Mini Scotch Eggs

I think I have food ADD. I love food, but I crave the variety. Maybe it's from growing up in an Asian culture - once you have dinners that involve a smorgasbord of different platters from which you can pick, you'll never truly go back to single plate dining.

But I digress.

Ever since the Beak and Sons launch I attended the other week, I had sausages sitting in my fridge, and really, we all know I don't just eat them straight if I had a choice. =)
Inspired by one of the canapés we had that night, I decided scotch eggs were in order.

Scotch eggs usually involve a hard boiled egg, wrapped in sausage meat, then coated and deep fried. Using sausage meat makes this super easy - you don't have to worry about seasoning and flavours, it's all done for you! All you have to do is pick out a good quality sausage.

My recipe is also for a soft yolk - I'm not a fan of hard boiled yolks, but you can simply boil the eggs for an extra minute and produce a hard boiled centre.

Mini Scotch Eggs
(Makes 12)

12 fresh quail eggs
6 good quality sausages (I used a pack of Beak and Son's Original Sausages)
2 tbsp plain flour
1 large egg
2 tbsp milk
1.5 cup breadcrumbs

Bring a pot of water to the boil. Make sure there's enough water - if the eggs aren't lowered into rapidly boiling water, or if the temperature drops, you're going to have a real problem trying to peel them.

Fill a large bowl with water and ice.

Once the water comes to a rolling boil, lower the eggs in and boil for exactly two minutes. Do this in batches if you have to. Once the eggs are boiled, remove them from the boiling water and plunge them into the ice bath.

Squeeze out the sausage meat from the casings. You'll need about half a sausage for each egg.

Carefully peel the eggs - I found that it was much easier if I paid attention to thoroughly cracking the tops and bottoms of the shells.

Then flatten out the sausage meat into the curve of your palm with your thumb. You want this as thin as possible without the meat falling apart.



Roll the peeled egg in flour - this helps it stick to the meat while you're trying to make the scotch egg - and place it in the middle of the sausage patty.



Pinch the edges firmly closed, and once it's tightly shut, gently roll it between your two palms till it resembles a little franken-meatball.



Beat the egg and milk together till it's a homogenous mixture - you can strain it if you want - and roll the meat covered eggs in the egg, then the breadcrumbs. Roll it again in egg, then breadcrumbs, so you have a double coated scotch egg.

Scatter some breadcrumbs on a tray, and lay the scotch eggs onto the tray.

Heat your oil to 180C, and deep fry the eggs in batches for about 3 minutes. Remove them and place onto a paper towel lined tray and rest for 5 minutes. It's really important that your oil stays at about a constant 180C - when the oil was too hot, the eggs browned too fast and resulted in raw sausage; when the oil was too cool the eggs had to stay in for too long to get the colour needed and resulted in an over cooked egg.

If you don't have a deep fryer - I don't - you can place oil (pick one that's suitable for deep frying - into a dry pot, and place it on the stove with a thermometer. Put it on medium heat and monitor the temperature with a thermometer. Once it hits 180C, put the heat down to low, and watch it. This really helps if you have a thermometer with a heat-proof top that can sit on the edge of the saucepan.

And there you have it - hot little crispy-skinned balls of goodness with an oozing yolk. How's that for yolk porn?

If you have issues finding quail eggs - I know I did - simply ask your local Asian butcher. Mine had heaps.