As sunsets on beachy shore, blood red drops in orange jus, the sunrise in the tequila, so are the shades of beetroot cured salmon. Stunning, stunning and that again. Plated on white and with baby yellow, mustard dill sauce, meals turn into studies of colour and taste. For nor is this recipe style over substance. The beetroot adds a pleasant earthiness to the classic gravlax flavours of salt and citrus. The horseradish, just a hint of the harsh. The gin? Well, I just fancied a tipple. No, not really. I felt the botanicals and juniper would combine well with the lime and dill and, indeed, they do.

I hope you enjoy it - everyone I've served it to has! Serve with nice dense brown bread and a mustard & dill sauce (click here for the recipe), or even just alone or with a bit of lemon.

Recipe

Ingredients (makes 2 salmon fillets worth - half quantities for one fillet):

1 salmon (Ask your fishmonger to gut it for you and take its two fillets off. I'll tell you how to fillet it though below, in case you buy it whole like I did or get it from a generous fishing friend. It doesn't matter if it is scaled or descaled for gravlax). Use just one fillet too if you want to make less.
60g fresh dill, big stalks discarded and leaves chopped finely
7 tablespoons salt, sea salt best and finely ground
2.5 tablespoons of sugar
3/4 of a lime, diced
300g raw beetroot, grated
2 tablespoons gin
3 tablespoons grated horseradish

Method:
1. Fillet your salmon (skip ahead if you have done this): with a very sharp knife, carefully slice the salmon from tail to the head end about parallel with the gills. BE CAREFUL NOT TO PUT YOUR KNIFE IN TOO DEEP AND PUNCTURE THE GUTS. A sharp knife is key. Reach in and draw out the guts with a tug, discard. Take a teaspoon and scrape along the spine to remove the blood sac. Rinse out with a bit of water.
Chop the head off, just behind the gills. Place the fish with the spine side facing you and slice down the spine of the fish, cutting the top fillet off by sliding the knife in and along the top of the spine bones, following the natural line of them and making the cut in smooth, slices. Cut along like this to the tail and remove the top fillet. Turn the fish upside down and repeat with the other fillet. Done.
If making just one fillet's worth, cut the fillet in half (so you have two fat short pieces, NOT two long skinny pieces).
2. Take a plate large enough to hold the fillets and lay clingfilm over it. Mix the salt and sugar together. Mix the beetroot with the gin and horseradish. Lay the fillets side by side on the dish.
3. Scatter the salt, sugar mix down the middle of each fillet. Don't scatter it out to the edges - keep it in the middle fat bit, it will spread out to the thinner edges while it cures and if you place it on the edges it will over cure them.
4. Take half of the dill and scatter it all over one of the fillets so that all of the flesh is covered. On top of that place half the grated beetroot.  Then scatter the diced lime over it. Make sure the lime doesn't touch the flesh of the fish or it will make it go white as the acid 'burns' it. Keep it on top of the dill and beetroot. Then cover it with the rest of the beetroot, then the dill.
5. Place the 'undilled' fillet on top of the other one, flesh to flesh (skin on the outside) like a salmon fillet sandwich! Wrap the clingfilm up and around the fillets, forming a tight parcel and trying not to get any air in there. Take more clingfilm and wrap it even tighter. Put a second plate on top of the parcel and weigh it down with something.
6. Refrigerate this for 2 days. Expect leakage and drain this off about twice a day and turn it occasionally, twice a day to make sure the brine (formed by the salt and lime) cures the salmon evenly.
7. After 2 days remove the wrapping, separate the fillets and scrape off the beetroot, dill and lime. Slice diagonally in thin slices. Serve!!!

Scallops and black pudding- a classic combination. Almost as classic (and commonplace) as the classic scallops, peas, bacon combo that so often graces tables, TV screens and Come Dine With Me/Amateur MasterChef shows across the nation, if not world. Not to disparage it- pea, scallop and bacon go perfectly and are delicious, but I am just bored stiff now by it. The culinary equivalent of sitting next to Uncle Jeff at the Christmas dinner table, hearing about his job in IT.
I have tried to bring a little bit of life to this combination by mixing it up and bringing in the big risotto guns. It's a good dinner party starter - you can even make the risotto for dinner the night before, reheat it and use it with this. Although of course, that is definitely not how this most carefully composed and thought out recipe came about.....

