A New Take on Haggis and Neeps

A Trio of Haggis with Turnip Batons, Piped Potatoes and Whisky Sauce

The traditional fare at any Burns celebration is haggis, turnip and potato or in the vernacular, haggis, neeps and tatties. However, the peasant charm of the dish somehow struggles to overcome the normal inelegant presentation, where three dollops of the key constituents jostle on the plate, either dry or floating in an anonymous brown gravy. This year for my Burns day guests I made a special effort to upgrade the presentation, inspired by the efforts of amateur and professional TV cooks on Masterchef. I split the haggis three ways. First of all I made some small haggis filled pies, which turned out very well, the flavour of the pastry seemed to work with the filling. Then some small haggisburgers, scented with fresh thyme. For these the dry haggis mixed with the herb was bound with beaten egg and formed using a pastry cutter then dipped in more beaten egg and coated with Ruskolene.  A few minutes frying on either side turned them a nice golden brown colour. Finally as a tribute to my Yorkshire guests, I made some mini-Yorkshire puddings and stuffed them with Rosemary scented haggis, completing the trio.

The turnips were carefully cut into batons of two different lengths and boiled in salted water for 45 minutes before becoming too soft. The potatoes were boiled then mashed with butter and cream to fluidise them enough to pipe into small neat mounds. For gravy I followed Delia Smith's version of whisky sauce but cheated at the end by adding some cream. The final presentation is in the photograph. All the plates were cleaned and as far as we know Robbie didn't turn in his grave!

The Stuart Agenda by Alan Calder, published by Willow Moon publishing of New Orleans. e-book at amazon.co.uk and amazon .com and Barnes and Noble. Paperback at amazon.comhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/B005BJ3GNI or direct from the author