This week, Roy has decided to tackle an old fashioned favourite which, made traditionally, is probably a heart attack waiting to happen. Scotch eggs are a traditional picnic food and have been made for many years throughout the British Empire. Basically, they are a hard boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat, rolled in breadcrumbs and fried in hot oil - not the health food of the nation! Roy loves the idea of scotch eggs, and was sure they could be done in a healthier fashion by baking. After a little trial and error and lots of combining of recipes, Roy has hit upon success. His were so good, he forgot to photograph the finished product before everybody ate them! So this week, Roy Creates Baked Scotch Eggs.
You Will Need:
- 4 eggs - Don't use very fresh eggs if you can avoid it, they are easier to peel if they are a bit older.
- 400 grams of good mince. Roy used 1/2 sausage mince and half pork and veal mince but you can use your favourite combination.
- 1 extra egg
- 1/2 a cup of fresh breadcrumbs
- A handful of chopped, fresh herbs or teaspoon of dried mixed herbs.
- Salt and pepper to taste
- 2 teaspoons of worchester sauce
- 1/2 a white onion and 1 clove of garlic, grated. Most scotch eggs don't use onion or garlic, but Roy thinks they are a bit bland without it.
- Dry breadcrumbs and 1 more 'extra extra' egg
- Cayenne pepper to add
Note: Roy made 9 Scotch Eggs, so he has a lot of mix and ingredients in the photos. He just doubled this mix to make lots of eggs though.
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and lightly oil a baking dish.
- First, you need to hardboil your eggs. Bring your eggs to room temperature and then put them into a saucepan, cover with cold water, add a pinch of salt and bring them to the boil. To avoid getting grey rings around the yolks boil them for 5 to 6 minutes from the time the water starts to boil, remove them from the heat and run them under cold water to stop them cooking. Don't worry though if they cook a little too long - the grey rings around the yolk won't change the flavour, they just might not look quite as pretty!
- Put the mince, onion, garlic, herbs, extra egg, salt, pepper, worchester sauce and fresh breadcrumbs into a bowl and use your hands to thoroughly combine. You want to work the mix until you can squeeze a handful of it and it stays together.
- Carefully remove the shells from the hardboiled eggs. You will need to be careful because they might still be a bit soft. If they are, don't worry - you will be cooking them again!
- Divide the mince into 4 balls about the same size.
- Take an egg and one ball of mince and carefully wrap the mince around the egg until you have a 'ball'. Roy found it was easiest to form a flat disc of mince, sit the egg in the middle and then wrap the egg like a present. Then, just gently work the mince to make sure the egg is firmly sealed in the meat. Repeat this with the other eggs and mince.
- Roy didn't use the extra egg to make an egg dip, as his crumbs stuck on the outside of his mince without. If your crumbs don't, or you want a thicker crumbed layer, lightly beat the extra extra egg in a bowl, quickly dip the scotch egg into it, and then roll in the dry breadcrumbs until they coat the egg.
- Bake your scotch eggs for 30 minutes or until the mince mixture is cooked.
- Eat the eggs hot or put them in the fridge to cool down and take them on a picnic!
- Don't worry if your scotch eggs look more like scotch puddings from sitting in the oven - they still taste great!
