The Hairy Bikers on bbc 2 - making Scotch Eggs
Its on right now (20:12 BBC2 Tueday 12/01/2010)
no doubt it will be repeated...
but as Scotch Eggs have come up lately with Kavey fantastic looking mini ones... thought I'd post it..
Steve
Ps is Scotch isn't to do with Scotland.. its the cooking technique !!!
For those who can get it the series is available on BBC iplayer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00pzfr8/The_Hairy_Bikers_Mums_Know_Best_Picnics/
Oooh thanks for that, just fwded through to the scotch egg bit!
:)
I watched that show tonight. They can be quite entertaining can the hairy bikers.
Now I'm being forced to watch most haunted live...I have yet to see anything manifest itself live on national TV. What I would like to know is that if ghosts can walk through walls then why don't they fall through floors?
Didn't realise until I looked it up in my food directory that the scotch egg is probably a descendent of Indian Kofta!
Ghosts - depending on which field you follow tend to retrace their original paths, hence going through walls and such... even through floors should an old staircase be there etc...
Scotch Eggs - http://photos-f.ak.fbcdn.net/photos-ak-sf2p/v65/193/26/277701292/n277701292_264516_4089.jpg !!! lol
Well Kavey, its a nice tale suggested by Annette Hope (A Caledonian Tale.)
Supposedly kofta arrived in India with the Moghul emperors. They served nargisi kofta - spiced meat wrapped round hard-boiled eggs. To serve they were cut open and the egg centres reminded people of narcissus flowers,
As to when and how it arrived in Scotland isn't really clear except the first printed recipe for 'Scotch Egg' is in 1809 when the eggs were served hot with gravy as also described later by Mrs. Beeton.
there is a Persian dish where eggs are surrounded by minced lamb, and fried. I think the Indian dish/es came from this.
I think nargisi kofta uses palak to simulate the leaves of the plant as well.
There are so many versions of Nargisi Kofta in India that it is impossible to know which is the original version. As the name ?Nargis? is a direct Hindi/Urdu translation of the word Narcissi (flower), see http://rajouri.nic.in/wild/wildflowers_files/image001.jpg , a boiled egg surrounded by mince meat/vegetarian covering, seems to be most logical Nargisi Kofta. The word ?Nargisi? means ?like Nargis?. If you cut open a meat and egg kofta, the yellow of the hard boiled egg surrounded by the hard egg white, does look a little bit like the Nargis flower. lapis is right, its origins were probably in the area around Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh, the heart of the Nawabs of Awadh (Oudh, Oundh), whose rich cuisine was legendry. They employed cooks from all over the wordl, specially Middle East and their cuisene is directly influenced by them.
I grew up in Uttar-Pradesh and a spent a large amount of my youth (upper school and college years) very near to Lucknow, in a place called Kanpur (Cawenpore in British times). My elder sister lives in Lucknow and every time I visit her, I am taken to at least one good vegetarian restaurant. Nargisi Koftas are always on the menu, they have always been popular in vegetarian restaurants. Vegetarian Nargisi koftae (koftae is plural of kofta in Hindi) are made from all sorts of vegetables, most commonly bottle gourd, and served in a rich, creamy, aromatic, spicy sauce. In fact, any nice kofta curry in a rich, creamy sauce is often described as Nargisi kofta in Indian restaurant menus in Uttar Pradesh. The recipe I have here, from my other sister?s cook of a while back, is a vegetarian one.
There were many, many Scots in India during the empire, especially in building big factories, railways and irrigation canals etc. It is very likely that they brought the recipe back from there and adjusted it to their taste. because they brought it, they named it Scotch egg. It sopund logila, even if incorrect ;-)!
By the way, I have a recipe by Gill Cox here, Fish Scotch Egg, where eggs are made with a fish covering. I am thinking of trying to make them with a vegetarian covering and I hope I get around to it one day soon!
I'm Scottish, and hope never to see a Scotch Egg for the rest of my life! Bad memories.
Ohhh Phil..... There are Scotch eggs and there are Scotch eggs! I remember those insipid things served at school with the rather unattractive black area between the anaemic yolk and rubbery white. Never found a chick inside but would not have been surprised.
And then there is the vibrant free range egg enveloped in a proper traditional butcher's sausage meat with a lovely well seasoned crunchy coating. Give it another go!
Hi Winton
It's like fish kedgeree, which I was forced to eat at school, and which was so disgusting that it made me vomit. it was only through this website that I found it had Indian origins, but I still can't bear to try it (and i'm not at all squeamish about food).
But then, I'm always complaining about people who had one bad mussel and then refused to eat mussels thereafter, so there's an element of inconsistency here.
I'd have to muster up the courage!
Phil
Hiya Phil
Me too - I am totally open to trying any food, not squeamish at all. Agree however that school food can leave you scarred for life, My particular qualm is custard. I know properly made it is probably delicious but no thank you!
Custard: tell me about it! Horrible memories of it.
But I've had very delicate versions of it here in France, where it's called 'cr?me anglaise', and the Italians hav a version which I think is called zabaglioni.
Still, I'm not sure I could bring myself to having a go at it myself.
Sainsbury's 'Treat yourself' range one is quite nice I think, made with proper vanilla pod and not 'yellow' coloured, as the normal ready-made ones are.
I made my own custard as an experiment a few months ago and it came out very well... no double boilers either !... Its a much cleaner taste than the premade stuff..
Steve
We made our own custard too, from a recipe in a Michel Roux book I was reviewing. No double boilers. Came out very well indeeed.
A tiny touch too sweet for me BUT we made it as the base for an ice-cream so that was actually perfect.
http://kaveyeats.blogspot.com/2009/11/christmas-pudding-brandy-custard-ice.html
Looks great kav. I thought you didn't like Christmas pudding?
mum
I have always loved Christmas pudding.
Neet doesn't like it, I think.