Haggis

This is a belated post about a belated Burns' Night meal - as usual, I'm using work as an excuse!  I was on late shifts for the night itself, then been a bit busy to type it up.  Such is real life.

We had an unbelievably lazy Burns' Night meal.  This isn't a recipe at all really, just an advert for haggis - a meal which satisfies most of my criteria being both cheap and ethical because it uses bits of sheep that might otherwise be wasted, and absolutely delicious.

Ours was a 1lb haggis which cost about £2.50 from the local butcher - they're widely available in supermarkets now, too.  There are recipes online to make your own, but honestly - why bother?  They're in the category of things like faggots and sausages - you could make you're own, but they're so cheap and tasty from the local butcher that you may as well not.

In a slight departure from the traditional turnips and potatoes, I served swede and carrot mash.  We don't have huge appetites so we were happy to skip the potatoes.

Swede always takes longer than you think, so get it chopped up and into water early on.  My mum taught me to put root vegetables into cold water and bring to the boil, so that's what I do.  I used one whole swede and a handful of baby carrots (which came in the veg box) and we ate half and froze half for another day.

There's a mysterious grey box in the corner of the kitchen which I very rarely use, and it looks like this.

Traditionally, you'd wrap your haggis in muslin and cook it in boiling water.  A microwave mimics this sort of cooking very well, and eight minutes in the microwave uses less energy than the alternative cooking instructions of an hour in the oven.  Was that very smug and green?  Not as smug as I was today when I switched the provider to a 100% renewable electricity provider...  but I digress.

Get the haggis into the microwave when the swede and carrots are just getting soft.  Add a knob of butter, salt and pepper and mash them up while the haggis is cooking.

This was a lazy day after a very stressful run of late shifts and I could have knocked up a proper gravy but I simply couldn't be bothered, so Bisto saved the day.

Taste verdict
Lovely.  Don't be afraid of haggis - try it tomorrow!

Financial verdict

The 1lb haggis could have fed four, really, and it was only about £2.50.  We couldn't finish it, even with the cat helping out.  Potatoes and root veg are dirt cheap.

The skinny
Peel, chop, boil and mash swede and carrot.

Cook haggis and Bisto according to the packet instructions.

Eat more haggis!