Only joking - it's great. People will like it. Classic cooking, tasting good, happy days.

Recipe

Ingredients (serves 4):

For the risotto:
2 handfuls Arborio risotto
1 white onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 black pudding sausage, roughly chopped
butter
oil
salt/pepper
800ml approx. chicken stock
glug white wine, optional
lemon juice

12 hand dived scallops (3 each for a starter, 4 each or more for a lunch/main)

Optional: chopped/minced basil, olive oil, lemon juice

Method:
1. For the risotto: Heat some oil in a large pan and saute the onion until soft over medium heat, approx. 2 minutes. Add the garlic and saute for a further minute. Add the risotto rice and a knob of butter and saute for approx. 2 minutes until the risotto rice has gone a little translucent. Make sure to keep it moist with the butter and moving constantly in the pan.
2. Add the white wine (optional) and leave to bubble for 3o seconds or so. Add a glug of the stock and stir continuously until it has all been absorbed. Add another glug of stock and repeat. Repeat this step, continuously stirring to make sure it is creamy, until the risotto rice is soft and cooked through - you might not even need all the stock, judge by the rice.
3. While this is going on, fry off your black pudding in a separate pan until soft and cooked through.
4. When your risotto is finished add your black pudding and stir through. Season with plenty of fresh lemon juice, salt and pepper and stir a big knob of butter through. Put to one side and leave until later. As I say - you can make this earlier and just serve up when you need it with the scallops.
5. For the scallops: put a non-stick frying pan on to heat over high heat. Add a very small knob of butter to grease the pan a little, but otherwise leave it dry, no oil. The pan should be smoking hot. Pat your scallops dry, season with a little salt and place into the pan carefully. Don't cook 16 of them in one pan - you don't want to overcrowd the pan so it loses its heat. If required do in batches or have several pans going. Leave to cook on one side for about 1 minute. Don't be moving it around loads, just leave them alone to cook so that they can get a good crust on. You can occasionally use your fingers to just move it slightly to make sure that it isn't sticking, but don't be stirring them around the pan with a spoon.
After about a minute, when the first side has a nice golden crust on it, turn it onto the other side. You can add a spoonful of butter at this point if you want to baste them with. Fry on this side for about another 40 seconds. Season with a little salt and pepper. At this point remove from the pan and place to one side.
6. Plate by spooning 4 little islands of risotto onto the plate and by placing a scallop on top of each.
7. Optional: mix some chopped up basil, a squeeze of lemon juice and some olive oil together and drizzle around the plate - it looks pretty and adds a little zing!

This week I had an old friend over for dinner. This is someone I grew up with, someone whom I explored the trappings of village adolescence with; smoking in the village park, deceiving our parents with stories of sleepovers whilst tearing up the midnight streets of Leeds, more than a little experimentation. We've both now grown up in different ways and it's funny how many changes the years can bring, while at the same time so few. And although they might have snatched our mutual loves of 'wobbly, jackin' house music' (indeed, nowadays all that wobbles with me are my jellies and ever growing lumbars), still our love of blue cheese remains, transcendent of the summers & winters apart.

That evening I cooked this dish: a risotto of pea, bacon & blue cheese with a poached egg. Creamy Gorgonzola with its acidic bite, sweet pea, salty bacon, rich egg. Healthy sprinklings of Parmesan. For me, risotto in hand, wine glass in the other and old childhood friend gabbing away on the sofa, life doesn't get much sweeter.

Recipe

Ingredients (Serves 2):

2 handfuls Arborio risotto rice (approx. 1 per person)
butter
6 rashers unsmoked bacon, chopped roughly
2 handfuls of peas, frozen are fine
glug of white wine
approx. 800ml chicken stock
125g Gorgonzola, chopped into chunks
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small white onion, diced
vegetable oil
salt/pepper
lemon juice
Required: cling film

Method:

