Four things to do with leftover haggis

Today is January 26th and for those who paid homage to Scotland’s national poet in the traditional way last night, it’s likely there will be bowls of cling-filmed haggis and neeps lurking in the fridge.

Obviously, trying to recreate a Burns Supper with just leftovers is never going to be as good as the real thing, so we are forced to improvise and I think there are four great ways of using up these ingredients in ways that are interesting and delicious.

Haggis sausage rolls

I made these for the first time a couple of years ago and every so often Mr Spoon will request them when I suggest making regular sausage rolls for picnics when out hiking. Haggis sausage rolls are the perfect snack when out on a cold mountainside, but as haggis can be difficult to procure in Cheshire when it isn’t late January these are a blue moon treat.

Full Scottish

This isn’t a recipe as much as it is an enhancement – and is particularly good if you only have a tablespoon or so of haggis (although in my book, if it isn’t enough to be a portion in its own right then you might as well eat it rather than save it). To complete your Full Scottish breakfast, just fry off a little leftover haggis in the fat before adding your eggs and then strew the cooked fried eggs with the grains of haggis, completing your breakfast plate and complementing your sausages and bacon. Also, you could fry off any leftover neeps to make squishy little potato cakes to soak up all the egg and fat. *dribble*

Haggis pie for two

Another recipe that can use up some leftover neeps is haggis pie. Preheat oven to 200 degrees centigrade. Fry off a finely chopped carrot, garlic clove and onion in a saucepan. Remove to a plate and brown a small packet of minced beef or lamb. Put the vegetables back in with the meat and crumble in the haggis. Next, a few generous shakes of Worcestershire sauce and a couple of tablespoons of water and a little salt and pepper. Stir together for a couple of minutes and then remove to mini pie dishes for individual portions or a smallish casserole dish. Top with the leftover neeps and add a little cheese if that’s what you fancy. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top of the mash is crisping nicely and the meat underneath is bubbling around the sides of the potato.

Haggis cakes 

Haggis cakes with chilli jam

I just made these for my lunch today. Invented on the spot, as many things are in my kitchen, they could have done with more haggis, but it’s my own fault for eating more than I should last night. Heat a little oil in a pan. Mix together your haggis and neeps in a bowl and add a little salt and pepper. Because I’m lazy, I just shaped them into patties of the same circumference as a baked bean tin with two dessert spoons, but making patties using your hands is fine too. Next, I coated them in breadcrumbs (no egg necessary because the potato is sticky enough) and popped them in the pan to sizzle, squishing down so they’re about 2cm tall. They need 2.5 minutes on each side and should be eaten piping hot with the condiment or chutney of your choosing. Mine was a blob of chilli jam.

Haggis sausage rolls (for Burns Night lite or Burns Night leftovers)

Okay, I haven’t posted in a while but that is because my first Spoonpen entry was written BEFORE I got my new job, new flat and moved half way across the country. But I promise to make amends.

Anyway, to celebrate Burns Night this week – and because I needed an afternoon of industrious cooking to sort myself out – I have made haggis sausage rolls and that native bitey-fudge sweetie known to all Scots, tablet.

Now the tablet recipe I got from my Scottish Cookery book and I have to say that it doesn’t resemble tablet in the slightest – and as it is still cooling in my draughty hallway I am yet to find out if it worked. Seeing as it is grainy and the colour of Bisto – I don’t think it did so I am not sharing the recipe with you yet.

Otherwise the haggis sausage rolls are a success. I seem to have left my boyfriend alone in the kitchen with them, which may be a mistake, but as I have eaten seven of them I can’t really move to do anything about it. I feel a bit sick from all the gluttony, really.

Ready to scoff

So here is the method, which can be altered to accommodate leftover haggis if you are having a traditional Burns Supper on Tuesday.

The following amounts make more sausage rolls than you can shake a stick at. Let’s say… 60.

One haggis (MacSween’s preferably), four fat sausages, one medium onion chopped very finely (or grated), two eggs, pinch of salt and pepper, one tsp sage and two packets of Just Roll puff pastry.

Also needed: flour for dusting and greaseproof paper and a preheated over to 200 degrees C.

I invented this as I went along but it seemed to work. First, I emptied the contents of the haggis bag (or sheep’s stomach) into a mixing bowl, breaking it up it up as I went along. Next, I slit the sausages down the middle and scraped them empty into the bowl. I added the sausages both for flavour and for binding purposes as haggis can get quite crumbly if it dries out. Next I added the onion, ONE egg, and the seasoning and sage. Now I mulched this up with my hands because it was going to take ages with a wooden spoon (and your hands are dirty anyway because of the haggis and sausages), so go nuts.

Next, I floured the work surface and laid out the pastry. I cut each sheet lengthways making four rectangles of dough.

Next I used my hands again and dobbed the meaty mix lengthways across the middle of each pastry sheet making them into thick haggisy snakes as I did so.

Once each sheet has a haggis snake of roughly the same size, I used my last egg to make an egg wash and brushed the bottom half of each pastry rectangle (so under the haggis, not above it), with a slick of the mix.

I rolled the dry side of pastry firmly over the meat and pressed it to meet the other end. I suggest squishing it firmly down and making a fringe using the prongs of a fork.

I then egg washed the tops and fringes of each long sausage roll before slicing through from one end to the other to make mini sausage rolls about five or six centimetres in width.

I then placed them on a baking tray covered in greasepoof paper (I needed to do mine in two batches owing to lack of oven space) and baked for ten to fifteen minutes or until the pastry was golden, the meaty middle pleasantly dripping and the layers of puff were risen to look a bit like the concertina folds of an accordion.

In the oven ready to burn impatient mouths.

I ate some as soon as they came out the oven and they were delicious but I burned my tongue off.

This recipe is great for leftovers and I think it’s one that’s quite easy to adapt to less haggis (or no haggis at all if you’d rather just use sausages!).

Happy Burns Day for Tuesday, folks! And remember:

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face,

Great chiefetain o the puddin’ race!

Aboon them a ye tal your place,

Painch, tripe or thaim:

Weel are ye wordy of grace

As Lang’s my arm.