Cannonball eggs

CRAB-CRUSTED 'SCOTCH' EGG 

After reading this article on Scotch Eggs by Tim Hayward in The Guardian, I had to make boiled eggs encrusted with some sort of meat and deep-fried to look like a cannonball. His suggestion for a crab crust reminded me that I had a packet of crab meat in the freezer.
    I don't know what crab this meat came from, or even if it was really crab meat – there were only the words on the packet to rely on. This "crab meat" tasted fishy – both literally and metaphorically. Once it had thawed, I added a variety of seasonings to it. Only then it began to be palatable.
    Then it got better. But before I say how, a quick rundown of what went into it. There's no real recipe, I simply tasted as I went along.
    First, cook eggs for four minutes, then plunge them into cold water to stop the cooking before peeling the shells carefully. They should be soft-boiled but mine are obviously overcooked because the yolks are not runny. To get the yolks in the centre, I swirled the eggs in the water when they were in the pot before cooking.
    To the crab meat for the "scotching", I added cayenne pepper, onion powder, lime juice and chopped fresh mint to taste. Everything was bound together with breadcrumbs, mayonnaise and beaten egg. In fact, without the raw egg, this would have made an excellent sandwich filling.
    The crab meat is then wrapped around the boiled egg. I was a little generous with the coating around the egg in the picture above, but the second egg had a thinner crust. To bread it, I first dusted the balls in flour, then dipped them in beaten egg and finally rolled them in a mixture of fine breadcrumbs and (and this is what made the eggs – oh God of Language, forgive me this terrible pun – eggs-ellent. I shall atone!) grated Parmesan. Then deep-fry, drain on paper towels and serve with any kind of sauce. I made some mint pesto. Best eaten cold. I liked the eggs better the next day straight from the fridge.