1. Heat some oil in a large saucepan on medium heat and gently saute the onion for 3-4 minutes, until soft, not coloured. Add the garlic and saute for another minute. Then add in the risotto rice, a knob of butter and saute, continuously stirring until the risotto rice is lightly fried and translucent, about 2 minutes. Make sure it is always kept wet by the butter and oil and always keep moving it. You don't want it to get any colour or burn.
2. Add in a good glug of white wine and leave to bubble so that the alcohol burns off. Stir. Add in a glug of the chicken stock and stir continuously for a minute or so, until the stock has all been absorbed. Add another glug of stock and repeat. Repeat this continuously, always stirring - it is this that gives risotto its desired creaminess. Do this until the risotto rice is soft, cooked through but still with a tiny bit of bite. At this point stop adding the stock - you don't want it to be too liquidy. You might not need to use all the stock -you might even need more - it isn't an exact art, judge when it is done by the rice.
3. While you are doing this, fry off your bacon in a separate pan until crispy. Set a pan of water on to boil.
4. For the poached eggs: Take a large square of cling film and lay over a teacup. Poke the clingfilm a little bit inside the cup so there is a bit of a dip, where you can crack an egg into. Oil the clingfilm with some vegetable oil. Crack an egg into it. Gather the sides of the cling film up, squeezing out any air and twist to make a little egg parcel!! Do this for all your eggs. 3 minutes before your risotto is ready, place into boiling water and poach like that for 3 minutes. By doing it this way you can cook all your eggs at the same time, they are a consistent shape and cook the same way every time. It is foolproof.
5. When the risotto rice is nearly done, tip in the bacon and peas and stir in to combine. Scrape in all the bacon oil and scraps & swirl the pan with stock to wash out all that lovely pork, salty flavour and tip in.
6. Once the rice is cooked, turn the heat off, stir in a large knob of butter to add final richness and shine, gently fold in your Gorgonzola and season with salt (you won't need much - the bacon and cheese are salty enough), pepper and fresh lemon juice. Plate. Remove your eggs from the clingfilm. Place on top of your risotto, season with a little bit of salt. Grate Parmesan over the whole thing. Serve.

Every year I am in charge of the Christmas starter. Main course, be it Goose or (God, forbid) Turkey, is still very firmly in the domain of Mother. Indeed it will be a significant and poignant day when I take over the realms of the Christmas Day Lunch - a sort of coming of age moment.

Anyway - in my parents retirement we have moved to Kent and are a bare 20 miles from France! The potential for many booze and food runs to France is there and realised. This year we went over and got a giant slab of yummy duck foie gras and it was my lucky job to turn it into a delicious dish!
I love the texture of foie gras when it is seared - molten, oozing, achingly soft on the inside, texture and seared bite on the outside. Salt, fat, mmm. I wanted something acidic to cut through the fat of it to go with it too and something fruity for a bit of balancing sweetness - hence the pickled fruits. I took the inspiration for the pickled blackberries from the St John restaurant in Chinatown where I had eaten them the week before - I think it works in this context fabulously. Delicious.

The fruits are all individually pickled in complimentary brines. You can do these the day before and then just dish them up on the day.

Recipe

Ingredients (serves 4):

600g whole lobe of fresh foie gras
salt

100g blackberries
100g cherries
100g radishes
2 cups white wine vinegar
6 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons salt
1 cup balsamic vinegar
zest of one lime
1 cinnamon stick

Method:

1. For the pickled radishes: Put a cup of white wine vinegar, a cup of water, 2 tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of salt into a pan and bring to the boiling point. Take off the heat and pour over the radishes. Leave to infuse for 4+ hours.
2. For the pickled cherries: Put a cup of balsamic vinegar, 2 tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of salt into a pan and bring to the boiling point. Take off the heat and pour over the cherries and add the cinnamon. Leave to infuse for 4+ hours.
3. For the pickled blackberries: Put a cup of white wine vinegar, a cup of water, 2 tablespoons of sugar and a tablespoon of salt into a pan and bring to the boiling point. Take off the heat, add the lime zest and pour over the blackberries. Leave to infuse for 4+ hours.
4. For the foie gras: keep refrigerated until just before ready. Remove and slice into 3/4 inch slices. Heat a frying pan over medium/high heat for 1 minute or so until nice and hot. Don't add any oil - as soon as the foie gras goes in it will start to melt (it essentially is just pure fat) - oil is an unnecessary addition. When the pan is hot add a slice of the foie gras carefully to the pan using a pallet knife - be carefully, it falls apart easily. Saute on each side for about 2 minutes. It should be browned on each side with a nice crust, but still rare on the inside. Once seared on both sides put onto kitchen paper to soak up the salt. Season with a little salt.
5. Serve with triangles of toast and the pickled fruit and vegetables. Enjoy.

