Nigella Lawson has shared a simple recipe that turned her into an air fryer fan. The celebrity chef, once a sceptic, changed her mind in 2023 after trying Poppy O'Toole's The Actually Delicious Air Fryer Cookbook.
From doubter to convert
Describing herself as a "longtime doubting hold-out" on the air fryer front, Lawson wrote on her website: "I’m glad to say I am now a convert! I don’t know that I’ll ever be someone who wants to cook everything in an air fryer, but this book has banished my fear, eradicated my doubts, and led me to discover how to use the air fryer in a way that suits me, for which I am very grateful."
The first recipe that caught her eye was a scotch egg, which she said gave her the "determination and courage to continue" using the appliance.
Scotch egg recipe
In the cookbook, Poppy O'Toole wrote: "This is a throwback to one of the first dishes I made in my first ever kitchen job. Shoutout to the Scotch eggs of The Queen’s Head Inn, Bromsgrove, that I’d make time and time again back in 2011. I wish we’d had an air fryer to speed up the process for equally delicious results."
The homemade scotch egg recipe makes four servings. Ingredients include four whole eggs at room temperature, two beaten eggs, 500g of sausage meat, half a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs, half a teaspoon of garlic powder, two tablespoons of plain flour, 200g of panko breadcrumbs, and salt and pepper to taste.
Method: Heat the air fryer to 130°C/270°F. Cook the four whole eggs in the air fryer basket for 11 minutes to soft-boil them. While the eggs cook, prepare a bowl of ice-cold water. Once cooked, transfer the eggs to the icy water and leave to cool for about five minutes. Peel the eggs and set aside.
In a bowl, mix the sausagemeat, dried herbs and garlic powder with your hands until it reaches a paste-like consistency. Season with salt and pepper. Dry the peeled eggs with kitchen roll. Set up three bowls: seasoned flour, beaten eggs, and breadcrumbs. Take one quarter of the sausage mixture and roll it around one boiled egg, repeating for all eggs.
Heat the air fryer to 180°C/350°F. Dip the wrapped eggs first in flour, then in beaten egg, and finally in breadcrumbs to coat fully. Place in the air fryer basket and cook for 12 minutes until the sausage is cooked and the coating is golden.
