International (Thai Style) Scotch Eggs

This was originally going to be “Thai Style Scotch Eggs”. I had a hankering for Scotch Eggs and wanted to do something different. My idea was to use chicken and classic Thai aromatics for the casing. To write this, I thought I should find out about the origins of Scotch Eggs and try to find some Scottish linkage to Thailand. Then I could have written something witty to wrap my Scottish story in a Thai literary casing. So I did my research on Scotch Eggs and fell at the first hurdle.

Depending upon who you believe (Don’t believe me), Scotch Eggs are of North African, Yorkshire (England) or Indian origin. The Yorkshire story reads best of those I could find. But, I could find little Thai linkage with Yorkshire. Interestingly, the original casing was fish paste. The Indian egg recipe involved a paste of cooked mutton and spices and the North African version didn’t appeal much, being a wrapping of putrefied meat studded with cloves.

With my desk research done, it was off to the shops for my International Scotch Eggs ingredients for eight eggs.

Ingredients

• 12 medium free range eggs
• 16 boneless, skinless chicken thighs (free range, top quality)
• 3 or 4 stalks of lemongrass
• 4 cloves of garlic
• 5cm/2” piece of ginger
• 2 red chillis
• 1 tablespoon of soy sauce
• Half tablespoon of fish sauce
• A handful of fresh coriander
• A teaspoon of ground black pepper
• A teaspoon of salt
• Plenty of panko breadcrumbs
• Oil for deep frying

Chop finely or mince the chicken meat. My ancient (nearly as old as Scotch Eggs) Kenwood refused to mince the meat so I resorted to a food processor.

Don’t overdo the slicing or you will end up with a sludge.

Roughly chop the ginger, garlic, lemongrass and chillis. Add them and the fish sauce, soy, coriander, salt and pepper to a blender. Blitz to a fine paste.

With these ingredients, I think I’m OK calling this Thai style.

Add the paste to the chicken and combine by hand. Add as much cornflower as is needed to make the mixture very clawing.

I needed about half a tablespoon of cornflour to combine this mixture.

Boil eight of the eggs as follows. Bring a large saucepan of water to a boil. Add the eggs and simmer for six minutes. Pour off the boiling water and replace with plenty of cold water. Leave the eggs to cool completely.

Peel the eggs. If, like me, you are a less than proficient egg peeler, boil a couple of spares.

Take a small piece of the chicken mixture and fry it in a little oil. Taste it. If you want to, now is the time to adjust the seasoning.

Wrap each of the boiled eggs in chicken mixture. Beat the remaining eggs in a little water and pour onto a large plate. Put the panko on an adjacent plate.

This is the tricky bit. Don’t crush the egg.

Bring the “oil for deep frying” up to 180°C. Roll one of the eggs on the egg wash. Roll it in the breadcrumbs. Roll it in the wash again. Roll it in the breadcrumbs again.

You will need a bit of a production line here. It’s hard to not make a big mess.

Gently lower it into the hot oil. Repeat with another egg.

I managed to burn my fingers three times doing this. Be careful.

Cook until at least deep golden brown on the outside. The cooking time will depend upon the thickness of the chicken mix. Err on the side of caution. Don’t blame me if you undercook the chicken!

A great idea for keeping them warm and draining some of the oil.

Repeat the process until all the eggs are cooked. Keep the cooked eggs warm, on kitchen paper, in the oven (I used a muffin tray to support mine).

A nice gooey egg is important in my opinion.

Serve with a green salad and some sweet chilli sauce. I added some pickled mango. These may offend some “purists” who believe one must use pork sausage meat. But, my research pretty well proves that (almost) anything goes. These were delicious. Go international and try my Thai Style Scotch Eggs.