One of my favourite national holidays is Burns Night. It is such an unadulterated celebration of being Scottish and fills us with national pride while eating food that maybe should not be legal, but tastes great anyway. Over the past few years I feel as though the popularity of the night and of a traditional Scottish supper has gone down quite a bit, but for me I like to keep it going, and this year I was excited to bring it to my flatmates. I made the most basic of haggis, neeps & tatties to keep my budget down and minimise cleaning.
In order to make haggis, neeps and tatties you only need a few ingredients; haggis, turnip or swede and potatoes. Simple and easy to source from any local shop. Measurements are awkward as it depends on your own preference and who you’re cooking for, but I chose to use about 600g of haggis, 800g of potatoes and 800g of sweed/ turnip for myself and three flatmates.
Store-bought haggis is great because of the ease of cooking, all you need to do is follow the instructions on the back. I wrapped the haggis in tin foil and put into simmering water to boil for about an hour, as out of habit I always give any kind of meat extra time to ease any fears.
While the haggis is boiling, it’s time to wash and peel the potatoes and then let them soften in a pot for a while to make sure there would not be any lumps after mashing.
I diced the turnip for cooking and softening as it provides the mushy texture when mashing after it is done.
With everything cooking, I was able to check up on it all with minimal effort.
The turnip was ready first as expected (after around 20 minutes) and I drained and mashed it all, ready for serving with the haggis and tatties.
Then I washed and got out the masher again to take a swing at the potatoes. I added a small amount of milk and butter to make it creamier whilst mashing. The potatoes took a little longer to soften than I expected at around 30 minutes, but with plenty of time left until the haggis was ready it was not an issue.
With two of the three items done I readied the plates and ladle for serving whilst waiting on the haggis.
Not long after the presentation was ready, the haggis was done and I could serve everything together whilst pretending there wasn’t a heap of dishes to wash.
Overall, the prep and cooking of everything took less than a hour and provided a nice traditional dinner for myself and three of my flatmates for less than £4. I decided whiskey sauce was not the one for me, which led to an easier to make dinner at the expense of Scottishness.
Feature image credit: Wikipedia Commons
Fab article 🙂