Recipe | Quail egg and gruyere pies


‘Canapes’ are, like most food, at their best when unfussy. In fact the word ‘canape’ implies a fair amount of fiddling and I don’t like it, but somehow ‘nibbles’ seems a bit twee and ‘hors d’oeuvre’ just dreadful, so for now canape it is.

Avoid those that will take you approximately 500x the time to make as they do to eat. Don’t feel compelled to buy micro herbs and scallops, to make your own yuzu jelly or filo pastry. Remember, all people want is something to line the stomach and that, if possible, hasn’t come from Iceland. They like salty, they like cheesy, maybe porky, possibly hot, and ideally something that doesn’t squirt down their favourite shirt.

Like these…

Quail egg and gruyere pies

Makes 12

500g puff pastry
Dijon mustard
Gruyere
12 Clarence Court quail eggs
An egg, beaten
Salt and pepper

You will also need a shallow muffin tin and a large cookie cutter

Lightly oil the muffin tin. Cut the pastry in half and roll out one half to about the thinness of four business cards. Cut 12 rounds and lay them in your tin. Add a blob of mustard and a slice of cheese in each before carefully dropping an egg in each. Season with salt and pepper.

– Roll out the other half and repeat, laying the second batch of rounds over the top and sealing at the edges. Cut a little hole in the top of each to let the steam escape and brush with beaten egg. Stick in the fridge for half an hour. Or four hours, if you’re getting ahead with things.

– Preheat the oven to 200C. Bake the pies for 6-7 minutes until puffed and golden. Serve.

Can you think of a better word for canape? Best suggestion gets a free copy of Small Adventures in Cooking. Pop in the comment box.

This recipe was developed for Clarence Court eggs. 

23 thoughts on “Recipe | Quail egg and gruyere pies

  1. Not so much an alternative as a variant, but given that there are usually never enough of them, resulting in an unseemly scrum every time a tray appears, I rather like ‘catch-me-if-you-canapes’.

  2. being an event organiser all I seem to eat this time of year are canapes as they rush out of kitchens in venues up and down this fine country of ours… so for me the other word for ‘canape’ is ‘dinner’ x

    • I think aperitif/aperitivi works in other languages but maybe sounds a wee bit pretentious in English? Dunno…

  3. No squirting down the shirt here – do you think I could pop these right in in one go? Well maybe two!

  4. By the way James I have no idea why my profile pops up as a border collie?!!! but big Maxy would definitely only need one bite!

  5. These sound delicious, am going to make some and will splice in some black pudding and chutney too!

    As for the word “canopes” I agree.

    How about “taste bites” !!!

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