Big Ten, what the heck happened? I leave you alone for one weekend to touch grass (and watch Nebraska, I guess), and the rest of you cause an absolute ruckus! Are we going to have to give you a babysitter? Anyway, what’s done is done. Time to move on, I guess. Let’s look at what we’ve got coming up…

Some schools are starting their conference play. Some schools are still getting a few more practice reps in before they have to compete against their peers. Wait, what’s this? We’ve got another international game? Arizona State and Kansas are playing at Wembley Stadium? Well, this seems wild. Surely I can do something with this, right?

This is the inaugural game of the Union Jack Classic, and according to my notes (a Wikipedia search), only the second time a college football game has been played in the UK. The previous game was in 1988 with Richmond defeating Boston College 20-17. That was also a conference game, though it was the Yankee Conference and not the Big 12. Hopefully this is a good event and inspires more games. I’d love for an excuse to go to London some day!

Both teams are coming off a loss. Kansas lost a heartbreaker to their bitter rivals, Missouri, in the Border War, and Arizona State failed to defeat the Texas A&M Aggies. But now they are ready to prove their worth in conference play and begin their trip to the conference championship!

Boy, that’s a mouthful, INNIT? But if these teams are making the effort of crossing the pond, it’s the least I can do to make an effort as well.

Scotch eggs are a good pub food, a good street food, and if you have the equipment, they’d be a great tailgate food! At its most basic, a Scotch egg is a boiled egg wrapped in sausage, breaded, and fried. There are a few competing theories as to where they were invented, and some believe they were inspired by Indian koftas. All I know is that they are great.

I wasn’t quite sure whether to hard-boil or soft-boil my eggs. While I was researching this, it seemed that a hard-boiled egg is more traditional. A soft boil with a runny yolk is becoming more trendy. But you have to prepare to eat something a little messier that way. I decided to split the difference and go for a medium boil. You get a good, jammy yolk, but you also have it set and stable enough that it won’t make a yolky mess everywhere

Fill a pot with about 3 inches of water, and add 1 tablespoon of baking soda. This may just be a myth, but I’m one of those people who believe it helps make the eggs easier to peel. I could be completely wrong and am wasting baking soda, but it doesn’t hurt to do it. I do know that using older eggs also helps with the peeling process, so if you've got some eggs that have been in the fridge for a while, use those.

Place the pot on a burner set to high and heat the water to boiling. Once the water is at a rolling boil, gently add the eggs, being careful not to break or crack them. Let the eggs boil for 8 minutes. After 8 minutes remove the eggs and place them in a large bowl full of ice-cold water to stop the cooking process. You may have to replace the water as the eggs continue to cool. You want them to cool all the way before you start peeling.

When the eggs are ready to peel, tap them on the counter a few times to crack the shell and just start peeling. You want to make sure the entire shell is removed. I like to rinse mine under the sink after peeling just to make sure there are no tiny flecks of shell. This can be done the day before, if you store the eggs in an airtight container in your fridge.

Enough for about 10 - 12 eggs

A traditional sausage for a scotch egg involves using pork sausage, mustard, and herbs & spices like parsley, nutmeg, and chives. I wanted to incorporate some Arizona into this and took inspiration from a Sonoran hot dog. If you haven’t had one, it's a bacon-wrapped hot dog with some southwestern toppings and served in a special roll. But that’s for another blog some day.

To make today’s sausage I used:

Combine all ingredients into a large bowl and mix by hand until well combined. Like the eggs, this can be done the day before and stored in the fridge.

When you are ready to make the eggs, prepare your breading station. Again, if you want to be traditional you would use bread crumbs. But if I’m making an Arizona-inspired sausage I’ll need to look to Kansas for my breading. Kansas is known as the Sunflower State, and I originally thought about using a sunflower seed flour. I looked at the grocery store to see if I could find any, but did not have any luck. I’m not even sure if that is actually a thing. Instead, I picked up a container of dry-roasted sunflower kernels. I poured some of them into a food processor, and grind them up until you decide they are fine enough. I left mine a little coarser, for no real reason. I just decided I was done chopping them.

In 3 separate bowls, pour some flour into one, the sunflower kernels into another, and crack an egg into the final bowl and whisk it up a bit. These three bowls will be your three steps in breading a scotch egg.

Remove the eggs and the sausage mixture from the fridge. Take a bit of the sausage and press it flat and thin into your hand. Use the sausage to wrap around an egg. Grab more sausage from the bowl if you need to. You want this egg fully enclosed in a ball of sausage.

Then take the sausage and egg ball and roll it in the flour covering all sides. Then roll it in the egg, before finally rolling it into the chopped sunflower seeds, giving them a good coverage.

Place these breaded scotch eggs back in the fridge to give the sausage some time to firm up again while you heat the oil. Pour some neutral oil (maybe sunflower oil?) into a large pot. You want roughly 2-4 inches at a minimum. Heat the oil to 350°F. Once the oil is at the correct temperature, carefully add one or two eggs. You don’t want to overcrowd the pot, as you don’t want the eggs touching, nor do you want to drop the temperature of the oil too much. Cook the eggs for about 4-6 minutes on each side until the outside is browned but not burnt and the sausage is cooked all the way through. Drain the eggs on a plate lined with paper towels as you continue to cook the remaining eggs.

Let the eggs cool for about 5-10 minutes. You want them still warm but not dangerously hot! If you’d like a little more Kansas in here, be sure to serve them with a Kansas City BBQ sauce, but make sure you’re using one from the Kansas side and not the Missouri side. I’m using the sauce from Slap’s BBQ which is an excellent restaurant if you find yourself in the area.

There’s definitely a lot to this name, and there’s a lot to this egg. You’d think after I lost a bet and had to eat my age in eggs a few years ago that I’d be done with hard-boiled eggs, but I guess not yet! Add some fried sausage and I’m a happy camper. The flavors work well together. Nothing clashed and nothing competed. The tomatoes and the chilis are great additions to a breakfast sausage, and the sunflower seeds were a great neutral crunch to the outside.

Using the BBQ sauce was a bit much, mostly because I don’t often eat BBQ sauce with breakfast. But that was just optional if you wanted to dip them into something. You definitely don’t need it. I’m going to give this food fusion a 4 out of 5 Corns.