- 12 minutes ago
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.
00:27This won third place in the scotch egg challenge this year.
00:32So it's a damn good scotch egg.
00:37So 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, I'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, it tends to dry out if you get mince that's
01:01too lean.
01:01So get a nice fatty pork mince.
01:03Start with that.
01:05And I've got some spring onions, just a couple of them.
01:08So we're going to finely slice.
01:16And we've got some garlic.
01:19Lots 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.
01:36All right.
01:37That'll do.
01:39So that all goes into the pork mince as well.
01:48Then we've got some bamboo shoots.
01:51So bamboo shoots, really interesting flavor, I think, really 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, there's a lot of water in the bamboo
02:07shoots.
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.
02:23I 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, but being in Brixton, we use a lot of these.
02:39This is a scotch bonnet chili.
02:41Find 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 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.
03:16So that goes in, and 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.
03:31We've got lots of spring onions, lots of bamboo shoots, lots of garlic, salt white pepper,
03:37and that fierce little scotch bonnet 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.
03:49So, almost every ramen dish we do at Nanban is a soy marinated egg, an ajitama.
03:56They're very easy to make.
03:57We'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 the boiling time
04:11accordingly.
04:12So just bear that in mind when you boil eggs.
04:14And also you can make it runnier, you can make it less runny, however you like it, just by playing
04:18with those timings.
04:19I like this consistency for a scotch egg so that it's not too runny, but you get a nice gooey
04:24center in that yolk.
04:25These get marinated in soy sauce, rice vinegar, and mirin, which 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 and you sort of
04:44first shape it into a kind of meatball.
04:46Flatten 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.
05:02Because then when you fry, that gap will widen and you'll end up frying that egg directly.
05:06It'll be exposed.
05:06All right, so that's how you start with a scotch egg.
05:12And you just repeat for the rest of the eggs.
05:27All right, so there's our eggs wrapped in mints, ready 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.
05:55Beat these up.
06:00We've got some strong white bread flour.
06:04You use plain flour as well, that's fine.
06:06But for some reason, strong flour just seems to make a better adhesive when you panko.
06:11And 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.
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 breadcrumbs.
06:45They're coarser, they're flakier, and I think just better generally than your average breadcrumb.
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 breadcrumbs are just fine.
06:59There we go.
07:02Four 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.
07:16First 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,
07:35basically.
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 to cook the pork
07:45all 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.
08:11Carefully lower these into the oil.
08:18And 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.
08:35Nice, 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, and it should read about 60
08:47degrees 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.
08:59Nearly lost one.
09:01Yeah, we'll lift these out.
09:04Drain them on a paper towel or a rack.
09:07So like any meat, you do want to let these rest for a bit.
09:11Because 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 temperature.
09:24So you 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.
09:33And then we slice and serve.
09:35Okay, so the eggs have been fried.
09:38They'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.
10:01Then it's got the lovely soy marinated egg and the yolk itself.
10:06Mmm.
10:06Mmm.
10:08I mean, this is fine as is.
10:10There's so much flavor.
10:12But 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.
10:29English mustard would be great.
10:29It's a pub snack after all.
10:32But it's quite the pub snack.
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