My new blog!

Hello fellow foodies, cooks and friends, welcome to my new blog.

A little bit about myself before we start.

My name is Mathew Davis and i am a chef  from Cannock in Staffordshire. In 2006 i got all the way through to a quarter finalist place on  MasterChef . I hadn't been a professional chef before then but i have always enjoyed cooking. since appearing on masterchef i have worked in various kitchens and had a stab at running my own business (more about that in blogs to follow!)

In this blog i want to talk to you about the various ups and downs of dining out in and around my small midlands town. Hopefully you will find my experiences, both good and bad, informative and fun.

I will also be putting up some of my own tried and trusted recipes with pictures, methods and tips for making yourself at home. Some of these are so easy you'll wonder why you haven't tried them before and some of them need a little more skill.

I have recipes for any type of cooking method from traditional hob and oven to slow cookers, barbeque to microwave!

My first blog is a recipe for spicy mutton scotch eggs, its not too difficult but takes a little time. The results are so much better than shop bought and served with a nice salad and maybe some of your favorite pickle can make a good meal.

I have used a deep fat fryer for mine as i find them safe and controllable, you can pick one up from most supermarkets and places like B&M, Home Bargains etc. for around £20. I like to use beef dripping in mine as it lasts a long time, doesn't break down at high temperatures and you get a crispier finish but you can use vegetable or sunflower oil if you prefer.

Before we get started with the recipe a quick few words about mutton. It seems to have a bad reputation as a tough and somewhat unfashionable meat but it is gorgeous for slow-cooking and slow-roasting as the meat comes from an animal that is adult (over 2 years old. ) it has a more meaty flavour than lamb and you can bet the animal had a much better quality of life as it has lived longer. If you think you won't like mutton then i can tell you now if you've ever had a meat curry at your local Indian then chances are you have eaten it!

If you cant get hold of mutton mince then you can use lamb mince but please do try and seek it out. A proper butchers of any credit will be able to get you some in or you can go to Asian supermarkets where they always have it.

Right then, on with the recipe!

Equiptment:

Deep fat fryer with temperature control.

Digital probe (available on ebay- mine cost me about £3).

Egg timer ( available from virtually any pound shop, see photo ).

Large saucepan.

Rolling pin.

Greaseproof paper or cooking liner.

3 plastic mixing bowls.

Pestle and mortar

Ingredients: (to make 4 hearty scotch eggs).

Approx 500g/1lb of mutton mince
6 eggs (duck eggs if possible but hen eggs will do).
1 teaspoon crushed dried chillis.
1 teaspoon cumin, ground.
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon.
1 good pinch of sea salt.
A couple of twists of fresh ground black pepper.
A good pinch of dried parley.
A bit of a shake of garlic powder ( i have tried using fresh garlic but i prefer the dried stuff as it doesn't make the mince too wet.)
Approx 200g dry breadcrumbs or cracker crumbs (please don't use those horrible yellow breadcrumbs they sell in shops, they will burn in this recipe and ruin the finished dish.) The easiest way to make your own is to blitz up some cream crackers in a food processor or smash them up in a bag with a rolling pin.
 Plain flour (just enough for coating the eggs and the mince.)

Prep. Method:

 

Bring a large pan of water to the boil then add 4 eggs, drop in the egg timer at the same time.
boil the eggs till the eggtimer is saying medium.
take the pan off the stove and put under a running cold water tap immediately. Leave it there until the egg timer has gone back to red.

Put the mince in a bowl with the ground spices, about a tablespoon of the breadcrumbs, the parsley and salt and pepper. Have a good old mix round, do it with your hands so that you can get the spices nice and even throughout the mix.

Take the shells off the eggs.The best way to do this is to slap it gently on your work surface and roll it along, keeping a bit of pressure on with your hand, the shell will crack all the way round and it will be easier to take off. Rinse the eggs under the tap to get any stray bits of shell off.

Put the mince on a sheet of greaseproof paper or cooking liner, put another piece on top and roll it out to about the thickness of your little finger (if you have sausage fingers like me then roll it a bit thinner.)
cut out a piece of mince about 5 inches round ( you can use an empty round margarine tub or use a knife.)

