Me! Me! Me!
I'd like to volunteer as a tester for all the various recipes people come up with.
It's been two years since we at El Reg's Special Projects Bureau brought hungry readers the last of our post-pub nosh deathmatches – a lively head-to-head featuring souse versus scrapple – and by popular demand we've decided to reheat the concept as part of Vulture Central's Weekend Edition. To recap, the idea was to present …
Our local butcher does a fine range of scotch eggs, all hand made by his missus (somehow managing to keep the yolks runny - a topic for further research by the SPB, I feel). The chilli ones are popular, but I agree that black pudding is the winner. I'm not sure about morcilla - fine foodstuff though it undoubtedly is, it can't compete with real black pudding, which must come from the mystic triangle, roughly between Wigan, Bury and Preston.
Personally, I don't like them 'runny' at the end, but do like them to be a bit 'gooey'
This works if you simply don't boil them.
When boiled, you get the gradient inside the egg (outside of yolk cooked, centre runny) - and if you cook them longer, you get completely hard-boiled.
If you turn down the heat, the whole things cooks as one.
Things like this http://www.lakeland.co.uk/3158/Egg-Perfect are quite nifty as it does show you the state of the egg.
But putting all of that aside.
Black-pudding works, but I prefer it not all black-pudding.
Biggest crime though was not serving the quarters with a bit of mayonnaise or aioli.
Still more cooking projects, please.
Still more cooking projects, please.
The pub I frequent has taken to having cooking projects presented of an evening. It makes for a particularly homely feel, with the whole pub getting fed on grub cooked by volunteers (contestants).
I've only been disqualified once :-)
Vic.
<cough> Being the son of Lancashire lass, I was brought up on the black pudding from the aforementioned triangle.
However, after moving to home of Scotch egg - and Scotch whisky, nothing - and I really do mean nothing - can match http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stornoway_Black_Pudding
One thing to mention - veggie haggis (Macsweens for preference) makes a good coating for Scotched Scotch egg (and veggie into the bargain)
Edit - hadn't noticed that other folk had preempted me. They're correct...
My brother makes them, although I believe his recipe involves bacon, then places in an insulated thingy. Apparently they're still warm and make the perfect breakfast after an hour's journey to Lords for a day of cricket and drinking with his mates.
He also claims they're much better warm.
This is one of their cricket watching traditions, along with ludicrously huge picnics, and finding a way to sneak giant gin and tonics into the ground.
This recipe is easy to cut in half if you're just cooking for you and yours.
1 Lb. Monterey Jack cheese, grated and divided
½ Lb hot (as in spicy) pork breakfast sausage
1 ½ C. Bisquick mix
1 Pkg. Shake and Bake for pork
15 med. to large fresh jalapeno peppers
2 eggs, beaten
Use your own judgement when it comes to wearing gloves to work with the jalapenos.
Slice jalapenos in half long ways and remove seeds & stem.
Stuff peppers with ½ the cheese and pinch closed around cheese
Mix remaining cheese with sausage.
Knead in Bisquick mix one-third at a time to make a stiff dough.
Knead several times.
Pinch off a bit of dough and pat into a flat pancake about 1/2” thick.
Place stuffed pepper in middle of each pancake and wrap completely with dough, making sure that all edges and ends are sealed.
Roll the dough covered pepper in your hands to mold into an egg shape.
Roll in Shake 'n Bake until coated.
Dip in beaten eggs and roll in Shake n' Bake again.
Bake at 300 F. for 20 to 25 minutes on cookie sheet.
Notes:
I don't roll mine twice in the Shake n' Bake. I think it puts too much of a coating on them. I simply dip in the egg and roll once in the coating.
If you like Sharp Cheddar it goes great as well.
Cream cheese is an interesting variation (but only for the stuffing).
Looks good and certainly worth trying, but a translation or two would be useful, so:
- I wouldn't even think of starting from a British sausage - too much bread and other fillers in it, but a pack of pork mince would be a good starting point. So, what goes into an American spicy sausage? i.e what should be mixed into pork mince? Chilli powder and black pepper? Garam Masala? Something else?
- what is Bisquick? Is this just a self-raising wholemeal flour or something more complex? I assume 'C' is an abbreviation for 'cup', so you mean 1.5 cups of Bisquick.
- Shake and Bake sounds like dried breadcrumbs, but how much of it is there in a 'package'?
Pork mince would be a good place to start and add the usual suspects; pepper and minced or powdered chilies (cayenne, ancho, chipotle, chilli powder works in a pinch but it often includes salt and other spices). Often breakfast sausage will include sage and sometimes garlic as well.
Shake and Bake is a simply a flavored/spiced flour mix for dusting/dredging it comes in a 5 oz. box. You could simply mix parts by volume: 32 flour, 4 salt, 4 paprika, 2 onion powder, 2 dry mustard, 2 garlic powder & 1 black pepper.
