Heston Blumenthal's Scotch Eggs

 

After a long weekend of eggs generally not of the nutritious sort, I thought I'd start this week off with an egg-classic. The lovely man and I (soon to be the lovely husband!) have been watching How to Cook Like Heston recently, and really enjoying it. Focusing on one key ingredient per episode - eggs, chocolate, chicken etc, he shows generally fairly simple techniques to get the most out of your ingredient.
Scotch eggs are something I've never eaten, but always been intrigued by - looking like the perfect, all-in-one breakfast, I'm yet to view them in their British picnic-induced glory, but thought they'd be worth making regardless.
Traditionally the center is a hard boiled egg - but with Heston's twist, he tries to make a soft-yolk-centre. And of course, being Heston, he succeeds.

  

 I sadly, wasn't as lucky. My Scotch Eggs tasted great, and the center wasn't hard hard boiled - but it was still a few steps away from Heston's luxuriously gooey yolks. I think my timing was a little too generous in the boiling and baking stages - I'll definitely try them again to see if I can master it!
This recipe is a little time consuming - only because there are resting periods between each step - so leave yourself a good hour to make these from start to finish, and plan breakfast accordingly...

Heston's Scotch Eggs
Recipe from here
Makes 8

Ingredients

10 medium eggs

450g sausages (pork or breakfast) - meat squeezed from their skins

½ tsp smoked paprika

2 tsp cornflour

45g mustard

Salt and black pepper 

Plain flour

50g full cream milk

125g fine breadcrumbs

Oil, for deep-frying 

Method

Preheat the oven to 190ºC . Put 8 of the eggs into a pan in which they fit in a single layer. Add enough cold water to cover the eggs by 3cm and cover with a lid then place the pan over a high heat.

 

Once the water comes to a boil, remove the pan from the heat and allow to stand for 3 minutes. In the meantime, fill a bowl with ice and cold water and after the 3 minutes, transfer the eggs to the iced water. Leave to cool for 10–15 minutes.

 

Place the sausagemeat in a food processor with the smoked paprika, cornflour, mustard, and a splash of cold water. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper and blend together - alternately, mix the ingredients together in a bowl with a wooden spoon. Divide into eight balls, approximately 55g per portion.

Once the eggs are cool enough to handle, carefully peel off the shells and then flatten each portion of sausagemeat between two sheets of clingfilm into a circle, then remove the top layer of clingfilm. Place an egg in the centre of each sausage meat circle. 

 

Wrap the sausage meat around the egg, by bringing all of the edges together and twist the top of the clingfilm. Press the edges to seal but don’t press too hard. Place in the fridge for 20 minutes.

 

In the meantime, put some plain flour into a small bowl and season it with salt and freshly ground black pepper. Beat the remaining eggs in a second small bowl and stir in the milk. Put the breadcrumbs into a third bowl. Roll each coated egg in the flour, gently tapping off any excess, then dip it in the beaten egg. Finally, roll it in the breadcrumbs, making sure that all sides are coated. Place the eggs in the fridge for 15 minutes.

 

Heat a deep fat fryer to 190ºC or place a deep saucepan of oil over a high heat until it reaches this temperature.

 

Fry the Scotch eggs two at a time for 2 minutes until golden brown. Remove from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on a cooling rack over a baking tray. When all the eggs have been fried, place the tray in the oven for an additional 10 minutes. Serve immediately while the yolks are still runny.