Benny's Scotch eggs recipe

Step-by-step

1. Ensure your eggs are at room temperature, then bring a medium pan of water to the boil. Gently lower 6 of the eggs into the boiling water and cook them for 6 minutes for soft centres, or 9 minutes for hard yolks.
2. Once the eggs are cooked, run them under cold water for 10 minutes to cool them down.
3. Gently tap the eggs all over to crack the shell, then peel them carefully as they will be soft. (Every time you take a bit of peel off, you should dip your fingers back into the water otherwise they may become tacky and you could break the egg.)
4. To make the crumb, break the rice cakes into small pieces, then pop them into a food processor and whizz for a minute or so.
5. Heat the rapeseed oil to 180°C in a deep-fat fryer. (You can do this in a heavybased saucepan over a medium heat, but be very VERY careful. You do so at your own risk.)
6. While the oil is heating up, prepare your crumbing station: take 3 large-ish bowls and place your flour in one, your crumbed rice cakes in another, then break your final egg into the third bowl and whisk in the milk.
7. Cut out 2 large squares of clingfilm. Place one on your work surface and leave the other for later.
8. Now take a sharp knife and run it down the length of one of the sausages. Squeeze the contents of the sausage into your hand and squash together to form a ball. Repeat with the remaining sausages. Then place each sausage ball on the clingfilm. Put the other piece of clingfilm over the top and squash down until you have 6 sausage ovals, about 0.5cm thick.
9. Next dry your boiled eggs with a little kitchen paper and place one into the flour, coating it all over (this will help the sausagemeat stick). Peel a sausagemeat disc off the clingfilm and lay it over the egg. Gently fold the sausagemeat around the egg and press the join together. Put to one side. Repeat with the other eggs.
10. Dip each egg into the eggy milk mix, then straight into the plate of crumbs. Make sure each one is entirely coated. Check that your oil is 180C (if you don't have a thermometer, drop a small piece of bread into the oil; if it goes golden brown within a minute, the oil is hot enough). Fry the eggs for about 8-10 minutes until nut brown and crisp, then drain on paper towels.