All hail the Clan Mackenzie, those beer-swilling, conspiracy-obsessed, tabloid-reading, Rod Stewart-loving, bagpipe aficionados!  The plot line of So I Married An Axe Murderer may ostensibly center around the romance between commitment-phobic Charlie and the thrice married Harriet, but the best scenes in the movie revolve around Charlie and his family.  Stuart (Mike Myers) and May (Brenda Fricker), in particular, steal every moment of screen time.

Of course the obvious choice for a Mackenzie tribute dish would be haggis.  Now, being Chinese, I’ve eaten and enjoyed my fair share of organ meats, but I’m not about to take on haggis.  Oh. Hell. No.  I might, however, just might, try eating it again if say Fergus Henderson cooked it…which would involve a trip to London…and that alone would be enough to tempt me.

My culinary salute to the Mackenzie family will, instead, be in the form of Scotch Quail Eggs.  After my duck egg purchase gone wrong (see previous post), I did manage to procure some perfectly fine quail eggs (from the same Asian market no less) and set about creating my version of this classic dish.  I wanted to play on Stuart’s passionate loathing of Colonel Sanders so I wrapped the soft-cooked quail eggs in raw chicken breakfast sausage and coated them in a breadcrumb/corn flake mixture seasoned with my favorite “fried chicken spice” or Old Bay Seasoning.   After a few of these wee scotched quail eggs, you’ll find yourself addicted…and quite possibly craving it fortnightly…maybe even dancing a Scottish jig to Rod Stewart on bagpipes!

Scotch Quail Eggs

6-8 Quail Eggs

6 Raw Chicken Breakfast Sausage Links, casing removed

1/2 cup All-Purpose Flour

1 cup Breadcrumbs/Ground Corn Flakes

1 Egg, beaten

1/2 tsp. Old Bay Seasoning

1/4 tsp. Sea or Kosher Salt

1/8 tsp. Ground Black Pepper

Canola Oil, for frying

Bring a small pot of water to boil, then carefully lower in the quail eggs.  Reduce the heat to a gentle boil, then cover the pot and cook the eggs for 2 mins.  Immediately shock the eggs in cold water to stop the cooking process, then carefully peel off the shell.  Lightly coat the eggs in flour (this will keep the sausage from slipping off the egg).  For each egg, flatten out about a tablespoon of sausage in your hand, then place the egg in the center and form the meat around it, gently rolling it between your palms.  Roll the sausage-encased eggs one at time in the flour, shaking off the excess, then dip them in the beaten egg, then roll them in the breadcrumb mixture (seasoned with salt, pepper and Old Bay).  Heat the oil, about 2″ deep in a heavy bottom pot, to 350°F.  Fry the coated eggs, 2-3 at a time, until golden brown.