Munchkin Devil Eggs (Guilt-free)

Skewer the munchkin eggs with a braided pick and serve them on a bamboo canoe, they instantly bring an elegant style to your party table.

Egg is a very nutritional food, with its adorable appearance, devil egg becomes a popular appetiser. But the classic devil egg contains mayonnaise or salad dressing (usually more than 1 teaspoon in an half egg) which is entirely empty calorie, plus the cholesterol already inside the yolk, this appetiser can be a real devil.

Take it in moderation?... I wish I always could, especially in a party, the chat's so fun the wine's so lovely, can I just free myself and not to count how many eggs I ate?

So I've made this guilt-free version: the filling is chickpeas in spicy tomato sauce, with a touch of pomegranate. The (cooked) yolk won't go wasted, you can save them for making cookies, or add in a creamy sauce or in a cake batter.

I'm totally fond of the tiny size of quail egg, use it instead of classic chicken egg, stick a few together with a decorative pick, no party lover can stop at one!

Bamboo canoes and braided picks are supplied by restaurantware

To make the spicy tomato and pomegranate sauce:

(to me the sauce made from both fresh and canned tomatos is more delicious than that just entirely from fresh or canned)

This recipe yields close to 1 cup of sauce which should be more than you need for making the egg's filling, so you can freeze the left-over or combine it with your regular sauce for pasta or pizza)

• 2 fresh and ripped tomatos, peeled and diced
• 190 g tomatos in can, drained well
• a tsp of onion, minced
• 1 - 2 Tbp/s of tomato paste
• paprika
• 2 Tbps pomegranate juice
• veg oil

1. Drizzle little oil in a skillet, saute the onion over low heat for a minute, raise the heat a bit and add fresh tomato, canned tomato and tomato paste. Once the content is boiling, brings it to simmer for 15 minutes, you can add the pomegranate juice if it is too dry (but it shouldn't be too liquid-ty)
2. Turn off the heat, paprika (and may be very little salt) to taste. Let it cool off

To assemble Minchkin Devil Eggs

• 2 dozens of quail eggs (good enough for 6 persons as starter)
• a handful of cooked chickpeas in jar, drain very well
• spoonsfuls of tomato and pomegranate sauce
• for garnish: fresh/frozen pomegranate seeds, celery stalks and flat parsley leaves

1. Boil the quail eggs for 7 minutes. Once they're done, soak them in cold water for 2 miutes. Then remove the shell, use a very sharp knife to cut eggs into two halves, remove the yolks.
2. Puree the chickpeas very well.
3. Puree the tomato sauce very well too. (easy for piping)
4. Combine the chickpeas and tomato sauce, the ratio is totally up to you: more chickpea more creamier; more sauce more color more moist (my fav!).
5. Spoon/pipe the filling into the egg white.
6. Use a peeler to get very thin celery slices (soak them in lemon water until you're ready to assemble) . Put it through a decorative pick, then stick one munchkin devil egg or 2, top the eggs with parsely and pomegranate seed. Serve immediately

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------