For a recent radio show, I was asked to cook a dish in homage to the colossus that is cheese. Cheese is one of my favourite foods. Scrap that - it is more than one of my favourite foods; it is one of my favourite things in general, period.
Souffles on the other hand - nah. I'm sure that sounds somewhat plebish, but I'm not afraid of admitting it. I do not like souffles. In my view, they are pointless. In order to reach their lofty, impressive heights, they need to trap oodles of air inside. And guess what - air tastes pretty, damn bland. And such is my experience always with souffles - bland, bland, bland. Spongy, inconsistent, insubstantial, style over substance.
However, this is where the Twice Baked Cheese Souffle dives in and saves the day. Composed of strong, pungent cheese, dense and rich, smothered in a sharp cheese sauce and fragrant with chives. Ideal! Nor does it's name have to strike fear into the hearts of cooks - because it's twice baked it doesn't even have to be towering! You bake it once, deliberately let it sink, drown it in dairy and gulp it down. Beyond ideal.

Anyway - give this a try. Totally achievable and you'll give pretentious people a thrill if you cook it for dinner. 

See below the recipe to be linked to the episode too - why not cook along to me cooking this!

Recipe

Ingredients (makes 6 souffles):

1 tablespoon chives, chopped
3 eggs, separated
40g butter, plus extra to grease
100g strong, mature cheddar, grated
1 onion, peeled and cut into wedges
275ml whole milk
1 bay leaf
40g plain flour
1 tsp mustard
salt and pepper

For the second baking:
6 tbsp double cream
50g  strong cheddar, grated


Method:
 
1. Heat the oven to 200 Celsius. Butter 6 ramekins and line the bases with baking paper.
2. Pour the milk into a saucepan and add the bay leaf and onion. Simmer over a low heat for 5 minutes, making sure it doesn't boil over. Remove from the heat and set to one side to cool for a few minutes.
3. Melt the butter in a saucepan, remove from the heat and stir in the flour with a wooden spoon. When smooth return to the heat and cook for a minute until it begins to bubble, stirring. Then remove from the heat.
4. Strain the milk through a sieve and discard the onion and bay leaf - they are just used to flavour the milk! Make sure you have around 250mls of milk - if you need more or less, just pour some away or add some fresh milk. Stir the milk gradually into the roux (flour and butter mix). Return to the heat and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes until it comes to a boil and thickens.
5. Once it has thickened add the cheddar, mustard, salt and pepper and cook until the cheese has melted and you have a thick, smooth mixture. Stir in the chives and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
6. Once cooled beat in the egg yolks gradually.
7. Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until they form stiff peaks. Now add a large spoonful of the white mix into the cheese mixture and very gently fold in. This first spoonful prepares the thick cheese mix to receive the rest of the egg whites. Then gradually fold in the rest. You want to keep as much air inside the mix as possible so it rises and is light, so be very gentle.
8. Spoon the mix into the ramekins and bake in the centre of the hot oven for 15-20 minutes until it is well risen and golden brown on top. Do not open the oven, especially during the first 12 minutes of cooking or your souffles will collapse. Remove from the oven and leave to cool.
9. When they are cool, slide a knife around the edge of your souffles and spoon out. Place into a baking dish upside down.
10. 2nd baking: Preheat your oven to 200 Celsius.
11. Sprinkle your souffles with grated cheese and spoon over the double cream. Bake for 10 minutes until the cheese has melted into the double cream and it is golden brown on top. Serve immediately.
Good with a simple side salad and garnished with some chopped chives.
 

InGoodTaste at ZoneOneRadio episode of me cooking this!! Listen and cook along!

http://www.mixcloud.com/InGoodTaste/ingoodtaste-grated-expectations-the-cheese-episode/

                                       Happy Pancake Day from the FoodGoblin kitchen!

Try this for a change. Sweet crepes are beautiful, fabulous things, but so are savoury. Mint, pea, bacon, parmesan - the most erotic of foursomes. Uber quick too - make the batter in advance and you can whip this up in about 5 minutes.
I took my pancake recipe from Gizzy Erskine and it's actually very very good. I think it's the extra egg yolk - it makes it richer and have a good eggy flavour.

