Kwek Kwek Recipe

Kwek kwek is a famous street food in the Philippines. It is an egg covered in orange batter and then deep fried. It is sold on the streets along with fishballs, cotton candies, squidballs, kikiam, and calamares. In Manila, kwek kwek is commonly referred to as “tokneneng“. Although both names refer to the same food, kwek kwek turns out to be a variation of tokneneng.

Kwek kwek is traditionally made with quail eggs, while tokneneng is made with chicken eggs. Because of their similarities, the two are often confused from each other. The name tokneneng is alleged to have come from the 1978 Pinoy ‘komiks’ Batute. From the main character’s language, tokneneng means ‘egg’ and kwek-kwek supposedly refers to bird chirps although it sounds more like a duck’s ‘quack’. There is actually no definite information on how these foods came to be.

It is made by dipping hard boiled eggs into an orange batter and then deep fried. It is then served with vinegar or sweet chili sauce as dip. You can usually find street vendors selling kwek-kwek or tokneneng from early noon until evening. These foods served as lunch, snack, or dinner for students and workers basically because it is cheap. You may get the impression that it is a poor man’s food because it is a street food, but like most street food, it is actually tasty and you will soon find yourself craving for it once in a while.

In this recipe, I used native chicken eggs but if you want the traditional kwek-kwek instead of tokneneng, simply switch the eggs with quail eggs. The process remains the same. Recipe for sauce and dip are also included.

Kwek Kwek Recipe

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Kwek kwek is traditionally made with quail eggs while Tokneneng is made with chicken eggs. It is served with vinegar or sweet chili sauce as dipping.

• Author: Pilipinas Recipes
• Prep Time: 5 minutes
• Cook Time: 5 minutes
• Total Time: 10 minutes
• Yield: 6 1x
• Category: Dessert
• Method: Fried
• Cuisine: Filipino

Ingredients

Scale 1x2x3x

• 6 pieces chicken eggs if cooking tokneneng or 18–20 pieces of quail eggs if cooking kwek kwek , hard boiled
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoon annatto powder (atsuete)
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 cups vegetable oil or any cooking oil

For dip (whichever you prefer)

For vinegar dip:

• 1 cup vinegar (you can use apple cider)
• 1/4 cup water
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt or more
• 1/2 teaspoon pepper
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 1/2 cup pipino (cucumber), diced

For sweet chili sauce:

• 1 tablespoon cornstach
• 1/2 cup of atsuete (annatto)
• 1/2 cup minced chili
• 1 cup water
• 3 tablespoon of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

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Instructions

1. In a pot with water, bring the eggs to boil until it is well cooked.
2. Remove the shells. Put cornstarch in a container and then dredged the boiled eggs.
3. In a mixing bowl, mix together all the dry ingredients (flour, salt, and pepper). Set aside.
4. Dilute the annatto powder in a cup of warm water, mix it well.
5. Pour the water with diluted annatto powder in the bowl of dry ingredients. Mix it well to create an orange batter.
6. Place all the quail eggs in the mixing bowl and coat it with batter.
7. Heat a pan and pour it with vegetable oil.
8. When the oil is hot enough, scoop the eggs from the mixing bowl using a spoon and deep – fry it. Make sure that each is coated with batter.
9. Remove the eggs from the pan in under a minute. Let it sit on a strainer to drain excess oil.
10. Serve with vinegar or sweet chili while still crispy.

For vinegar dip:

1. In a bowl, put all the ingredients one by one. Mix it well

For sweet chili sauce:

1. In a pan, mix all the ingredients.
2. Put it in medium heat while stirring continually until it turns reddish and thickens.
3. Put in a bowl and serve.

Notes

You can watch this video to see how to make kwek kwek using quail eggs.

Nutrition

• Serving Size: 1 piece
• Calories: 14
• Fat: 1 g
• Protein: 1 g
• Cholesterol: 76 mg