Here's how to make scotch eggs by Tim Anderson, MasterChef winner.
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00:00Hi everybody, I'm Tim Anderson.
00:02I run a restaurant in Brixton called Nanban.
00:04I also wrote a book called Nanban.
00:07It's all about what we call Japanese soul food.
00:11So that's quite lovely, hearty, comforting Japanese food as opposed to your lighter,
00:16delicate Japanese food.
00:18And today, I'm going to show you how to make a scotch egg.
00:21But not just any scotch egg, this is actually the third best scotch egg in London.
00:26And that's true.
00:27It's won third place in the scotch egg challenge this year.
00:32So it's a damn good scotch egg.
00:38So this scotch egg is not strictly traditional.
00:40I wanted to incorporate some flavors from our ramen that we do at Nanban.
00:46And the egg itself is very flavorful.
00:48I'll show you how to do those later on.
00:50But we're going to start with our mince mixture first.
00:52So we've got some pork mince here.
00:55Try not to use anything too lean.
00:57You have to cook this for quite a while.
00:58It tends to dry out if you get mince that's too lean.
01:01So get a nice fatty pork mince.
01:03Start with that.
01:04And I've got some spring onions.
01:07Just a couple of them.
01:08So we're going to finely slice.
01:12And we've got some garlic.
01:20Lots of it.
01:21About nine cloves.
01:22Because that garlicky pork flavor is what makes ramen so delicious.
01:28So we're going to just roughly chop this.
01:32All right, that'll do.
01:40So that all goes into the pork mince as well.
01:48Then we've got some bamboo shoots.
01:50So bamboo shoots, really interesting flavor I think.
01:54Really essential in ramen.
01:55Very, very savory.
01:57Hard to describe really, but really nice.
01:58It works beautifully with pork again.
02:00So we're going to roughly chop these as well.
02:03This will help keep the mince nice and juicy as well.
02:05There's a lot of water in the bamboo shoots.
02:11All right, so then we're going to season this as well.
02:15Salt.
02:17Plenty of salt.
02:19And white pepper.
02:22I always use white pepper.
02:24I don't really know why.
02:25If you like black pepper better, that's fine.
02:27I just think the flavor works really well with pork.
02:30And then we've got one very special ingredient.
02:34Not very Japanese at all.
02:35Not very Japanese, but being in Brixton, we use a lot of these.
02:40This is a Scotch Bonnet chili.
02:42Find them all over Brixton Market.
02:45They're very hot, so be careful.
02:47But they're really, really delicious.
02:48They have a fantastic sort of full-on fruity flavor.
02:51We're going to use just half de-seeded because they are very, very punchy.
02:56A little bit goes a long way.
02:58And remember, after you handle Scotch Bonnets or any spicy chili, to wash your hands, especially
03:03before touching your eyes.
03:05So this gets very finely sliced.
03:08And then chopped up.
03:09Because what you don't want is getting a big mouthful of this in the pork mince.
03:13You want to have it nice and evenly distributed throughout.
03:17So that goes in, and oh my god.
03:20Even the smell of that is spicy.
03:21I don't know how, but it is.
03:23It's just fantastic.
03:24I love Scotch Bonnets.
03:26So that's our pork mince, which we're going to mash up, work everything through.
03:31We've got lots of spring onions, lots of bamboo shoots, lots of garlic, salt, white pepper,
03:37and that fierce little Scotch Bonnets chili.
03:41This is going to be really good.
03:44So that is nice and mixed well.
03:48Next we have to wrap it around our eggs.
03:50So almost every ramen dish we do at Nanban is a soy marinated egg, an aditama.
03:57They're very easy to make.
03:58We've made ours ahead of time.
03:59But basically they're boiled eggs, and we always boil them for 6 minutes and 20 seconds.
04:04That's from a fridge cold temperature.
04:06And they're small eggs.
04:07So if you're using large eggs or eggs that are at room temperature, you have to adjust
04:10the boiling time accordingly.
04:12So just bear that in mind when you boil eggs.
04:14And also you can make it runnier.
04:15You can make it less runny, however you like it, just by playing with those timings.
04:20I like this consistency for a Scotch egg so that it's not too runny, but you get a nice
04:23gooey center in that yolk.
04:25These get marinated in soy sauce, rice vinegar, and mirin, which is a sweet cooking sake for
04:32a day.
04:33And they become this lovely brown color.
04:36They have so much flavor, it's amazing.
04:38So the way you make these into Scotch eggs is you grab some of your mints and you sort
04:44of first shape it into a kind of meatball, flatten it out into a nice big patty like that.
04:53Take an egg, sort of wrap the mints around it.
04:57Make sure it's really well covered and there aren't any gaps in the mints because then when
05:03you fry, that gap will widen and you'll end up frying that egg directly, it'll be exposed.
05:07Alright, so that's how you start with a Scotch egg.
05:13And you just repeat for the rest of the eggs.
05:19Alright, so there's our eggs wrapped in mints, ready to be pan-coed and then deep-fried.
