Chorizo & Black Pudding Scotch Egg Recipe

Head chef Simon Taylor from the Copthorne Hotel came up with this mouth watering recipe that’s a cheeky twist on the traditional scotch egg recipe. I have a special place in my heart for the Copthorne because it’s where I did my work experience when I was 15, so when I was asked to get involved in the A Taste of Manchester campaign and give Simon’s recipe a try, I was on board even before I found out that the recipe had chorizo in it (my favourite ingredient!). I’m also pretty fond of scotch eggs too, and meat in general, eggs and bread… in fact, the only thing I’m not so keen on is greenery and I’m pleased to say there’s none of that in this recipe!

Now I know that black pudding is a love it or hate it kind of thing, if I don’t think about what it actually consists of I’m fine to eat it, it’s just like a rich sausage and is full of iron (I have low iron levels and this is far better than drinking Guinness or eating Spinach!). The black pudding I used here was also locally sourced Bury black pudding so even more reason to get it involved in your cooking!

I was sent all the ingredients to make the recipe (cue hilarious high jinks when some Sainsbury’s bags were delivered to my office – the security guards were not impressed!) and the only thing I needed to provide was a food processor and a big pan. The recipe does call for a steamer but I made my own and it worked pretty well – you can find out how with my DIY steamer tutorial here.

A couple of notes on the recipe:

It says use 2 slices of black pudding, I was making 4 scotch eggs and used 4 of the pre sliced variety and it was plenty.
It also says use 2 chorizo sausages – I think this is referring to chorizo cooking sausages, I was sent a chorizo ring so I used a whole ring for the four. A quarter would be plenty for one.
The mayonnaise recipe makes a whole jar’s worth so make sure you have a jar on the side to store it in.
Be very careful de-shelling the eggs, they seem to be softer when steamed. A couple of mine broke up but I pressed the meat around them to hold them together.
Don’t overheat the oil, the recipe says to wait until the oil sizzles and a breadcrumb turns brown when it’s dropped in, don’t wait for the browning just wait for the sizzling round the breadcrumb otherwise your scotch egg will burn up on entry and will be black on the outside and not cooked on the inside.

Here are some step by step photos of the recipe:

Steam the eggs for 6 minutes (you can see my tutorial for a diy steamer here)

Cool the eggs rapidly in a pot of cold water

Mince up the meat with one of the eggs

Leave the meat to rest in the fridge for 20 minutes and get on with making the mayonnaise. Add the ingredients to the blender and blitz quickly.

Add the oil slowly through the chute in the lid, the mixture turns to mayonnaise before your eyes, I’m not sure how it does it but I was pretty amazed – when I started adding the oil I was pretty worried I’d done something wrong!

De-shell the eggs and retrieve the meat mix from the fridge. Press the mix into a ball around the egg – this bit is messy but pretty fun!

Roll the balls in the breadcrumbs three times to give them a good thick coating

Deep fry for 4 minutes and then serve immediately!

These bad boys are delicious but be warned, they’re super rich so one is more than enough. I tried to attempt two (I’m greedy) and it did not make me feel good, less is more!

I also made my first ever vlog to go along with this (don’t laugh!) – you can watch it below – let me know what you think!