Good for a lunch or light dinner!

Recipe

Ingredients (makes about 8 small pancakes):

For the pancakes:
110g plain flour
1 egg
1 egg yolk
pinch sugar
pinch salt
285ml milk
butter for frying

6 rashers bacon, cut into lardons
handful of mushrooms, chopped
handful of parmesan, grated
300g frozen baby peas
6 fresh mint leaves
100ml milk
squeeze of fresh lemon juice
salt and pepper
vegetable oil

Method:
1. For the pancakes: place the dry ingredients into a bowl. Gradually whisk in the milk, egg and yolk and whisk until smooth, with no lumps. Adding in the liquids gradually helps minimise lumps too. Place covered in the fridge and leave to sit for 30 minutes.
2. Fry the bacon in some oil until crispy. Add the mushroom in and saute for 3-4 minutes until cooked through. Set to one side.
3. Plunge the peas into boiling water and leave for 2 minutes to soften. Sieve and blend the peas with the milk until smooth. Add the mint leaves and sieve again until smooth. Taste - add more mint if needed.
4. Add your pea puree to a saucepan and put over low, medium heat, stirring, to warm through. Add the lemon juice and season - taste for seasoning and adjust if needed.
5. For the pancakes: take a crepe pan or non-stick frying pan and put over medium heat. Add a knob of butter and leave to melt and sizzle. Then add a ladle of the pancake mix and tip the pan to spread it thinly over the surface of the hot pan. Leave on this side for around 2 minutes, shaking the pan every now and then to keep the pancake loose and stop it sticking to the pan. Flip the pancake onto its other side (use a spatula if you're not confident tossing it) and cook for another 30 seconds. Each side should be lightly golden and soft. You can make these in advance and then reheat later.
6. Make sure your pea and bacon mixes are hot and ready. Return your crepe to the pan over low heat to rewarm. Scatter the Parmesan over it and warm for 30 seconds. Remove from the pan, scatter some bacon and mushroom and roll up. Repeat with the other crepes, keeping them warm in an oven until all are ready (or serving in batches). Drizzle with the pea and mint puree and serve! 

Gravlax is a traditionally Nordic dish of salmon cured in salt, sugar and dill. It is quite close to smoked salmon but without the woody, smokiness that you get from the smoking process. Historically, salting was used to make meat and/or fish last for longer periods of time. It would be salted and buried underground to ferment and cure. The name gravlax literally means 'buried salmon' in Scandinavian.
Nowadays it isn't buried and is just generally damn good. Soft, cool in the mouth, slippy, salty and fresh with dill. Serve with bread and perhaps a lemon, mustard mayonnaise or a traditional Nordic Mustard and Dill sauce - click here for the recipe. But to be honest, it is equally good just plain.

If you're going to cook this, make sure you leave yourself enough time - it cures for 48 hours!

Based on the Gnolls recipe.

Recipe (and see photos below for further illumination)

Ingredients (makes 2 whole salmon fillets' worth....which will do you for a while!):

1 salmon (Ask your fishmonger to gut it for you and take its two fillets off. I'll tell you how to fillet it though below, in case you buy it whole like I did or get it from a generous fishing friend. It doesn't matter if it is scaled or descaled for gravlax). Use just one fillet too if you want to make less.
60g fresh dill, big stalks discarded and leaves chopped finely
7 tablespoons salt, sea salt best and finely ground
2.5 tablespoons of sugar
3/4 of a lime, diced