05:35Okay, so we've got our lovely marinated eggs all wrapped in that very flavorful pork mints.
05:40Now we're going to bread crumb them.
05:43So it's a standard pan-a-job, eggs, beat these up.
06:01We've got some strong white bread flour.
06:04You use plain flour as well, that's fine, but for some reason strong flour just seems
06:09to make a better adhesive when you pan-coe and also it seems to have a better crunch.
06:13I don't really know why, but that's just what I've found.
06:16So we're going to start with the flour, then the egg.
06:24Let the egg sort of sit in that egg for a little while, so that the egg really soaks into the
06:30flour and forms a kind of glue, alright.
06:38Then the egg goes into panko and gets tossed through.
06:43Panko, by the way, is Japanese breadcrumbs.
06:46They're coarser, they're flakier, and I think just better generally than your average breadcrumbs.
06:52You can get them at any Asian supermarket, some of the big supermarkets have them these
06:55days as well, but if you can't get them, normal breadcrumbs are just fine.
07:00There we go.
07:02Four lovely panko-coated pork-wrapped scotch eggs, ready to be deep-fried.
07:10Alright, so we're going to deep-fry these scotch eggs.
07:13A few safety tips first, first of all, when you're deep-frying at home, use a big deep pot.
07:19You want the sides of the pot to come up several inches above the surface of the oil so in
07:23case it bubbles up, it doesn't overflow.
07:26This is especially important if you're using a gas hob with an open flame because I've seen
07:30it happen when oil overflows onto a flame and it just turns into a column of fire, basically.
07:35So be careful.
07:36Also use a thermometer.
07:38With these in particular, because you have to cook them kind of carefully.
07:41It's not difficult, but you want to cook them at a precise temperature because you need
07:45to cook the pork all the way through without cooking the egg anymore because we already
07:48cooked that exactly how we want it, nice and gooey yolk in the middle.
07:52So I've got a thermometer here.
07:53This is just a candy thermometer.
07:55You can use a probe thermometer as well.
07:57Obviously, if you have a deep fryer at home, you can use that with a built-in thermostat.
08:02We want this to be at about 160.
08:03It's a bit high right now, but the temperature will come down when drop the eggs in.
08:08So we are going to go for it.
08:11Carefully lower these into the oil.
08:19And they're going to cook for about eight minutes.
08:25So these eggs have been cooking for about eight minutes.
08:31And they're looking amazing.
08:34They're looking like that.
08:36Nice, rich, deep golden brown.
08:38If you have a probe thermometer, a meat thermometer, now is the time to use it.
08:44You just want to stick it into the mince itself, not into the egg, and it should read about
08:4760 degrees at least, 65 if you're being safe.
08:51Certainly no less than 55.
08:53That would be very rare pork, which is not nice.
08:58Whoa!
08:59Nearly lost one.
09:02Yeah, we'll lift these out.
09:04Drain them on a paper towel or a rack.
09:08So like any meat, you do want to let these rest for a bit because right now, all the juices
09:12in that meat is racing around.
09:14It's all boiling and crazy.
09:15If you cut into it now, it'll all just leak out onto the plate.
09:18So let these sit for at least five minutes.
09:20Let them cool down.
09:21Actually, these will be fine, actually, at room temperatures.
09:24You can let them cool down completely, make them ahead of time, serve them as a snack.
09:28Have them with beer.
09:29They're amazing.
09:30But they are really, really good when they're hot and fresh.
09:33But do let them rest.
09:34And then we slice and serve.
09:36Okay, so the eggs have been fried.
09:38They're all lovely and boxy brown.
09:40And now they've rested, so it's the moment of truth.
09:45Oh, yeah.
09:48That is a thing of beauty.
09:50I'm very happy with that.
09:52And you know it's going to be good just by looking at it.
09:54It's got literal layers of flavor.
09:55It's got the crunchy crumb.
09:56It's got the juicy meat with all that garlic and spring onion and chili and bamboo.
10:01And it's got the lovely soy marinated egg and the yolk itself.
10:05Mmm.
10:06I mean, this is fine as is.
10:09There's so much flavor.
10:11But we always serve it with a little bit of tonkatsu sauce.
10:17That's Japanese brown sauce.
10:19But anything that's kind of sweet and tangy like that would work.
10:23Normal brown sauce.
10:24Bit of ponzu citrus soy dip or hot mustard.
10:28English mustard would be great.
10:29It's a pub snack after all.
10:31But it's quite the pub snack.
10:41Nice.
10:42Alright.
10:43Thanks, guys.
10:44Thanks.
10:45I'm not sure.
10:46Gonna go get around.
10:48I'm gonna do it for the Christmas tree.
10:49I'm gonna do it.
10:50Good to see you next time.
10:51I hope you do it for a few years.
10:53It's gonna be a pleasure.
10:55If you know you're doing it for the first time...
10:56Every time once again...
10:57... the morning, just when you're doing it for you...
10:58A beautiful little bit, very warm.
10:59Good to see you next time.
11:00The morning, just on Sunday, the morning, the morning, the morning, and the morning.