Liz Wright’s smallholding diary - Quails and a wonderful way to eat eggs (From Smallholder)

Liz Wright’s smallholding diary - Quails and a wonderful way to eat eggs

11:05am Wednesday 22nd August 2012 in News

 Aren’t quails wonderful birds? We incubated a dozen eggs but only successfully hatched two which turn out to be a male and female, a brown boy and a grey/blue female. They hatched mid June and by mid August the girl is laying a really decent sized egg every single day. I try to make their pen very like a heath, with grass in a big pot, a dust bath and as well as their pellets, lots of meal worms which they love. I am a novice to quails so any advice gratefully received.

And on the subject of eggs, Waitrose recently published a recipe which they described somewhat basically as ‘Baked egg in bread’ – although that is exactly what it is. It has become a big favourite here on our smallholding as it is a substantial rather than a light supper dish and my top tip is don’t have potatoes with it! It ticks lots of our boxes as we can use our lovely free range eggs and our home grown spinach and tomatoes but I can also use up old bits of cheese in the cheese sauce and stale (but not yet mouldy) bread. You can experiment with the recipe but it’s a sort of a savoury bread and butter pudding. Use either individual pie dishes or a deep muffin tin and line as many as you want with bread – white does produce better results but you can use any bread. If you butter it lightly and press that side to the tin or dish it won’t stick. Then add cooked spinach (ensure it is not watery) and then add cheese sauce ( make a white sauce and add cheese). I break whole eggs into a dip in this mixture but Waitrose suggest beaten egg too. Sprinkle the whole lot with cheese and top with halved tomato. You can also have a jug of additional cheese sauce for topping – make this a bit less thick than the one you used in the bread eg just add a bit more milk. If you want to you can add some grilled bacon too or make a salad that includes grilled bacon.

 

 

I urgently need to get a dairy - I like it to fit in a smallish hand bag. This year I have the Life boats diary which has tide tables which I quite like, the two years previously I had donkey sanctuary diaries, prior to that RHS - any suggestions for this year for something different?