Veggie Scotch Egg with Lentil, Mushroom and Quinoa filling

Billy has suggested that, after taking an age to do these Scotch Eggs, I should do a TV show. Not all this 'Jamie's 15 minute meals' stuff. But instead, 'Kay's Three Hour Meals'. For some reason it took an age and I blame the eggs. Having said that though, I always take an age to cook and create a huge amount of washing up at the end of it. 

Anyway, about ten years ago when Delia had a show on TV, she dedicated an entire show to the cooking of a simple egg and I sneered at it. In the last 5 years, however, I have come realise she could have made an entire series about the humble egg. It took patience doing this dish but it was well worth it in the end. And, I would say you should definitely listen to Delia for advice on cooking eggs.

I was away last weekend in Devon for my cousin Hannah's 21st Birthday and after driving back with a stinking hangover through the snow, I couldn't make a meal. But this weekend, I've made my first attempt at a Veggie Scotch Egg- with the added challenge of making sure the yolk in the middle was runny. It should have been easy but who would have thought it'd take so long to peel the shells off the soft boiled eggs. There must be a better way to do this but if like me you're a bit unlucky, have patience while deshelling the eggs. The rest of it is easy and won't take too long.

First get four large free range eggs and let them boil in simmering water for 6 and a half to 7 minutes. Then run under cold water, let them cool and deshell them. There has to be better ways of doing this than I did but I did get there eventually.

While the eggs are cooling, fry half a red onion and some finely chopped mushrooms with garlic, herbs and seasoning. I am terrible at keeping any plant alive but for some reason I am able to grow parsley and have an abundance of it growing on the balcony in an old bike basket. So this was the herb of choice this evening.

I bought a ready to eat puy lentil and quinoa mix from Waitrose (obviously you can cook the lentils and quinoa yourself. I hadn't realised it was pre-cooked but in fact that made things all the more easy). So I added this 250g pack to my mushrooms and onions and let them cook for a further few minutes to let the flavours come together.

Blend and you should end up with a fairly solid mixture. Not too wet.

Then the fun part...

Cover them in seasoned flour. I seasoned it with just salt and pepper.

Whilst someone plays guitar to you (in this case Billy Jones) prepare your two bowls: one with 2 beaten  eggs and one with breadcrumbs for the outer layer.

Roll out your lentil mixture (covering the board with a bit of flour so it doesn't glue itself to the board) and roughly score into 4 equal sections and wrap it around your egg shaping it into a good ball shape.

Cover each egg in the beaten eggs mix and then coat generously with breadcrumbs. You might want to do this twice in order to get a good thick outer layer which will crisp up better.

Then in a pan of hot vegetable oil ( I had about 2 cm of oil in there but 4cm would be better) fry the eggs for around 6-7 minutes until they are a nice golden colour. If like me you do them with less oil, make sure you turn them half way so the entire outer later is nice and cooked.

Once cooked, place on some kitchen towel to absorb the excess oil. Let them cool for a few minutes and serve with some mustard, a radish salad and half a pint of larger!

My ingredients (which make 4 Scotch Eggs)

6 large free range eggs (2 to beat in order to stick on the outer breadcrumbs)

Half an onion

1 clove of garlic

Glug of olive oil to fry onions, garlic and mushrooms

8 chestnut mushrooms

250g puy lentils and quinoa

Flour

Breadcrumbs (around 100g)

Parsley and seasoning to your own taste. I used salt, pepper and Italian dried herbs.

Vegetable oil to fry the eggs (500ml to 1L needed).

Radishes and mustard to serve if you fancy

Quest for the Perfect Veggie Burger: Aduki Bean Burger served with Chunky Chips

Last Sunday, quite reluctantly I made a roast because, as my blog implies, I'm supposed to be coming up with some inspiring veggie roasts. I made a filo parcel stuffed with rocket, leeks and peas with cottage cheese served with roast potatoes, carrots and Yorkshires and a red onion and mushroom gravy. It was nice so perhaps when I'm less uninspired by the idea of having a roast dinner I'll post up the recipe. But for now I am on a mission to make a mean veggie burger. Why?

1. Generally when you eat out they're not much to write home about. They're either a bit soggy or way too bland.

2. After having done a bit of research, it seems like I'm not alone here with my thinking so I thought I'd join the debate.

3. I'm currently not working and I have been watching way too many episodes of 'Jamie's 15 minute meals', on which he cooked a burger. It's made me crave a burger and chips.

What I'm aiming for in my veggie burger is a good texture and lots of flavour. Ideally it will be a bit chewy like a beef burger. I'll serve it with chips, a slaw salad and a quick tomato salsa. Here goes...

