Scotch Eggs Recipe

Aghhh…one of the heartiest,yummiest, and most satisfying things in life is home made scotch eggs. The eggs, laid by our very own chickens, are in abundance in the summer where long days of sunlight encourage laying. This can only mean one thing, it’s time to crank up the Scotch Egg Machine. It’ll take about one hour out of your day to follow this recipe but I guarantee it’s heaven on a plate.

Here’s what you’ll need.

• Sunflower oil.
• 7 Eggs – I tend to use eggs that are a few days old as I find the shell peels off more easily. These will be hard boiled for around 4 minutes. Retain 1 raw egg for applying the breadcrumbs.

For the mixture :

• Sausage Meat – 1 standard pack.
• 3 spring onions (or a medium red onion) – chopped
• a generous sprig of thyme
• lots of fresh chopped parsley – 2 tablespoons
• a splash or two of Worcester sauce
• Fresh or dried chilli – finely chopped
• a tablespoon of tomato puree
• salt and pepper

For applying the breadcrumbs

• 1 beaten raw egg
• a handful of plain flour
• a couple of handfuls of breadcrumbs – I buy a brand called Panco which seem to crisp up so much better than home made.

Instructions :

• Bring a pan of water to a rolling boil and then add the eggs and leave for 4 minutes. (Whilst boiling see step 2)Remove from heat and rinse in cold water. I tend to peel the eggs under the cold water too in order to speed things along.
• Whilst the eggs boil prepare for the breadcrumbing by : putting a handful of flour in a bowl, season the flour. Put two handfuls of breadcrumbs in a separate bowl. Finally add a beaten raw egg to a third bowl. Put them in the following order : flour,egg, breadcrumbs.
• Once eggs are off the boil and cooling prepare the sausage meat by mixing all the ingredients above. I just use my hands for this job. Here’s what it should look like :

• Heat the oil in a large frying pan, I put in around an inch of oil in so the eggs can shallow fry, you will need to rotate them a number of times so they cook evenly. Alternatively you could  immerse them entirely using a deep fat fryer. The oil should be hot enough to turn the breadcrumbs golden brown.
• Whilst the oil heats, take a handful of the prepared sausage meat and mould it around the egg. It should be moulded evenly around half an inch thick.
• At this stage you may choose to put the oven on to keep the eggs warm if doing in batches and to make sure the sausage meat is cooked through.
• Once you’ve done this it only remain to add the breadcrumbs as follows : roll the egg with sausage mixture applied in the flour completely, now do the same in the raw egg, finally do the same in the breadcrumbs. You want to get an even distribution of breadcrumbs on the egg.
• Add to pan and cook evenly on all sides for around 5 minutes.
• Check the meat is cooked through and enjoy !

Special thanks ought to go to our chickens, Kilo, Foxtrot and Charlie (yes that’s K,F,C in short).