Over the years, a number of Scotchmen have informed me that the only thing the adjective "scotch" can be applied to is whisky. Obviously, as an Englishman, I consider that to be nonsense and object with eggs, mist, corner, butter, hop and many other examples of ancient English usage. But they are insistent.
So what's Carmen's take on this as a Scotchwoman? Do they call them Scotseggs in Scotland, or just eggs?
We call them Scotch eggs. Your Scottish friends were exaggerating. The ordinary adjective is indeed "Scots" or "Scottish", but "Scotch" is used in various traditional terms like the whisky and the eggs. It's quite likely gone out of fashion because of the sneering way some English people use it.
Is like your regular scotch eggs but with added calories!
For soggy bacon lovers, pre-cook bacon, wrap egg and then entomb in sausage meat. Suggest pre-cooking cos otherwise making sure bacon and sausage is cooked gets more complicated.
For crispy bacon lovers, wrap bacon around scotch egg and cook.
If you love your heart in an S&M way, wrap some cheese slices around the egg as well.
Tommorrow's challenge may involve an easter egg mould to shape the sausie meat, and make a 2-egg full English version.
You may need to revisit the name, otherwise females (and certain males) might file this in the same folder as "birthday blowjobs".
This is directly related to the source article as well; in certain bedrooms north of the border the phrase "git her gams roond these scotch eggs, hen" is quite common.
I am from NW Alberta, Canada, but I will take a chance on your questions.
I would suggest something like hot italian sausage (nominally a bratwurst?) would work for spicy pork sausage. In terms of being Texas-like, I would suggest a mixture of dried (and crushed) chillies. A person could use a single kind of chilli, but a mixture tends to have better flavour. I would include chipotle (smoked jalapeno) in this. Cumin.
I think garam masala would work, but I would give it a different name than Armadillo. Likewise, I think jerk seasoning would work (Jamaica Eggs?).
I was wondering about habbenero (or scotch bonnet) peppers myself. I've never had a ghost pepper, but that might work too.
Bisquick is a self rising flour, I don't think it is whole grain in any respect. I've added sourdough (mother) to Bisquick to get it to rise (instead of milk). I asked the manufacturer about this, and got back a snotty response about unapproved uses.
Yes, 1C would be 1 Cup.
Shake and Bake is a mixture of bread crumbs and corn meal (could be corn flakes?). It contains a variety of oils and other things (for binders). The box I have, has 2 bags of mixture in 152 grams of package.
No, in Canada and the USA, there is something called Hot Italian Sausage...its certainly not Chorizo. And sadly not something we have found as yet in the UK. Its basically ground pork (no fillers!) and seasoning. Here's a recipe - in which I assume the paprika is hot, not mild.
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/hot-italian-sausage/
Re the sausage the important point is that American (and chorizo, bratwurst etc) sausages are 100% meat plus spices. British sausages are usually 10% or so breadcrumb in them.
No, this isn't just to make them cheaper. It's so that the bread soaks up the fat as they are fried, keeping the flavour in.
They're made to be fried, the British sausages, not grilled etc like the other types.
I think it's also important that it's a ground/minced sausage rather than a coarse chop like you'd find in andouille and chouriço (which I assume is nearly the same as Spanish style chorizo which is almost impossible to get in the market as most all of it is Mexican style which is ground). Also, it should probably be raw/fresco and not dry/smoked sausage.
... the only one who's made my Scotch Eggs (I prefer baking them to deep frying) with pickled eggs (my own) instead of basic boiled - maybe I'm just the only one to admit it (blush).
I have to make them myself - you just can't get them in my bit of the land of the Maple... :-(.
Heresy, I know. But yummy, yummy heresy! :-)
One of my favourite post-pub delicacies is the fish finger sandwich. However I don't know if this is too simple for this. On the other hand, at least it's easy to cook when alcoholically advantaged.
They seem to be much nicer fried, but in the oven is less effort. And then it's just the choice of condiment. Ketchup, salad cream, tartare sauce perhaps?
Another, even easier, post-pub snack is cheese and biscuits. So long as you have large doses of port available, all other ingredients are optional. but I usually have nice cheese, savoury biscuits and fruit to hand. Did I mention the port?
I'm either unimaginative or lazy, I'm afraid.
According to the books, the national dish on the Isle of Man is spuds and herring. However, any local will tell you the REAL national dish is Chips, cheese and gravy, eaten after several pints and a few too many shots. It looks like it's already been eaten (at least once) before and then rejected and I'll admit I resisted trying it for many, many years. However, with a good slug of vinegar it really does taste amazing and is the perfect Friday night post-pub nosh.
You do get some strange looks if you ask for it at any chipper on the "mainland" though.
I don't really remember Chips, Cheese and Gravy being around until the late 80s whilst Wikipedia suggests Poutine has been around since the 50s in Quebec. I'd suggest they probably arose independently of each other. I haven't tried poutine but I'd imagine the use of curds rather than chip-shop grated cheddar would make quite a big difference to the taste - though they both look like pig swill.