Hello dear reader,

Are you cooking up some haggis for Burns Night?  Do you even know what haggis is, or what Burn’s Night is all about?  Check out my blog post from last year to find out all about it.

It is my daughter’s birthday today and she has always asked for the traditional Burns Supper of haggis, neeps and tatties for her birthday dinner.  When she hit her teens I thought this tradition would be hit by desires to party with friends on her birthday but she was horrified at the thought of missing her haggis at home.  Even now she has her own flat, she still always comes home for her Burns Supper birthday dinner.  It is very special!

Every Burns Night we always remark on how much we love haggis and wonder why we don’t have it more often.  With this in mind, I made Haggis and scallops on pea purée for our starters on New Years Day.  This would be perfect for Burns Night, if you would like to give haggis a go but don’t want it to dominate your whole meal.

Haggis and scallops on pea purée – recipe
Serves two as starter
– 6 slices of haggis
– 6 scallops, shelled & cleaned
– 200g peas, cooked
– 2 shallots, finely chopped
– 25g butter
– 2 tbsp white wine
– 100ml vegetable stock

Heat a teaspoon of oil over a medium heat and cook the shallots until soft.  Add the butter and allow to melt, then add the wine, bring to the boil then turn the heat down to simmer for two minutes. Add the vegetable stock, peas and seasoning.  Bring to the boil and then simmer for two minutes.  Liquidise in a blender.  You can leave it as it is, or sieve it if you would prefer a fine purée.  Return to pan and season to taste.

Grill the haggis for 5-10 minutes each side, depending on the thickness.  Reheat the pea purée. Fry the scallops in a hot pan with a little oil for 1-2 minutes each side.

To serve, place three separate spoonfuls of pea purée on a plate, then top each with a slice of haggis and a scallop.

Delicious! The sweet pea and scallop balance perfectly with the peppery hot haggis.  This also works brilliantly with black pudding swapped for the haggis.

Vohn

x

P.S.  I am entering this dish into the “Four Seasons Food” challenge, which is co-hosted by Anneli at Delicieux and Louisa at Eat Your Veg.  The premise of this challenge is an issue close to my heart – seasonality.  Seeking out seasonal food is really worth it for the enhanced flavour that food has when it is truly in season, rather than being forced, not to mention being a lot easier on the purse-strings!  Although haggis is available year round we do tend to eat it more in the winter months, scallops are in season right now and peas are always in season when they come from the freezer!

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