Put about 2 tablespoons of the flour into one of your plastic bowls. Pop in one of the eggs and roll it round so its nicely coated. Don't throw the flour away as you'll need it later!

Place the egg in the center of your disc of mince and gently bring up the sides to cover the egg. There may be a bit too much mince so pull any excess off and put it back with the other mince. Be careful not to pull any holes in the mince, if you do just patch it up with a bit more.

When the egg is completely covered roll it in the palms of your hand to make it a nice round ball.

Gather the remaining mince together, roll it out again and repeat the process, not forgetting to coat the eggs in flour first.

Once you have 4 nice balls of mutton mince covered boiled eggs then you're ready to turn them into scotch eggs proper! ( us chefs call the next steps to "panne".)

In your second plastic bowl beat 2 eggs and put your remaining breadcrumbs in a third bowl.

Now this is the messy bit!

Put one of your mince balls in the first bowl with the flour in it and shake it round so it is completely dusted.

Then put your coated ball into the bowl with the beaten eggs and do the same, making sure the egg
covers the mince all over.

Gently remove the ball and drop into the bowl with the breadcrumbs. Give it a good old shake so the crumbs stick to the eggs all over.

Put the ball back into the egg wash bowl and re-coat.

Finally return the scotch egg back to the breadcrumb bowl and shake round till its completely covered a second time.

Repeat the "panne"-ing for the other three mince balls.

Now, i'm afraid, we play the waiting game!

The scotch eggs need to go into the fridge for at least an hour so the "panne" sets. Don't be tempted  to skip this stage or else all of your hard work will be for nothing, and you will cry, as your breadcrumbs simply float off the mince balls when you fry them ruining the crispy coating and making a mess of your fryer (trust me i have made that mistake myself!).

Cooking method:

Switch on your fryer and set the temperature to 170 degrees c. ( I would advise using your digital probe to check the temperature more accurately as the dial on the fryer can be a bit vague).

When the fryer is at temperature lift the basket,  place a scotch egg in and lower it in to the oil.

Gently tip the basket back and forth a few times so the scotch egg rolls around, be careful not to splosh the oil as, i can tell you, it hurts a LOT if you splatter it on your hand! This will help prevent the mince of the scotch egg from splitting and letting oil into the middle.

Let the scotch egg fry for a couple of minutes and (again, gently!) turn it over in the oil so that it fries evenly.

Keep an eye on the coating as you will see it turn to golden brown. fry for approx 8 minutes, turning occasionally. You may still get the odd little split in the coating but don't panic as these are your own home made scotch eggs and a little bit of imperfection is a good sign of that to whoever you're serving them too!

After about 8 minutes  you need to check the internal temperature with your digital probe.

Lift the basket out of the fryer and stick your probe into the scotch egg, you want to get the temperature of the meat, not the egg inside so stick the probe in only as far as you reckon the internal wall of the mince is. With a bit of practice you can tell where that is by the feel of the probe going in. Don't worry if the odd bit of meat juice comes out, again these are your home made scotch eggs and a little bit of spilt meat juice is a small price to pay for not giving yourself or guests a dodgy belly from uncooked meat!

The temperature you're looking for is 73 degrees c.or above. If it comes up to that then you are done! they will continue to cook when you take them out of the fryer for a couple of minutes and the temperature will rise to about 80 degrees ( if you want to check that then probe again after they've been out of the oil for 5 minutes).

Repeat the frying process for the remaining 3 eggs, Serve them up and enjoy! If you want to eat them cold then let them cool down for half an hour or so then put them in the fridge.

Well, that's it then. My first recipe blog done. I hope you have enjoyed it and i hope you do make them. As with all cooking practice makes perfect and i have always said that a recipe is not a set of rules, it,s a set of guidelines, so if you want to add more or less or different spices. make them thicker or thinner or whatever then its up to you. please let me know how you get on and if you have any questions or you don't think I've  explained something properly then please let me know!

Watch out for my next blog next week where i'll be reviewing a local restaurant and there will be not one but two recipes ( you lucky people!)

happy cooking!

Mat.