Method:
1. Fillet your salmon (skip ahead if you have done this): with a very sharp knife, carefully slice the salmon from anus (by the tail) to the head end about parallel with the gills. BE CAREFUL NOT TO PUT YOUR KNIFE IN TOO DEEP AND PUNCTURE THE GUTS. A sharp knife is key. Reach in and draw out the guts with a tug, discard. Take a teaspoon and scrape along the spine to remove the blood sac. Rinse out with a bit of water.
Chop the head off, just behind the gills. Place the fish with the spine side facing you and slice down the spine of the fish, cutting the top fillet off by sliding the knife in and along the top of the spine bones, following the natural line of them and making the cut in smooth, slices. Cut along like this to the tail and remove the top fillet. Turn the fish upside down and repeat with the other fillet. Done.
If making just one fillet's worth, cut the fillet in half (so you have two fat short pieces, NOT two long skinny pieces).
2. Take a plate large enough to hold the fillets and lay clingfilm over it. Mix the salt and sugar together and lay the fillets side by side on the dish.
3. Scatter the salt, sugar mix down the middle of each fillet. Don't scatter it out to the edges - keep it in the middle fat bit, it will spread out to the thinner edges while it cures and if you place it on the edges it will over cure them.
4. Take half of the dill and scatter it all over one of the fillets so that all of the flesh is covered. Then scatter the diced lime over it. Make sure the lime doesn't touch the flesh of the fish or it will make it go white as the acid 'burns' it. Keep it on top of the dill. Then cover it with the rest of the dill, making sure to cover all the lime and scatter a few bits on the other, fillet without any dill or lime on it.
5. Place the 'undilled' fillet on top of the other one, flesh to flesh (skin on the outside) like a salmon fillet sandwich! Wrap the clingfilm up and around the fillets, forming a tight parcel and trying not to get any air in there. Take more clingfilm and wrap it even tighter. Put a second plate on top of the parcel and weigh it down with something.
6. Refrigerate this for 2 days. Expect leakage and drain this off about twice a day and turn it occasionally, twice a day to make sure the brine (formed by the salt and lime) cures the salmon evenly.
7. After 2 days remove the wrapping, separate the fillets and scrape off the dill and lime. Slice diagonally in thin slices. Serve!!!

Yummy yummy Tempura Vegetables. Crispy, light, airy batter. Little nobbles of batter branching off, crunchy scraps. Delightful.

Serve with a dipping sauce - a salty soy based one perhaps or a sweet chilli. Click here, and here for the recipes respectively.

Substitute for prawn too if you fancy!

Recipe

Ingredients (serves 2):

400g assorted vegetables (good ones = asparagus, broccoli, green beans, carrot, sweet potato slices - all prepped and cut into bite size chunks. Then blanch in hot water (plunge into hot water and leave, off the heat - this partially cooks it) to partially cook. Something like carrots will need partially boiling too to cook it enough. The aim is to get your veg almost to the point of being cooked, because deep frying it won't actually cook it.)
150g tempura batter mix (you can make your own but to be honest, I've always had most success with the mixes and there is no shame in it)
220ml ice cold sparkling water
Vegetable oil, for frying

Method:

1. Heat some vegetable oil in a pan. Test to see if your oil is hot by dipping a vegetable into it or dropping a small bit of bread in. When it sizzles you are on!
2. Using chopsticks, or a fork, mix your tempura batter mix and the ice water. Don't over mix it - it is perfect when there are little bubbles of flour up on the surface - don't worry about it being super smooth!
3. Take your vegetables and coat them in the tempura batter mix, a few at a time and carefully lower into the hot oil. Fry for about 2 minutes in batches, being careful not to overcrowd the pan, until the tempura is light golden brown and crisp. Remove from the oil and put onto kitchen paper, to soak up the oil
4. Season with a little salt and serve.

Sitting by a beach, or in a street side cafe in some sun scorched, winding Spanish town, there is probably, chances are, nothing more I would rather possess than a dish of this and a large glass of rioja.
A very traditional Spanish dish and common tapas recipe - Tortilla or Spanish Omelette! Essentially what this is is soft potato, white onion and egg, slowly cooked, wobbly inside, just fully cooked - salty, savoury, light and moreish. Sometimes with bits of bacon in, sometimes just plain - both are equally tasty. The trick is to get it cooked just through the middle, while still soft and uncoloured on the outside. This comes from cooking it long and slow over low heat. Careful treatment, lots of love.

Serve plain, or perhaps with a tomato, basil sauce - find a recipe for it here.