I've decided to use aduki beans as I like their dark red colour. I'm also using olives and onions to add flavour and texture as well as a lot of basil.

Ingredients- will make 4 burgers
Cooking and prep time is 1h30 in total

Half a can of aduki beans
1 small basil plant- all leaves
10 olives. de-stoned and chopped.
1 small onion
2 garlic cloves
Half a chilli, finely chopped
Half a cup of porridge oats 
Half a cup of dried breadcrumbs
Zest of half a lime and a squeeze of juice
2 large eggs
Seasoning: dried mixed herbs, smoked paprika, celery salt, salt and pepper 
a little plain flour to be able to shape the burgers before frying.

Get together your ingredients. Chop up your onion and garlic and start to saute in a frying pan with a good glug of olive oil and your herbs to season.

 Then add in a handful of chopped basil and your chopped olives. Keep frying gently for about 5 minutes until the onions are cooked through. Let this mixture cool completely. 

 Meanwhile blend the Aduki beans, leaving some of the beans whole for a bit of texture.

Add them to your beaten eggs and then add all the other ingredients including the cold onion and olive mixture. Leave this mixture for at least half an hour for the flavours to develop and for the oats to absorb some of the moisture. 

Once your mixture has rested, test it to see if it needs any more seasoning. It will still be quite wet but you should, with the help of some flour, be able to form them into patties. For the sake of this photo, I put the patties on a board but they should go immediately into a frying pan of hot oil otherwise they'll fall apart. 

There should be about half a centimetre of olive oil in the pan so as to shallow fry the burgers. They'll need 4 minutes or so on each side so that they are golden brown.

 I'm serving my Burger with thickly cut chips which I cooked on a baking tray with olive oil in an oven at 180 degrees for about 45 minutes.

 And a Slaw salad, which I've decided to display in a frying pan. Why not?! For this salad I grated one courgette with a potato peeler, chopped up some white cabbage and added some spinach, watercress and rocket salad. I then dressed it with a drizzle of olive oil, a squeeze of lime and some red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. 

 While my bean mix was resting I also made a quick tomato salsa. In a glass I layered up olive oil, half a garlic clove, crushed and chopped, half a chilli chopped, lime juice, salt and pepper. Then I added six baby tomatoes which were finely chopped and a small handful of my basil.

Warm your bread rolls in the oven before compiling your burger with a good dollop of mayo/ mustard/ ketchup etc. I know this picture is not necessary but I'm indulging myself.

And there you have it: Attempt one at the perfect veggie burger. It was actually really tasty and had a great texture. They were more beany than meaty, but the chopped olives gave it some chew.  A very good bean burger for sure which I will be cooking again and I recommend you try.

I'd like to experiment more with the veggie burger to see if I also make one that has a more meaty texture. Whereas this burger had a great texture and taste, I'd also like to create a burger which can be fried, baked or put on the BBQ. This burger is held together with eggs which are obviously soft when raw so I want something that will hold its shape a bit more before being cooked, so that you don't necessarily have to fry it. I am a little loathed to use quorn as it sort of feels like cheating. Perhaps tofu? We shall see.

Caramelised Onion and Goats Cheese Tart Trio

For New Years we went to Nel's house. The plan was to make this tart as a starter and build up to the main course. In reality, we spent a lot of time chatting and eating our starter and cheese board before even beginning the main. We didn't eat until about 1am but we did have some marvellous glitter tattoos, courtesy of Billy, and catch up with friends we'd not seen in a while. 

Due to the amount of booze that was consumed throughout the evening, I am finding it difficult to remember exactly what we did but I think it was something like this! For our tart, Nel and I used ready made puff pastry which we placed on an oiled board.  We scored around the edges and then lightly scored it into thirds. The base for each third was caramelised onions, which I cooked on the hob beforehand, and goats cheese. I fried red onions in butter and olive oil with some herbs, I added a teaspoon of sugar and later on a dash of balsamic. Nothing fancy. For each third of the tart, we did a base layer of the onions. In one section we topped it with grapes and goats cheese. For the middle section we fried some mushrooms in garlic an parsley. Once cooled, they were placed on the onions and we drizzled some truffle oil and put some fresh parsley and topped with the cheese. For the third section we cut up some fresh tomatoes, seasoned with salt and pepper and then added the cheese.

Bake for around 20 minutes on 180 degrees and you can cut as you wish.

I won't dwell on the main course as I can't really remember cooking or eating it but I'm sure I enjoyed it at the time!

The day afterwards was spent watching an entire series of the Great British Bake off which was so inspiring. Think I'll make a New Year's resolution to bake more!! Maybe next time I'll make my own pastry.