Angelo of Eat Matters decided to tackle egg as an ingredient for the 17th round of Lasang Pinoy. Oh I thought about omelets right away but then, nilagang itlog has always been my favorite. Be it plain hard-boiled eggs as snack or breakfast just like what nourishes a poor Chinese laborer in construction sites here in Beijing, or toppings to a hearty chicken noodle soup. And so I present to you… chicken and marbleized quail eggs adobo.

A lot of things had been said about adobo – the national dish, soul food, the non-Pinoy’s favorite Pinoy food. There are also so many ways to cook adobo and for quite sometime I have always wanted it soupy but nowadays… mean and dark it is, just as I remember it as a kid.

Ingredients:
Chicken wings, thighs and legs, cut into bite-size pieces
Chicken liver, sliced thinly
Quail eggs
4-5 tbsp of crushed garlic
1/2 cup of vinegar
1/2 cup of soy sauce
1 bay leaf
around 10 pcs of peppercorns

Combine the chicken pieces and liver with all the above ingredients except the eggs and mix thoroughly. Marinate overnight.

Wash the quail eggs. About 2-3 hours before cooking adobo, boil the quail eggs in a saucepan with about half an inch of water above the eggs. Simmer over low fire for about 15 minutes. Remove the eggs and quickly rinse in cold water till eggs are cool enough to pat. Tap the eggs lightly all over with the back of a spoon to create cracks to the eggshell. Do not peel. Mix them with the chicken marinade and set aside.

Transfer the chicken pieces, eggs and marinade into a casserole and simmer without stirring for about 10 minutes. Remember to be extra careful with the eggs so as not to have esggshells all over your adobo. Cook over low to medium heat with occasional stirring until the sauce thickens. Scoop out the eggs and set aside. Just before the sauce dries up, add cooking oil and saute chicken for another 5 minutes or until brown. Transfer to a serving platter.

Add more oil to the pan and reheat. Stir-fry the chicken liver for about 2 minutes. Remove from heat and mix with the cooked chicken adobo. Now peel the eggs. The marinade has seeped through the cracked shells, flavored the eggs and gave them a marbleized appearance. Garnish adobo with these.

Lastly�Ķ scoop a bowlful of rice and throw into the casserole. Add a dash of salt and mix ‘em with the sauce that sticks to the pan. Serve hot with chicken adobo. Sinfully oily yet yummy!

An option to make the quail eggs more adobo-flavored – prepare adobo marinade exactly how it was used for the chicken. Mix it with the hard-boiled eggs with cracked shells and simmer separately in a saucepan for at least 30 minutes. Add water if you wish to simmer for an hour. You can even leave it as it is inside the ref overnite.

The Round-up.

Iska

I am not a professional cook. My only claim to having a culinary background is a short stint as my dad’s teen ‘sous chef’ in his carinderia ages ago. Dad ran small eateries since I was a young kid - serving standard ‘turo-turo’ food ranging from the likes of menudo, adobo, pritong isda, dinuguan, binagoongan, bopis, munggo, pinakbet and giniling to merienda fares like goto, ginataan, pancit bihon, halu-halo and saging con yelo.

My father, a farmer in his hometown before working his way to becoming an accountant, definitely influenced my cooking in a lot of ways than I thought. My siblings and I were raised in a backyard full of fruit trees and vegetable garden. We spent weekends and the summer breaks running around with ducks, chickens, goats and pigs. I had wonderful memories of gathering eggs, butchering chickens, selling vegetables and the sweet aroma of preserved fruits. But my love for art led me to a degree in Architecture. Just few months after getting my license, I went abroad and lived independently at age 23. Definitely no maid, no cook, and a totally different food culture. Along the way I met lots of friends and spent what seemed a lifetime learning new tricks and recipes.

Now living in Auckland, I am a work-from-home mum who juggles time between work, fun and family - in pursuit of work-life balance. No matter how busy I am, I love the idea of cooking for my family. My blog chronicles home cooking greatly influenced by life outside my home country from Southeast Asia to Beijing and Auckland. And most of the time, being busy also means easy (sometimes quick), affordable meals.