Recipe

Ingredients (Serves 2):

1 medium white onion, sliced finely
275g potato, peeled or not peeled - depending on how rustic you want to go, or how lazy
olive oil
5 large eggs
salt and pepper

Method:

1. Thinly slice the potato using a mandolin slicer or carefully using a sharp knife.
2. In a large frying pan heat a generous glug of olive oil until hot over high heat. Add the potato and onion and turn the heat down to low. Put a lid on (or a plate) and saute for about 20 minutes over this low heat slowly, stirring occasionally until the potato and onion are both soft - try not to get too much colour on them though.
3. Take the eggs and whisk in a large bowl- don't over mix - just get the yolks and whites roughly combined. Season generously.
4. When the potato and onion are cooked tip them into the egg mix and stir to combine. Take a frying pan of about 20cm diameter, ideally with rounded sides and a heavy bottom, non stick, and heat some oil in it.
5. Tip the egg, potato and onion mixture into it and turn the heat right down to low, as low as possible. Cook very slowly for about 20 minutes, occasionally running a palate knife around the edges. Once the middle top has almost set, flip it out onto a plate and put it back in the pan the other way up. Cook the other side for no more than 2 minutes. Remove from the heat and leave to rest for about 5 minutes.
6. Season with a little pinch of salt and some freshly ground black pepper, slice and serve!

Forget Ginsters, forget service station balls of 10% pork, 90% god knows what, claggy, chalky yolks and soggy breadcrumbs. Think big, think meaty, think oozing and succulent. Sliced in half, soft yolks revealed winking at you, deep pork, light herbs and crisp, crisp coating. This is how Scotch Eggs should be. It is criminal what gas stations and your local One Stops have done to the good name of this delectable dish. They can be so much more than food on the go. I serve mine with a tasty tomato, chilli, basil sauce (find the recipe for that here) or just scoff them down plain.

Give it a go anyway. This recipe is based on Heston Blumenthal's one. Having tried out a few I have found his technique definitely the best. I've added a few additional flavours though - adapt if you wish, but try mine first :p

Recipe

Ingredients (makes 4 scotch eggs, which in my world serves 2 as a main, 4 as a starter):

5 eggs
200g good quality sausages, skins removed
1/2 teaspoon paprika
2 tufts of tarragon, stalks removed and chopped
2 teaspoons corn flour
Squeeze of lemon juice
plain flour
splash of milk
salt and pepper
fine breadcrumbs - 120g if you make your own - though actually I'd advise that you buy them in for this recipe, they tend to be dryer and finer than homemade ones.
vegetable oil

Method:
1. Boil a pan of water, put 4 eggs in and cook for 2.5 minutes. Remove from the water and plunge into ice water to stop them cooking further. Leave to cool for 10 minutes in the water.
2. Put the sausage meat, paprika, lemon juice, corn flour and some salt and pepper into a processor and blend until smooth. Stir in the tarragon (don't blend it). Remove and divide into 4 portions.
3. Heat the oven to 190 Celsius.
4. Carefully remove the shells from the eggs. Crack the shell and insert a teaspoon into the gap and run it around the egg to remove the shell - good way of getting the shell off easily and with the egg intact. Do be careful - the yolks are runny and the whites easily split.
5. Lay a square of cling film down and place a portion of the sausage meat on top. Flatten into a large circle. Place the egg into the middle and gather up the sides of the cling film, squeezing and coaxing around the sausage meat as you do to wrap it completely around the egg, sealing the top as you do. Tie/twist the clingfilm ends to form a little sausage egg parcel. Repeat with the rest and put in the fridge for 25 minutes. The cling film technique is good because it means you get a good tight wrap of sausage which helps it stay together in one piece, and the refrigeration firms it up for the same reason. Have a peek at the below pictures to see what I mean.
6. Lay out 3 bowls. In one place the egg, beaten, and a splash of milk, seasoned with salt and pepper and whisked up. In the other place flour, seasoned again with salt and pepper and in the third place your breadcrumbs. Heat your vegetable oil in a sauce pan, about 2 inches deep until about 180 Celsius or until when a breadcrumb is dropped in it sizzles.
7. After 25 minutes remove your parcels from the fridge. Remove the cling film. Roll a ball in the flour, then dip in the egg mix and then roll in the breadcrumbs so that it is evenly coated. Carefully lower into the hot oil and deep fry for about 1-2 minutes until the breadcrumbs are a deep golden brown and crisp. Do this two at a time to avoid over crowding. Turn while cooking to make sure they are evenly fried.
8. Place on a baking tray and put into the oven for 10 minutes.
9. Remove, slice in half and serve. The eggs yolks should be soft still, but keep your fingers crossed just in case. Expect terror upon slicing them open. Anticipation = intense. Enjoy!!