"Self-sufficiency does not mean 'going back' to the acceptance of a lower standard of living. On the contrary, it is the striving for a higher standard of living, for food that is organically grown and good, for the good life in pleasant surroundings... and for the satisfaction that comes from doing difficult and intricate jobs well and successfully." John Seymour ~ Self Sufficiency 2003

Saturday 2 January 2016

Are we strange?

Most people celebrate New years Eve with a party, or a special meal - in years gone by that was something like prawns, occasionally freshly caught lobster (when RMan went out in his boat and cast out his crayfish nets), etc.  ( I didn't go cray / lobster fishing with him often as the horizon wouldn't stay still for long enough...  Mind you, the couple of times I did go with him, I fed the fish quite adequately, so we were sort of giving back whilst we were taking ;) )

But, we don't make that much of a fuss about New Years these days.

Although we do tend to stay up long enough watch the international fireworks displays on TV - New Zealand / Aussie / Hong Kong and Saudi - we haven't made it to midnight in years.  We prefer to get a good night's rest - because the first morning of the year is just a normal new day on our smallholding, with animals which need our attention, and crops which need watering / weeding / harvesting.

And, forcing oneself to stay awake until midnight to have a quick burst of "excitement", and then hit the sack seems - well, almost pointless to us.

But, I do try and cook something, no matter how simple, which we've not had before, and this year was no different.

John, from Going Gently, has raved about Scotch Eggs for yonks.  I've never tasted a Scotch egg, let alone made one.

On New Years Eve all that changed.

We have fresh eggs from Tweedle Dee and Cluck - so why not? ;)
The simplicity of the plateful belies it's taste -
it was scrumptious :)  The remnants of my first
piece of cornbread is skulking behind the lemon lol
Using Jamie Oliver's Scotch Egg recipe guidelines, I thawed some Elgin Free Range chicken sausage to wrap around the hard boiled eggs - adding some homegrown chopped chives and parsley to the sausage meat which I had squished from the casing.

Then, I carefully dunked the sausage wrapped egg in milk, and breadcrumbs, and again in milk and breadcrumbs, and then left them to rest in the fridge until I was ready to cook them.

Deep frying them for 6 - 7 minutes (turning twice as the oil only came ¾ up the sides of the eggs) until the crumb coating was nicely browned, they were served with the juice from a freshly picked lemon, some homemade corn bread, homemade gherkins, and sliced cheese.

Conclusion?

Bloody marvellous mate!! :D

But, very filling...

As we couldn't finish the four I cooked, we left the remaining 1½ eggs covered overnight in the fridge and then had them for breakfast on New Years morning.

I honestly don't know which tasted better - the freshly prepared Scotch Egg or the chilled breakfast version :)

16 comments:

  1. We dont do the New Year celebrations any more, is it a sign of getting old ? I much prefer a good nights sleep, Scotch eggs look lovely they are not something I eat, tried them but I remember the taste as ugggghhhhhhh same with sausage rolls dont like them either, much prefer a decent pork pie :-)

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    1. Dawn - It must be lol

      Have you tried making your own? Not necessarily with pork sausages - why not try making them with chicken sausage as I did? ;)

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  2. Happy New Year, we don't do anything special either.

    Amused (in a good way) that you are so impressed with Scotch Eggs,but with your own eggs and good quality sausage meat you were always onto a winner. Sadly the shop bought versions often disappoint :-}

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    1. Jayne - Perhaps the fact that I controlled what sausagemeat was used, as well as the crumb, and fresh oil added to the taste? ;)

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  3. We love Scotch eggs! They're a Christmas breakfast tradition here, except I bake them instead of fry them.

    We haven't stayed up till midnight on New Year's Eve since the kids were little and thought it was thrilling to watch Star Wars movies until midnight, LOL

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    1. Leigh - I will try baking them in winter when the Rosie is lit. Otherwise, all I have as an oven in summer is my solar oven, and I can't "baked" this in that.

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  4. hey Dani - those scotch eggs look deelishous!!! jambaloney has had them before and liked them but i have never had one. now i am going to have to make some soon.

    as for new year's, our first 4 years together we went out and partied. then we just started staying home together and going to bed whenever we felt like it. but then when we moved to the island we went to the last 4 years new years parties - we kind of had to. this year though we let everyone know that we aren't doing any more new years dances. we partied at home on new years canning broth, making pickled beets, had a nice supper and were in bed probably by 9pm - bahahahah!

    wishing you and all of yours the best in 2016 and sending much love! your friend,
    kymber

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    1. kymber - The secret is in the sausage meat that you use round the eggs. That taste either compliments it - or destroys it, I would imagine.

      Yeah - we were in bed by 10 - 10.30 p.m. And up at 5.45a.m. on New Years Morning. We don't normally rise that early, but a scorcher was predicted and we wanted to get some extra watering of plants/ trees completed before it got too hot.

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  5. Dani - I don't stay up until the stroke of 12 on New Year's Eve either. I think the last time I was even remotely aware that it was midnight on New Year's Eve was when we went camping for the millennial - and then it was because the other campers were celebrating and woke me. I've never had Scotch eggs but since I'm a vegetarian, it's not going to happen. A local tradition in Virginia is to eat oysters on New Year's Eve. This year I made some faux oysters out of cauliflower (found a recipe in a vegan cookbook) and enjoyed them in sandwiches. Happy 2016!

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    1. Cherie - Do you eat eggs? Perhaps you could use creamed / mushed chickpeas or lentils instead?

      Happy 2016 to you too :)

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  6. I saw black pudding scotch eggs somewhere... maybe waitrose. I havent had one for years.

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    1. Sol - Never had black pudding either, but I think I'll give that a miss... ;)

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  7. John would be proud :) I fancy some scotch eggs, haven't had them for years, I used to make veggie ones for the kids. They would have to be gluten free ones as well now, I like the idea of using lentils, I will have to experiment.

    I'm looking forward to following your adventures in 2016 :)

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    1. Thanks Chickpea - I'll try not to disappoint in 2016 ;)

      If you make lentil scotch eggs, would you like to post about the experiment?

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