GREAT EGGSPECTATIONS...
Boiled eggs wrapped in a sausage like coating
Then breadcrumbed and fried its worth noting
It's a savoury bite
As a main, a delight,
Or a perfect snack if you're out boating.
Scotch eggs. When I first started conjuring up a list of the best products that could be offered in my hypothetical vegetarian butcher shop, Scotch eggs were one of the more immediate items to pop into my mind. Odd really, as before giving up meat I could have counted on one hand the number I had ever eaten. Perhaps though, my more recent introduction to the mysterious world of Quorn meat substitutes (http://www.quorn.co.uk--more on this somewhat controversial substance later) and their highly addictive 'Mini Savoury Eggs' product is what has got me scrambling to find the very best vegetarian scotch egg recipes. What I have discovered is a much bigger and more varied topic than I had could have eggspected!!
Not only is there a supremely broad variety of possible ingredients that can make up the sausage component of a Scotch egg, whether meat or vegetarian, the eggs too offer some choice. Pickled or boiled, hard or soft, chicken or quail. They can be served hot or cold, as a main or a side, with an array of dipping sauces, and even on a stick! It seems the origins can't even be agreed upon with London store Fortnum & Mason claiming to be the inventor in 1738, others suggesting they are a merely a Scottish variant of the Cornish pasty or perhaps a remake of an Indian dish, Nargisi Kofta. One particularly clever company I have stumbled across has capitalised on all this diversity: The Handmade Scotch Egg Company Ltd. http://www.handmadescotcheggs.co.uk/
I had already chosen the recipe I wanted to follow when I started looking more closely at the amazing list of handmade scotch eggs these folks offer at their online shop. Here at my fingertips, a lovely diverse selection of freshly made vegetarian Scotch eggs...too tempting to pass up, too difficult to choose. Beans, nuts, garlic and parsley or peanuts, carrots, oats and marmite?!!! I ordered one of each. Its going to be an eggcellent week!
But delivery of my precious fresh cargo won't be until Wednesday and patience not being a virtue I really possess, I just had to crack on with this recipe. Admittedly I chose it not only for the simple list of ingredients and easy directions but for the pretty picture these Beetroot Scotch Eggs make: http://messinthekitchen.blogsite.org/2011/04/08/beetroot-scotch-eggs/. With Chef away for the evening I had my first stab at vegetarian Scotch eggs on my own, but I'm afraid it was far from the grand triumph I was hoping for...
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| baked or fried but not breadcrumbed! |
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| just not quite right.... |
Gorgeous colour but far too much moisture, I more than doubled the breadcrumbs needed and still didn't achieve a good consistency. On top of this they were missing the outer breadcrumb coating.
Here perhaps the recipe may be at fault for not mentioning this obvious step for novices like myself (though they have beautifully golden breadcrumbs in their photo so I'm sure it was intended!!). Not giving it a thought however I carried on. Again my fledgling instincts had me try baking a couple of them instead of frying to see if this would dry them out a bit...but alas, this was not a battle I was going to win. Cooked, they still felt a bit wet and had I accurately measured the soy this would likely have been different. Not entirely unpleasant, but with my ingredients improperly balanced and no breadcrumb coating the beetroot flavour was far too dominant, tasting more earthy and sweet than the meaty and savoury I would have preferred.
There is potential here though and with the right soy chunks I'd like another shot at this recipe, especially as the original burgers, but for now...
...the egg is in Chef's court.
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