One thing that amazes me is that you can never buy a half decent scotch egg in a supermarket, they are all the same insipid, plain, flavourless, dry, grey egg filled balls of rubbish. Contrary to belief the Scotch egg has nothing to do with Scotland and was supposedly invented by fortnum and masons in 1738, why it is named after the country I have no idea. This recipe is a world away from the supermarket variety and once tried you will never look back at a shop bought one again! The key to this recipe is buying the best ingredients you can afford, please don’t buy cheap and nasty sausages otherwise you may as well not bother, and use free range eggs, trust me it’s worth it!
Ingredients
(makes 4)
- 300g sausage meat (buy your favourite sausages and remove from skins)
- 4 large free range eggs
- 1tbsp fresh parsley
- 1 and 1/2 spring onion
- 1/2 tsp sage
- 1tsp fresh thyme
- freshly ground black pepper
- pinch of salt
- 1 beaten egg
- breadcrumbs
- 2tbsp seasoned plain flour
Method
1. First thing to do is hard boil your eggs, place them in a pan of cold water and bring to the boil, once boiled leave to simmer for exactly 9 minutes. Place in a bowl of cold water and leave. Next remove your sausage meat from their skins and place in a mixing bowl, add the parsley, thyme, spring onion, sage, a good 5 turns of the pepper mill and a good pinch of salt, mix well with your hands until the mixture is well combined.
2. Take your hard boiled eggs from the water and peel off the shell. Now divide your sausage mix into 4 equally sized balls, then with the palm of your hand flatten each ball until it’s around 5-7 inches in diameter and roughly the thickness of a pound coin.
3. Now take your hard boiled eggs and roll in the seasoned flour and pat off any excess. To make each egg, place in the centre of the flattened sausage meat and fold up around the egg. In the palm of your hand begin to work the sausage mix around the egg until it is completely covered and well sealed.
4. Pre heat a deep fat fryer or a pan of oil to 180ºC. Now take each of your sausage coated eggs and dip into the beaten egg, roll in the breadcrumbs and gently pat until you get a good even coating all over. Place your scotch eggs into the hot oil and fry for 8-10 minutes until golden brown. Drain on kitchen paper and leave to cool completely. Serve with ice cold vintage cider.
