How to Make a Quack: 12 Steps (with Pictures)

2024 Author: Jason Gerald | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-01-19 22:11

Kwek Kwek is a popular street snack and is widely enjoyed in the Philippines. However, you can also make your own version at home using the right ingredients and equipment. Wrap boiled quail eggs with orange batter and fry until crispy. After that, serve the eggs with sweet and sour sauce.

Ingredients

For 4 servings

Basic material

• 1 dozen quail eggs
• 250 grams of wheat flour
• Water, to boil
• Cooking oil, for frying

Coating Dough

• 250 grams of wheat flour
• 200 ml water
• 15 ml annatto powder (kesumba)
• 2.5 grams of baking soda

Cocol sauce

• 60 ml rice vinegar
• 60 grams of palm sugar
• 60 ml tomato sauce
• 2 teaspoons (10 ml) sweet soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon (2.5 grams) black pepper

Step

Part 1 of 3: Boiling Eggs

Step 1. Boil the prepared eggs

Place the eggs in a medium-sized saucepan. Add water until it reaches 2.5 centimeters above the egg. Heat the water over high heat until the water starts to boil. After that, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let the eggs boil in hot water for 5 minutes.

• It is recommended that you heat the water and eggs to the same temperature. If you put cold eggs in boiling water, there is a chance that the shells will crack.

  

• To make the eggs easier to peel and the yolks don't turn green, rinse the eggs in cold water after you remove them from the hot water. This watering is useful for stopping the boiling process and creating a vapor barrier between the egg white and the shell so that the shell becomes easier to peel. You can chill the eggs under a stream of cold water, or put them in a bowl of iced water.

  

Step 2. Cool and peel the egg shells

Leave the eggs at room temperature or put them in cold water until the surface is cool enough to touch. Once cool enough, peel off the shell using your fingers. Now, you have a dozen hard-boiled quail eggs.

• To peel the shell, hit the egg on a hard surface. Make sure you don't knock too hard; just tap enough to crack the shell. After that, peel the shell from the cracked part.

  

• Keep in mind that you can follow this step two days in advance. If you don't want to use the hard-boiled eggs right away, you'll need to place them in a sealed container and store them in the refrigerator until they're ready to use. However, eggs should not be stored for more than two days.

Part 2 of 3: Smearing and Frying Eggs

Step 1. Coat hard-boiled eggs in flour

Put 250 grams of flour in a small dish or bowl with short sides. Coat the peeled boiled quail eggs with flour until each egg is evenly coated.

Keep in mind that you can also use cornstarch in place of wheat flour. Corn flour has less gluten, but makes a good dough and sticks as effectively as wheat flour

Step 2. Mix the annatto powder with warm water

Dissolve the annatto powder by mixing it in 200 ml of warm water. Beat with egg until dissolved.

• Annatto powder is most often used as a coloring agent. If properly mixed, the powder will produce a dark orange color. In addition, the powder can also give a little taste to the dough.
• If you don't have annatto powder, you can use orange food coloring. Add a few drops of orange food coloring (or red and yellow food coloring) to the warm water and mix until you get a dark orange mixture. Even though it doesn't give off the taste of annatto powder, food coloring can still produce a color that is more or less the same as the color produced by the powder.

Step 3. Mix the ingredients for the coating dough

Combine 250 grams of flour, baking soda and annatto solution in a large bowl using a beaten egg. Stir until smooth and there are no lumps of flour.

• To improve the quality of the coating dough, let the dough rest for about 30 minutes before using it to coat the eggs. By letting the dough rest, the flour content becomes more moist, resulting in a thicker dough. In addition, baking soda can work more optimally. However, you still need to be careful. If the dough is allowed to sit for more than 30 minutes, the bubbles produced by the baking soda will be lifted out so that the dough becomes denser and heavier.
• Also, keep in mind that baking soda is not a mandatory ingredient. In some recipes, baking soda is not even used at all. It doesn't matter if you don't use baking soda on the dough. As a result, the dough will become a little denser.

Step 4. Coat the eggs with the batter

Add the eggs to the mixture. Carefully coat the egg until all parts of the egg are covered with the batter.

If you don't want your fingers to feel sticky, use a metal skewer or fork to move the eggs while coating them with the batter. It is important that you make sure that each egg is evenly coated

Step 5. Heat the oil in a frying pan

Pour the vegetable oil into a wide skillet with high sides and a firm bottom until it reaches a height of 2.5 centimeters. Heat the oil over high heat until the temperature reaches 180 degrees Celsius.

• Check the oil temperature using an oil thermometer or candy thermometer.

  

• If you don't have a special thermometer, check the temperature of the oil by dripping a small amount of batter into it. When the oil is ready, the dough will sizzle and fry.

  

Step 6. Fry the prepared eggs

Transfer four or six batter-coated eggs to the oil (all at once). Cook and stir the eggs carefully using a slotted spatula until the egg mixture is golden brown and crispy. This process takes only a few minutes.

• To prevent the dough from hitting your fingers, you can use a skewer to pierce and transfer the eggs into the hot oil. Use another skewer or fork to remove the eggs from the skewers and dip them into the oil.
• Be careful when cooking so that you don't get hot oil when you dip the eggs in the oil.
• Be aware that the temperature of the oil will change as you add and remove the eggs. Keep an eye on the thermometer when you cook. Adjust the heat again if necessary to keep the oil temperature within 180 degrees Celsius.

Step 7. Drain and cool the eggs

Line the plate with a few clean paper towels. Remove the quack eggs from the hot oil and transfer them to a plate lined with paper towels. Allow the remaining oil to soak into the paper towels.

• You can also line the plate with a clean paper bag if you prefer.
• Alternatively, transfer the fried eggs to a metal colander to drain them rather than placing them on a plate lined with paper towels.
• Kwek quack will taste more delicious when enjoyed hot. The dough will feel more crunchy when eaten in a condition that is still hot and freshly fried. However, the dough will start to soften as the quack begins to cool.
• Kwek kwek is not suitable for reheating or reheating because the dough tends to soften when cooled and reheated.

Part 3 of 3: Making the Sauce

Step 1. Combine the sauce ingredients in a small saucepan

Combine rice vinegar, palm sugar, tomato sauce, sweet soy sauce, and black pepper in a small saucepan. Stir until all ingredients are evenly mixed.

• If you want to make the sauce spicier, prepare one red chili and mix it with the other ingredients. If you prefer a milder sauce, you can still achieve the same level of spiciness by adding 1 teaspoon to 1 tablespoon of chili sauce.
• Make the sauce while you are draining the eggs. When the sauce is done, the excess oil has filtered out enough and the eggs are not too hot to bite into. However, don't allow the eggs to cool completely, as the dough will become mushy.
• Keep in mind that you can also make the dipping sauce in advance. Store the sauce in an airtight container and refrigerate until ready to use. Microwave the sauce for 30-60 seconds, or heat it on the stove over low heat to warm the sauce.

Step 2. Heat the sauce

Heat the sauce mixture over medium heat until the sugar dissolves. Stir the sauce while it heats up.

• When finished, remove the pan from the stove. Let the sauce sit until it feels cool enough to touch (and doesn't burn your fingers or mouth).

  

Step 3. Serve the sauce with the eggs

Transfer the sauce to a small bowl. Serve the sauce with boiled quail eggs that have been fried, or quack quack.