HAGGIS is not to everyone’s taste - but a top telly chef believes there are recipes that can make Scotland’s national dish tasty for all.
The Great chieftain o’ the pudding-race - usually eaten on Burns Night - famously contains the heart, liver and lungs of a sheep, mixed with onion, oatmeal, spices and fat and was traditionally boiled inside an animal’s stomach.
While Haggis is now available in cans, its original cooking method still has foodies turning their noses up.
But Gary Maclean, who won MasterChef: The Professionals in 2016, has rustled up Haggis dishes to satisfy the most discerning tastes.
Gary, 52, from Glasgow, says: “There are folk who just think of haggis being served with neeps and tatties and they can’t stand the taste.
Disgusted shoppers slam supermarket after spotting turkey two weeks out of date
“But don’t think of haggis as a dish - it’s just an ingredient. And like any ingredient it can be used in loads of different ways.”
Here are Gary's four alternative Burns supper recipes.
Sausage rolls
INGREDIENTS:
1 x 340g puff pastry
200g haggis
200g pork sausage meat
2 shallots, chopped
100g sweet potato, peeled and diced
1 egg yolk
10g oil
Stormy gales wash walrus and seals ashore as urgent warnings for SNOW issued
METHOD:
In a pan heat a little oil, add the shallots and diced sweet potato until shallots are translucent and sweet potato is almost cooked.
Put sausage meat and haggis in a bowl, add shallot and sweet potato and mix well. Break egg and separate yolk from the white.
Remove the pastry from the packaging and carefully roll out thinly and evenly then cut three sections 10cm long.
Weigh out roughly 3 x 150g of your sausage mix and shape into a long cylinder. Place lengthwise at the closest edge of the pastry.
Brush the exposed part of the pastry with the egg yolk and roll the pastry over the sausage meat to create a tight roll.
Place your sausage rolls onto a lightly oiled tray in the fridge for 10 minutes until they are nice and firm. Heat your oven to 200C.
Brush your sausage rolls with the egg yolk then using a sharp knife score the top and bake in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown.
Haggis sliders
INGREDIENTS:
450g haggis
450g beef mince
12 slider buns, toasted
2 plum tomatoes, sliced
2 red onion, sliced
2 large dill pickle, sliced
1 jar relish
2 gem lettuce
100g smoked cheese
METHOD:
Make a burger by mixing the haggis and the minced beef together and add a little salt.
Use a plastic lid covered in cling film and press the burger on a surface. Remove the burger from the lid and it is already covered in cling film.
Heat up a griddle pan or frying pan, add a little oil then place the burger into the pan. Don’t turn until it has a chance to brown.
Once cooked you can now start to build the burger adding the salad ingredients and cheese to make your tasty slider.
Serve with shoestring fries or salad made with the leftover ingredients.
Pakora
INGREDIENTS:
300g chickpea flour (gram flour)
200g Macsweens vegetarian haggis
1 red onion, finely diced
Half a packet of baby spinach, shredded
Half a bunch of coriander leaves, shredded
1 green chilli, finely diced
1 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground cumin
½ tsp ground coriander
1 tsp tandoori masala powder
Pinch of garam masala
Salt and pepper
Oil for deep frying
METHOD:
Place the haggis, vegetables and herbs into a large bowl. Add all the spices, salt and pepper along with 200ml of cold water to the bowl.
With your hands, start mixing and then gradually start adding the gram flour. You are trying to achieve a sticky and moist consistency.
Heat oil to be about 165C - this is a much slower style of deep-frying.
You’ll need a little bowl of water nearby. Using your wet hands take a golf ball amount of mix and flatten it out and carefully place into the hot oil.
Cook until golden brown and serve with with a little sliced red onion and a dusting of garam masala.
Koftas
INGREDIENTS:
450g haggis
500g lamb mince
2 onions, finely chopped
6 garlic cloves, crushed
2 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 egg
1 small bunch flat-leaf parsley, shredded
Oil for brushing
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
8 Bamboo skewers, soaked in water overnight
200ml Greek yogurt
Half a cucumber, diced
1 small bunch mint, shredded
METHOD:
Put lamb mince and haggis into a bowl. Add grated onions, garlic, chilli flakes, ground cumin, parsley, egg and 1 teaspoon of salt and freshly ground black pepper.
Mix together well with your hands until the mixture has bound together. Preheat oven to 200C.
Divide the mixture into eight and then mould it into long sausage shapes around the drained bamboo skewers. Brush the kofta with oil and place onto a tray.
Cook for 10 minutes, turning them now and then, until browned all over and cooked through.
Meanwhile, mix your yoghurt with the diced cucumber, shredded mint and a pinch of ground cumin and mix. Serve together
