Ishtar's Eggs

Scotch Quail eggs in a filo nest.

You would never guess by looking at the images of white drifts, the snow covered landscape up and down the country and watching the thermometer mercury flatline that we've just passed one of the calendar's major annual punctuations - the spring equinox and that we are rapidly heading for Christianity's most important one.. the Eastertide festival. You would also never guess in less than two days time we will be pushing our clock and watch hour hands forward by one unit. All of the above are generally considered to be indicators of warmer weather, longer days and a general ushering in of a welcome and eagerly awaited seasonal metamorphosis. Despite the extreme low temperatures and stubborn persistence of wintry conditions though familiar Easter symbols of resurrection, renewal, rebirth, fertility and fecundity have made their appearance.

One theory has it that Easter was originally the celebration of Ishtar the Assyrian and Babylonian goddess of fertility and sex. Her symbols were the egg and the bunny but Christianity hijacked much of her paraphernalia and so the egg became associated with Jesus Christ and the resurrection of the body. The egg is still a potent symbol but these days are invariably made from chocolate and no doubt we will all be tucking in this weekend!


Here at incredibly Fed we put our heads together to come up with an appropriately seasonal post for our blog which you might enjoy. Well here it is... Scotch quail Eggs. We have put them in a nest of filo pastry which is edible lined with dried nori seaweed, also edible.

They are easy and quite fun to do. Boil quail eggs for several minutes, shell and leave to cool. Remove the skin from good quality sausages and combine filling. Wet your hands to prevent the sausage meat sticking to them and take enough to cover one egg generously and flatten out. Cover the egg making sure it is sealed in all around. Dip the covered egg in beaten egg and roll in breadcrumbs. Deep fry for several minutes until golden brown! Serve with your favourite pickle!




Posted by incredibly fed