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Popular London restaurant, Le Bab's recipe for Scotch Kofte creates a beautifully spiced variation of the classic Scotch egg, served with a punchy brown sauce.

From the book

Introduction

Scotch egg “a la plancha”, with a smoky kick. Use a top-quality egg to richly contrast the warmly spiced exterior of minced pork.

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Ingredients

500g pork mince
For the pork spice:
20g smoked paprika
20g ground cumin
1 small onion, finely diced
6 eggs
For the brown sauce:
500g vine tomatoes
olive oil
1 small onion, diced
50g pitted dates
50ml white wine vinegar
2 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp chilli flakes
1 tsp brown sugar
50g pomegranate molasses

Essential kit

You will need: a food processor and a chargrill pan.

Method

1. To make the brown sauce, blitz the tomatoes in a food processor until smooth and liquid. Heat some olive oil in a pan and fry the onion until soft and golden, before adding all the other ingredients. Simmer gently for an hour or so until the excess water has evaporated and you are left with a thick, dark sauce. Season and remove from the heat. Blend to a smooth purée in the food processor and put into a sterilised kilner jar. You can keep this sauce for up to a week.

2. Whilst you wait for the brown sauce to cook, thoroughly combine the minced pork with the paprika, cumin, diced onion and a good amount of salt. Cook a small ball of the spiced pork to check the seasoning, adding more salt if it tastes a bit bland. Divide the remaining pork into six 80 g balls and put to one side.

3. Boil the eggs in plenty of water for about 4½ minutes (this is the cooking time for eggs at room temperature – if your eggs have been kept in the fridge the cooking time will be longer). You want the egg whites to be firm but the yolks to be runny still. As soon as the eggs come out of the boiling water, you need to drop them into a bowl of icy water to stop them cooking any longer, otherwise your Scotch eggs will not have a runny centre. Once the eggs are thoroughly cooled, peel them and pat them dry.

4. To form the kofte, cover a chopping board with cling film to stop the pork mince from sticking to it, before flattening one ball of the mince to the thickness of about 5 mm. Place a peeled egg in the middle and wrap the mince around it, sealing it with your fingers. Do the same with the five remaining balls of meat and eggs.

5. To cook the kofte, place on an extremely hot chargrill pan or on the barbecue to get a little colour on the outside of the kofte. If the meat sticks, your pan or barbecue is not hot enough. Put into a hot oven at 225°C/425°F/Gas mark 7 for 7 minutes, so that when you cut one open the pork mince is cooked through but the egg is still soft. Serve with a dollop of the brown sauce.

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From the book: The Modern Kebab

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