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 in to 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.
01:56Hard to describe really, but really nice.
01:58Works beautifully with pork again.
02:00So we're going to roughly chop these as well.
02:02This will help keep the mince nice and juicy as well.
02:05There's a lot of water in the bamboo shoots.
02:10All 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.
02:23I 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.
02:36But being in Brixton, we use a lot of these.
02:40This is a Scotch Bonnet chili.
02:42Find them all over Brixton Market.
02:44They'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, deseeded.
02:53Because 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,
03:01to wash your hands.
03:03Especially before 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
03:12in the pork mince.
03:13You want to have it nice and evenly distributed throughout.
03:16So that goes in.
03:18And oh my god.
03:19Even 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.
03:25So that's our pork mince.
03:28We're going to mash up.
03:29Work everything through.
03:30We've got lots of spring onions.
03:32Lots of bamboo shoots.
03:34Lots of garlic.
03:36Salt 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.
03:47Next we have to wrap it around our eggs.
03:50So almost every ramen dish we do at Nanban is a soy marinated egg.
03:55An ajitama.
03:56They're very easy to make.
03:57We've made ours ahead of time.
03:59But basically they're boiled eggs.
04:00And we always boil them for 6 minutes and 20 seconds.
04:03That'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,
04:10you have to adjust the 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.
04:18Just by playing with those timings.
04:19I like this consistency for a Scotch egg so that it's not too runny.
04:22But you get a nice gooey center in that yolk.
04:25These get marinated in soy sauce, rice vinegar, and mirin.
04:30Which is a sweet cooking sake for a day.
04:33And they become this lovely brown color.
04:35They have so much flavor.
04:37It's amazing.
04:38So the way you make these into Scotch eggs is you grab some of your mints.
04:44And you sort of first shape it into a kind of meatball.
04:47Flatten it out into a nice big patty like that.
04:53Take an egg.
04:54Sort of wrap the mints around it.
04:57Make sure it's really well covered and there aren't any gaps in the mints.
05:02Because then when you fry, that gap will widen.
05:04You'll end up frying that egg directly.
05:06It'll be exposed.
05:07All right.
05:07So that's how you start with a Scotch egg.
05:12And you just repeat for the rest of the eggs.
05:16All right.
05:29So there's our eggs wrapped in mints.
05:32Ready to be pankoed 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.
05:42So it's a standard panne job.
05:47Eggs.
05:56Beat these up.
06:00We've got some strong white bread flour.
06:04You use plain flour as well.
06:05That's fine.
06:06But for some reason, strong flour just seems to make a better adhesive when you panko.
06:12And also it seems to have a better crunch.
06:13I don't really know why.
06:14But that's just what I've found.
06:16So we're going to start with the flour.
06:22Then the egg.
06:24Let the egg sort of sit in that egg for a little while.
06:27So that the egg really soaks into the flour and forms a kind of glue.
06:32All right.
06:38Then the egg goes into panko and gets tossed through.
06:43Panko, by the way, is Japanese bread crumbs.
06:45They're coarser.
06:47They're flakier.
06:49And I think just better generally than your average bread crumb.
06:52You can get them at any Asian supermarket.
06:53Some of the big supermarkets have them these days as well.
06:55But if you can't get them, normal bread crumbs are just fine.
07:00There we go.
07:01Four lovely panko coated pork wrapped scotch eggs ready to be deep fried.
07:10All right.
07:11So we're going to deep fry these scotch eggs.
07:13A few safety tips first.
07:15First 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.
07:23So in case it bubbles up, it doesn't overflow.
07:25This is especially important if you're using a gas hob with an open flame.
07:29Because I've seen it 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 with 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.
07:44Because you need to cook the pork all the way through without cooking the egg anymore.
07:48Because we already cooked that exactly how we want it.
07:50Nice 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.
07:58Obviously, if you have a deep fryer at home, you can use that with a built-in thermostat.
08:01And we want this to be at about 160.
08:04It's a bit high right now, but the temperature will come down when drop the eggs in.
08:07So we are going to go for it.
08:10Carefully 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.
08:32And they're looking amazing.
08:34They're looking like that.
08:35Nice, rich, deep golden brown.
08:38If you have a probe thermometer, a meat thermometer, now is the time to use it.
08:43You just want to stick it into the mince itself, not into the egg.
08:46And it should read about 60 degrees at least.
08:4965 if you're being safe.
08:51Certainly no less than 55.
08:52That would be very rare pork, which is not nice.
08:57Whoa, really lost one.
09:01Yeah, we'll lift these out.
09:02Drain them on a paper towel or a rack.
09:07So like any meat, you do want to let these rest for a bit.
09:10Because right now, all the juices in that meat is racing around.
09:14It's all boiling and crazy.
09:16If 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.
09:25Make them ahead of time.
09:26Serve 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.
09:32But do let them rest.
09:34And then we slice and serve.
09:35Okay, so the eggs have been fried.
09:37They're all lovely and boxy brown.
09:40And now they've rested.
09:41So it's the moment of truth.
09:47Oh, 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.
09:56It's got the crunchy crumb.
09:57It's got the juicy meat with all that garlic and spring onion and chili and bamboo.
10:02Then it's got the lovely soy marinated egg and the yolk itself.
10:08I mean, this is fine as is.
10:10There's so much flavor.
10:13But we always serve it with a little bit of tonkatsu sauce.
10:17That's Japanese brown sauce.
10:20But anything that's kind of sweet and tangy like that would work.
10:22Normal brown sauce.
10:24A bit of ponzu citrus soy dip or hot mustard.
10:29English mustard would be great.
10:30It's a pub snack after all.
10:32But it's quite the pub snack.
10:34There you go.
10:44There you go.
10:46There you go.
10:46In, there we go.
10:48Burke Cherry,