Prawn-toast Scotch eggs with banana ketchup

These are the bonny love children of a Scotch egg and prawn toast. You can use panko breadcrumbs to coat the eggs if you can’t get hold of uncooked prawn crackers. For perfectly soft-boiled quail’s eggs, start with a saucepan of cold water (enough to cover the eggs) and, once it comes to the boil, slip in the eggs, simmer for two minutes and 15 seconds precisely, then quickly fish out the eggs with a slotted spoon and plunge into ice-cold water before shelling.

Method

To make the ketchup, heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion over low heat until dark and caramelised. Add the ginger, garlic and chilli and fry until soft and fragrant, then follow with the cinnamon, allspice and curry powder and fry for a few minutes until their scents fill your nose. Now stir in the bananas, sugar, vinegar and soy sauce and let it all simmer gently for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Pour in 125ml of water and cook for a further 5 minutes. Season with salt to taste, then blend to a smooth paste with a hand-held blender or leave it slightly chunky—the choice is yours. Set aside to cool. Blitz the prawn crackers to a breadcrumb consistency in a blender or food processor. Tip into a shallow bowl and mix with the breadcrumbs. Put the flour into another bowl and the beaten egg into a third. Pat the prawns dry with kitchen paper, then pop them into the blender or food processor. Add the garlic, ginger, chilli flakes, sugar, sesame oil and soy sauce and whizz to a coarse, sticky paste—do not overblend. Stir in the spring onions, then divide the prawn mixture into 12 equal portions and place on a plate.

Now enclose each softboiled quail’s egg in a portion of the prawn mixture: with wet hands, roll the prawn mixture into a ball, then flatten it into a circle large enough to wrap around the egg. Press the edges together to seal, being careful not to squash the delicate egg inside. Once all the eggs have been wrapped, roll them in the flour, then in the beaten egg and finally in the breadcrumb mixture. Place on a plate and freeze for five minutes to firm them up slightly.

Preheat the oven to 200°C/ 180°C fan/gas mark 6 and line a baking tray with baking parchment. Fill a large, heavy-based saucepan one-third full with the deep-frying oil. Heat the oil to 180°C—if you don’t have a thermometer, you will know the oil is ready when a cube of bread turns golden brown in 20 seconds. Place the Scotch eggs in the oil in batches, being careful not to overcrowd the pan, and fry for two minutes until crisp and golden. Use a slotted spoon to transfer them to the baking tray. Allow the oil to return to temperature before repeating with the other batches.

When all the Scotch eggs have been fried, cook them in the oven for a further two minutes. Slice through the middle to check they’re done —the prawn mixture should be pink and cooked through and the egg yolk should still be runny. Serve with the ketchup and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.

From ‘Jikoni: Proudly Inauthentic Recipes from an Immigrant Kitchen’ by Ravinder Bhogal (Bloomsbury, £26)

Ingredients Makes 12

300g raw prawn crackers 300g panko breadcrumbs Plain flour, for dredging 3 eggs, beaten 300g raw tiger prawns, peeled and deveined 2 fat garlic cloves, finely chopped Thumb of ginger, finely grated 1tspn chilli flakes 1tspn caster sugar 1tspn sesame oil 1tspn light soy sauce 5 spring onions, thinly sliced 12 soft-boiled quail’s eggs, shelled Groundnut oil, for deep-frying Sesame seeds, to garnish

For the ketchup

1tbspn groundnut oil 1 red onion, finely chopped 1tspn finely grated ginger 3 garlic cloves, crushed 1 red chilli, finely chopped 1tspn ground cinnamon 1tspn ground allspice 2 heaped tspn Madras curry powder

6 ripe bananas, mashed to a puree 3tbspn dark-brown sugar 200ml cider vinegar 4tbspn light soy sauce Sea salt

These are the bonny love children of a Scotch egg and prawn toast