Beet & Goat Cheese Sandwich

For the "Ultimate Sandwich" contest at work, I came up with this recipe. I wanted it to be many things - healthy, tasty, luxurious, and most importantly, unique. The first element came to mind was quail egg. It is petite and already captures all of the four things I was looking for and I knew it would be a crowd pleaser. It may be uncommon in the everyday diet in the states, but it is actually quite popular in Chinese cooking. I can think of a dozen ways to cook it into my family dishes. You can find it in a lot of the Asian grocery stores and I promise you'll love it once you try!

But the quail egg alone was not going to make a proper sandwich. I made a beet and goat cheese salad with roasted eggplant and dried fig as part of the deal. To make the sandwich special, I even baked my own honey roll. I was very serious about this contest! The final product was a platter of cute vegetarian sliders that got the "ultimate" title.

Here is how I made it -

Slider buns 24 pieces (homemade if possible)

Quail eggs 24

Japanese mayo 1 cup

Honey 2 tea spoons

Garlic 1 clove (minced)

Cooked beets 3 heads (diced into small pieces)

Roasted Eggplants 2 (diced into small pieces)

Balsamic vinegar 4 table spoons

Extra Virgin Olive Oil 1 table spoon

Dried figs 6 half pieces (diced into small pieces)

Chives 10 pieces (diced)

Goat Cheese 1 cup (crumbled)

Arugela leaves 48 pieces (2 for each bun)

Radish 2 heads (thinly sliced)

First make the spread:

Mix the Japanese mayo with the honey and garlic. Put aside while working on other steps. Time will allow the flavor to develop.

Then fried the quail egg:

cook it exactly like your regular sunside up egg, except it cooks faster since it is small.

Next make the beet and goat cheese salad:

Whisk the Balsamic and extra virgin olive oil together until incorporated. Add sald and pepper to taste. Toss the beets and roasted eggplants gently in a large bowl. Add in the oil mixture, chive and dried figs. Mix well. Finally add in the goat cheese and gently mix together.

Finally assemble the sandwich slider:

Take one piece of the slider bun, slice it open in the middle. Put on the honey mayo spread on top and bottom of the cut side of the bun. Put in one arugela leave and a few radish slices, then put in about 2 table spoons of the beet salad, top it with a piece of the fried quail egg. Add in another piece of the arugela and cover with the top side of the bun. Done!