Burns Night supper

I had brought a Haggis while in England ( A Marks and Spencers) with the sole purpose of having it on the first opportunity and as Burrn's Neet was just round the corner we decided to do an early one.

Some hae meat and canna eat;

And some wad eat that want it:
But we hae meat and we can eat
And sae the Lord be thankit.

Scotch Broth

To make the broth

1 lamb neck (scrag end) cut into 6 slices

Roughly dice the following

 The white of 1 leek

2 carrots

1 slice of celeriac about 1 cm thick (or 2 sticks of celery)

Also

1 clove of garlic crushed

1 onion spiked with 3 cloves holding 3 small bay leaves

The stalks of a bunch of parsley (better still if you have a parsley root)

1 table spoon of thyme

1 tablespoon of crushed pepper

½ litre of vegetable stock (or chicken stock)

1½ litres of cold water

2 table spoons of oil.

Salt & Pepper to season lamb.

Method

Season the lamb with S&P,

heat the oil in a large pan and colour the meat,

 remove with a slotted spoon, add the diced vegetables and sweat a little to soften,

 return the lamb neck and add the stock,

put in the studded onion, the crushed clove of garlic, the parsley stalks, add the water and bring to a rolling boil, skim at regular intervals as the gunge rises.

Reduce the heat, put the lid on and allow to simmer until the meat is cooked and just about falling off the bone. Remove the meat and set to one side to cool.

Strain the vegetables and discard (they have given up all of their goodnes anf flavour into the broth liquor.

The Scotch broth vegetables diced (about 1cm)

½ a turnip (Swede)

3 carrots

2-3 potatoes

1 large onion

¼ of a piece of celeriac

3 leeks (sliced into rings)

1 cup of pearl barley

1 table spoon of oil

Linda doing the dicing

When the neck is cool strip the meat from the bones and dice.









Sweat the onions in a little oil.

Add the barley to the onions and glaze a little, then

add the liquor and allow to boil just to give it a start as the barley takes a bit longer than the vegetables. Add the vegetables, when  the vegetables are just soft  put the meat into the broth. 

Transfer to a terrine, sprinkle with chopped parsley and serve piping hot (piping hot get it? scotch broth-piping hot !!!! oh forget it!)

.

with some crusty whole meal bread

Now that was starter and a half.

The main course.

Haggis, Neeps and Tatties.



Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,
Great chieftain o the puddin'-race!
Aboon them a' ye tak your place,
Painch, tripe, or thairm:
Weel are ye wordy of a grace
As lang's my arm.

This year I didn’t make my own haggis, but bought a one from Marks and Spencer’s.

Cook the haggis as directed on the tag, in this case was steamed for 55mins, removed from its casing, sprinkled with whiskey and placed in the oven to keep warm. Make your mashed tatties and neeps, how is up to you, but do use plenty of butter and pepper.

Whiskey Sauce (from the Hairy Bikers)

 And so we had that Chieftain O' thi Puddin' Race with Neeps, Tatties and Whiskey sauce

Dessert

Cranachan

1 cup of Rolled oats

200ml of whipping cream (whipped just stiff with a dessert spoon of caster sugar)

2 table spoons of runny honey

1 dessert spoon of dark brown soft sugar

Dram of whiskey (how much of a dram is up to you)

1 punnet of raspberries

Teaspoon of icing sugar

Method

Toast the oats in a frying pan,

 place in a bowl with the honey, brown sugar, whiskey and half the whipped cream, stir well and set aside to mature. 

Remove about 10 nice berries and set aside to decorate,

 crush the rest with the icing sugar.

Place the oats mixture in the base of a glass (we used champers glasses), spread the  raspberry mixture on top of the oats and top this with the whipped cream and decorate with the reserved berries. Put in the fridge to cool.

This was a nice crowning glory for a smashing meal.