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Moorish Scotch Eggs with Tomato Cumin Salsa on Cous Cous

While scratching around for something to make this evening I noticed the large amount of minced beef in the freezer and felt I should use some of it, however the usual choices for mince dinners weren’t doing much for me, so I branched out and made a variation of Scotch Eggs, with a decidedly North African bent.

Once I’d decided on that, I was only left with working out what to put with it. Since I’d planned to go vaguely North African in flavours, I went with a simple tomato salsa with chickpeas and cumin, on a bed of fluffy cous cous. To spice it up, Zhoug and Red Harissa were made available, as was greek style yoghurt.

The result was quite pleasing and definitely rates as a success as even the three year old tucked into it (minus the zhoug and red harissa).

h2. Ingredients

h3. For the Scotch Eggs

* 5 large eggs
* 400 g of beef mince (although you could use lamb/mutton instead)
* 1 teaspoon of Baharat
* another egg (for beating)
* some flour
* some breadcrumbs
* oil for deep frying

h3. For the Salsa

* 1 large onion, diced finely
* 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
* 1 small can of chickpeas (garbanzo), drained
* 1 can of roma tomatoes, crushed
* three quarters of a teaspoon of cumin seeds, dry roasted and ground
* salt and pepper

h3. For the Cous Cous

* 1 cup water
* 2 Tablespoons of olive oil
* 1 teaspoon of salt
* 1 cup cous cous (medium grain)
* 2 teaspoons of butter

h2. Method

This is mildly fiddly, just so you know.

In a saucepan, place the five large eggs and a little salt and 3/4 fill with cold water. Cover and place on high heat. When it starts to boil, set your timer for 10 minutes. I hard boil my eggs in this way to avoid shell cracking that is far too frequent if you put cold eggs in already boiling water.

While the eggs are boiling, pass your mince through a mincer. Yes, I do indeed mean that you should re-mince the minced meat. This will provide a finer grade mince, that will bind together in a more satisfactory way when we come to coat the eggs.
Mix into the twice minced meat one teaspoon of Baharat.

Once the 10 mins is up, remove the pan from the stove and place under running cold water (don’t forget to remove the lid, and don’t ask why I felt the need to mention this). After a minute or so, the eggs should be cool enough to peel, do so, discarding the shell, and place the eggs aside.

Divide the mince into five equal portions.

Now for each egg, take a portion of meat and flatten it out. Take an egg, place the middle of the flattened meat on top of the pointy end of the egg, and mould the rest of the meat around the egg. Massage it a little to get a seamless layer of meat over the egg. Set aside. repeat…

Once all the eggs are coated in meat, prepare the salsa.

In a saucepan (possibly the same one you boiled the eggs in, after a quick wash), sauté the onion in a little olive oil. Add the chickpeas, tomatoes and garlic when the onion is translucent. Dry roast and grind your cumin seeds and add them with the salt and pepper to the saucepan. Stir, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally.

Now back to the eggs. Heat the deep frying oil in you deep fryer to setting 8 (3rd highest setting).

Roll the meat coated eggs in a little flour.

Beat an egg with a teaspoon of water in a small bowl. Roll the floured eggs in the beaten egg and then immediately roll in the breadcrumbs. Set aside.

Start preparing your cous cous, and check the salsa, if it’s too runny increase the heat a little bit to reduce it off. Boil the water for the cous cous with the olive oil and salt. Once boiled, remove from the heat and stir in the cous cous. Cover and allow to absorb the water for 2 to 3 minutes.

At this stage, place your crumbed eggs into the deep fryer. If the oil does not cover them completely don’t forget to turn them no more than 30 seconds after entering the hot oil. Turn again after about a minute or so, or as required to cook evenly.

After the absorption time, fork the butter through the cous cous, over very low heat, for about 3 minutes. Sometime around then (or just before) the scotch eggs will be done (they’ll be a brown colour, crisp and the meat will clearly be cooked). Remove, drain and place on a wad of paper towel to absorb any excess oil.

If you’ve timed it well, the cous cous, eggs and salsa will all be done now. Serve out the cous cous, top with salsa and place the egg in the middle. Garnish with zhoug, red harissa and yoghurt.

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posted to Australian,Moorish,Recipes @ 10:53 pm

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Strawberry Pudding Flan | home | Roman style Lamb