Italian Scotch Eggs

These little beauties were on my plate for supper on pancake day. But I would definitely eat them for breakfast too. You could even serve them as an appetizer. Why not? The fennel seed, parmesan and oregano in both the meat and breading is what makes these Scotch eggs Italian.

5 hard boiled eggs
1 lb trio (equal parts ground veal, beef and pork
   or make your own mix)
2 cloves garlic, minced
2-3 tsps hot pepper sauce
1 tsp worcestershire sauce
1 tsp paprika
1 tsp oregano
1  1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper
1/2 tsp rubbed fennel seed

3 tbsps flour
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup Italian bread crumbs
2 tbsps parmesan cheese
2 tsps oregano

3 tbsps vegetable oil

Bring eggs to a boil then simmer 10 minutes. Drain with cold water then cover with cold water in the pot and set aside.

Mix together the ground meat, (this is what I used)

garlic, hot sauce, worcestershire,  paprika,oregano, salt, pepper and fennel seed. Squish together to make sure the flavours are well blended.  Divide into 5 equal parts. The original recipe made 4 scotch eggs but I found using 5 eggs there was plenty of meat around each egg.
Take a ball of meat and make a depression in it. Place the egg and form the meat around it, squeezing gently as you go so as to get any air pockets out and making sure the meat sticks to the egg. Seal together well.

When all the eggs are covered with the meat mixture you can begin the breading. Roll in flour, then dip in beaten egg. Finally roll in the bread crumb mixture (crumbs, parmesan and oregano) and set on a parchment lined baking sheet. 
Heat oil in a frying pan and brown your eggs on all sides. Return to baking sheet and bake at 350 F for 15 minutes.

Serve warm with a mini scoop of parmesan cream cheese:

Cream together:
1 heaping tbsp cream cheese
1 tbsp mayo
1 tbsp finely chopped sundried tomatoes
1 tbsp parmesan

The pancakes I served the Scotch Eggs with were Corn and Bacon Pancake. You'll find the recipe here:
http://hotandcoldrunningmom.blogspot.ca/2015/02/corn-and-bacon-pancakes.html

I adapted this scotch egg recipe 
http://www.sweetandsavorybyshinee.com/scotch-egg/

where they have much more beautiful pictures of this dish than mine.