the fish will not stick. you may also use a bit of tomato sauce if you choose; it goes quite well with the polonaise. place the fish in the casserole and top with the polonaise mixture. bake/broil until the fish is done and the polonaise is golden brown.

waa-laa, it be ready to eat. today I had mine with a small side of pesto pasta and sautéed zucchini squash.

note: dried bread crumbs are not good for this unless they are very large and started out like the breading described here.

bag of polonaise topping

baked and then broiled fish fillet with polonaise topping.

make certain the casserole dish is wiped clean of finger prints and oil residue so that it will not discolor when baking (also a good preventative measure if you intend on hitting someone over the head with the casserole before washing it). you can see i neglected to do that here on the inside of the casserole. that is what happens when you make lunch and work on the computer at the same time.

enjoy!

been so long it looks like > > > egg salad to me ...

it has been so long since i contributed to my own blog. so here we go with a great egg salad on whole grain baguette.

i use quail eggs for this because i can get them on most any bangkok salad bar these days and they are already peeled. nice and creamy and i now prefer them over chicken eggs for this application. i mash them with some chopped chives and curly parsley, minced shallot, french's ball park mustard, some 0% cholesterol japanese mayonnaise (a bit sweet, but that's cool because i usually like to throw in some salad cream which is also sweet), a dollop of olive oil margarine and finish it with fresh ground sea salt and black pepper.

note that my chives, shallot and parsley are not 100% up to par.
this is due to the airport having been closed for 8 days
as it was occupied for political demonstrations
(go democracy thailand)
and there is not a lot of fresh stuff around.
things should get better now as the airport opened today.

note that i use a potato masher, works just great for this application,
and it is easy to clean too.

salad is ready and the baguette has been just barely toasted
and allowed to cool down.
we don't want to heat up the salad
and have it get warm and runny now do we?
that would defeat the purpose of the margarine
which is added not only for flavor, but also to bind it.

the sandwich garnished with arugula and all ready for slicing with the
trusted dropped-edge sandwich maker's knife.

every time i take a pic of this knife and look at the broken tip on it
i want to find the cook who abused it and stab him with the damn thing.


the sandwich has been sliced on a bias and is now ready for eating.
note: when i sliced it, i sawed through it carefully,
i did not cut straight down.
that would have caused the egg salad to ooze out
and that is not what we want.


there are two reason for cutting this way.
one, it looks good, and two -
it makes the first, all important bite, easy and proper.

if you turn the sandwich on its side, and bite into it
so as not to push the top and bottom together,
the egg salad will not squirt out.
this is easily done when the sandwich
has been cut on an angle as you see here.

the arugula adds a nice nutty flavor and some bite to the already sweet salad.
notice i choose not to add tomato slices to my sandwich.
just pure creamy quail egg and arugula is about
all i want to taste here set off by the robust baguette.


i wash this all down with a steamin' hot fresh cup of
fresh ground hill tribe coffee
my friend brought me from chinag mai last week.

not as robust as i prefer, but for thai beans,
o'tay buckwheat!