These juicy morsels are good with drinks before dinner. But if you were to add a bit more cheese and use larger, portobellini mushrooms, you could serve a couple, with a little balsamic-dressed salad as a starter.

Alternatively you could do what Mary (see comments, below) has tried, which is a brilliant idea: “Made these and also did it with halved avocados, seasoned with smoked paprika, onion and garlic powder and fresh cracked pepper! Yummy”. Thanks so much, Mary.

Serves six

• 12 quails’ eggs
• 12 closed cup mushrooms – the larger the better
• 3 tbsps grated cheese
• 12 sprigs of parsley, roughly chopped
• Oil to grease, silicone paper
• Smoked salt and Indonesian long pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C
2. Prepare a baking sheet, use silicon paper if possible – and greasing well. If the egg white spills over it sticks like anything on the baking sheet and makes it hard to get off.
3. Choose the largest, biggest mushrooms and take out the stalk
4. Put about a teaspoon of cheese into each mushroom – it will be less for smaller mushrooms, just make sure you leave enough room for the egg – you don’t want it to overspill the borders of the mushroom cup.
5. Season and distribute most of the chopped parsley over the cheese
6. Crack (some people find the best way is to use a small, sharp knife to crack the eggs and then carefully pierce through the membrane beneath) one of the eggs into a smallish, thin lipped ceramic cup, drop onto a mushroom. Repeat for all eggs
7. Put in the oven for about 15 minutes, but check after ten. Don’t let the eggs overcook, the yolks should still be a little runny.
8. Sprinkle over the remaining parsley and serve

quails eggs and mushrooms recipe