Ground Beef and Quail Eggs

I got the idea for this dish from a popular ulam (viand) served in Filipino carinderias (roadside eateries). It is basically menudo except that it is made with ground meat. In carinderias, the dish is usually garnished with hard-boiled chicken eggs which serve as an inexpensive extender. The size of the quail eggs seemed to me to be more appropriate for gound meat. Two dozens of quail eggs for half a kilo of ground meat were just right.

500 g. of ground sirloin (ground pork would be just as good)
2 large sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into 1-cm. cubes
1 large onion, peeled and roughly chopped
4 medium-sized tomatoes, roughly chopped
1/2 head of garlic, peeled and finely minced
2 bsps. of tomato paste
salt and pepper
4 tbsps. of vegetable cooking oil
24 quail eggs, hard-boiled and shelled
a handful of fresh basil leaves, finely sliced, for garnish

Heat the cooking oil in a shallow cooking pan (a wok is great). Add the sweet potato cubes and cook over high heat until lightly browned. Add the ground meat. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often.

Add the garlic, tomatoes and onions. Cook, stirring, for about a minute or until the vegetables start to soften. Stir in the tomato paste. Add the quail eggs. Cook for a minute longer.

Sprinkle with finely sliced basil leaves before serving.

Note: You can reduce the amount of vegetables to half and add cubed carrots. Diced bell peppers would be nice too. I would have added them all except I had none in the house when I cooked this dish for lunch yesterday.

By Connie Veneracion. From Casa Veneracion