O THE OTHER DAY I was making fun of late-night potluck, also known as fourthmeal, and what do you think I did one night later that same week? I sat down, or should I say slumped down, to this shameful 3 a.m. repast: an entire box of Mrs. T’s® potato & cheddar pierogies drenched in Kikkoman® soy sauce. It’s a miracle, I know, that I’ve lived as long as I have. By now my arteries probably look like the rain gutters in some long-abandoned Victorian manse.
Speaking of which, folks in the United Kingdom routinely eat something so caloric and so preposterous that it should have come from the imagination of Michael Phelps after an eighth of Tom Cruise Purple. I’m speaking of the Scotch Egg, which I first encountered during last year’s Paul Newman tribute. This is sort of like the meatball to end all meatballs. The traditional version is delicious but a little elementary, flavor-wise, so here’s how to make the curried one.
The Scotch Egg fits into the impromptu fourthmeal category because chances are you’ve already got the stuff you need to make it—assuming, and I hope I’m not going out on a limb, that you keep a loaf of sausage on hand at all times. Beyond that, it’s just eggs, pepper, bread crumbs—or stale bread, and the kitchen that doesn’t stock the former is likely to have the latter—curry powder, and vegetable or other oil for frying. Preferably deep frying.
Can you guess how to do this? For each Scotch Egg you wish to make, boil an egg. Take a quantity of sausage. Add to it a little curry powder, maybe a teaspoon and a half, or two, and some pepper. Flatten you mixture on a lightly floured surface, and then roll it around your egg. Dip your egg in beaten egg. Roll it in bread crumbs. Then fry, the deeper the better, for seven or eight minutes. You want the crust of your egg to be dark brown but not black. Remove it from the oil, swaddle it in paper towels, and then cut it in half and eat it. Repeat as necessary.