Scotch Eggs (Baked)

By Accipiter

Summary

The SA Iron Chef contest chose eggs for its ingredient, so I decided very early on that I was going to enter scotch eggs. I'm crossposting my entry on the GBSFood Forum for the SAIC entry with GWS as a normal recipe thread so everyone can play along.

This is a variation on the traiditional method of preparing scotch eggs, so pay attention.

System Requirements

• 1.5 pounds ground pork
• 5 eggs
• Bread Crumbs
• Spinach Leaves
• Tomatoes
• Cumin
• Sage
• Onion Powder
• Salt
• Freshly Ground Black Pepper
• Olive Oil

Preparation

First step, you're going to want to hard-boil four eggs. Not five, not three. Four. I boil my eggs by putting them in cold water, bringing it to a boil, and boiling for 15 minutes. Once they're done, cool them appropriately. I usually drain the hot water from the pot, fill it with cold water, drain it, and repeat 4 times or so. On the last fill, I let the eggs sit.

While the eggs are boiling, take your pork, and mix in about a teaspoon of cumin, a tablespoon of sage, a teaspoon of onion powder, and a half-tablespoon each of salt and freshly-ground black pepper. Top off with a teaspoon of olive oil.

Mix your meat well, then wash your hands. Shell the eggs you've hard-boiled, and put them on a plate. Grab a chunk of the meat mixture, flatten it out, and put the egg on it. Wrap the egg with the meat until the entire egg is covered, adding bits of meat when necessary. Keep going until you've covered all of your eggs. One of mine ended up being a casualty of war.

Dust them lightly with flour, and put them in the fridge for about an hour.

Once the hour is up, get two bowls ready. Lightly beat your last egg in one of them, and dump some breadcrumbs into the other. During this process, pre-heat your oven to 400.

Take each meat-egg, roll it in the beaten egg bowl, then roll it in the breadcrumbs and set it aside.

Once you've rolled all three meat-eggs, prepare them to be shoved into the oven.

Scotch eggs are traditionally deep-fried, however I am without a deep fryer and baking is a healthier option anyway. Stick them in the oven and bake them for about 30 minutes, or until the pork is firm. If it's slightly pink, that's okay.

Once the time is up, pull them out and let them cool. I like to slice mine in half and serve them on a bed of spinach lettuce with sliced tomato on the side, sprinkled with garlic salt and pepper.