Great chieftain o' the puddin-race!

We wanted to celebrate Burns night, not so much because of an intense love for his poetry, but for the traditional food that gets eaten (and drunk) on that particular evening.

Haggis, neeps, tatties, oat cake and a wee dram

Careful scrutiny of supermarket shelves did not reveal any well hidden cans of haggis, scrabbling in the depths of the freezer chests risking loss of fingers to frostbite was equally unfruitful. Not being in the Scottish highlands meant we couldn't even go out and hunt the elusive McHaggis. There was nothing for it, then, but to go make one ourselves.

The likelihood of securing a sheep or lamb's pluck was highly unlikely, so the recipe chosen was a fairly "modern" one which used only minced beef/lamb and liver. Easy enough to find, and it was to be baked on a Bain Marie in the oven. Very civilised.

Whilst in the supermarket, after gathering the necessary meat products, I wondered if the meat department might have sausage casings to sell. After all, it might serve as the receptacle in which the haggis could cook - a little more authentic then a metal loaf pan, surely? No harm asking.
"Excuse me, do you sell sausage casings?" "Yes, we do, and what do you want them for?" the butcher asked. "Err.. to make a haggis..." "Haggis!" his eyes lit up; "I just made ours (meaning the store's).. what do you put in yours?" So the excited exchange went on. Onlookers browsing in the meat section either added remarks ranging from "sausage casing?  Don't they usually use a sheep's stomach?" to screwing up their faces at the mention of "liver, heart, lungs.." Long story short: butcher says to youth behind the counter - get that stuff I was using earlier.. in the back room - pack it and give it to this young lady.. and NO Charge, OK?" Thanking him, I made my way to the check out counter, grinning from ear to ear, clutching my prize.

It was only after getting home and laying out the ingredients for their photo-shoot that I realised that he had given me a real sheep's stomach (no wonder it smelt like we had let in a herd of sheep and goats) all cleaned and salted. Woohoo! a real sheep's stomach! How many people get excited over this?! I can make a real Haggis!

L-R: Liver & minced beef, sheep's stomach, Oatmeal, onion, spices

Ingredients:

• 1/4 pound minced beef
• 1/4 pound beef / calf liver - cut into small pieces
• 1 onion, finely chopped or minced
• 1 cup steel cut oats, toasted in dry pan till dry but not brown
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground coriander
• 1/4 tsp cayenne
• salt & generous amounts of black pepper
• 1 sheep's stomach - cleaned and prepared by your butcher

Stuffed sheep's stomach (before cooking)

Method:

1. Place meat and liver in a small pot, cover with cold water
2. Bring to boil and simmer till liver is cooked
3. Strain off the stock and reserve
4. Finely chop the liver and mix all remaining ingredients together, adding some reserved stock if mixture seems a bit dry
5. Test cook a small spoon to make sure it is well seasoned
6. Stuff the stomach, squeeze out as much air as possible and tie tightly with kitchen twine, leaving some room for expansion (fill about 2/3, but the stomach does have incredible capacity to stretch)
7. Place in large pot, cover with water, bring to a boil and quickly reduce the heat, and simmer for 2.5 - 3h. High heat may cause the haggis to explode (really bad). check on the haggis occasionally, if it seems in danger of exploding, prick it with a needle to decompress.
8. Prepare the "neeps & tatties) - mashed turnips and potatoes according your own fav recipe.
9. Place cooked haggis on a large dish and bring to table (usually accompanied by bagpipes!)
10. Recite Robbie Burns "Ode to a Haggis", slashing the said haggis at the appropriate moment.
11. Enjoy the fruits of labour with neeps, tatties, and a wee dram of the finest Scottish single malt. Och Aye!

comfort food..

I guess the last post gave some energy to overcome the inertia of not posting for such a long time.. Just a few days ago, dashing through the snow.. (not in a open sleigh) to the supermarket to pick up "any veg will do" for dinner, I chanced upon a pile of beautiful, plump, purple eggplants -  2 for 99c! Who would have thought to get such summer bounty in midwinter?
Grabbed 2 and gleefully drove up the hill, past semi trailer trucks floundering in the slushy snow. So thankful for 4WD.

But, this is a food blog, so back to my eggplants. I've cooked the first using a recipe that I've used over and over because it is so simple and the result is (IMHO) rather yummy. I use dehydrated onion and garlic for the garnish because they crisp up super fast

(Steamed) Eggplant drizzled with soy sauce & sesame oil

Ingredients:

• 1 large eggplant
• coarse salt - several teaspoons
• dehyrdrated onion flakes 1-2 tsp
• dehyrdrated minced garlic 1 tsp
• soy sauce 1 Tabsp
• sesame oil 1 tsp
• peanut oil 2 Tabsp

Method

1. Cut the eggplant into longitudinal strips about 2cm wide (some prefer to peel the skin, but I'm lazy and I don't)
2. Sprinkle salt over the eggplant and make sure all the cut surfaces are coated with salt
3. Leave aside for 15min or until the cut surfaces of the eggplant start weeping
4. Rinse off all the salt and gently squeeze the strips 
5. Place in heatproof dish and either steam till tender or microwave, covered for about 5-8minutes
6. Drizzle with soy sauce and sesame oil
7. Heat the peanut oil in a small saucepan and when the oil is hot, add the dehydrated garlic and onion and fry till brown - watch carefully - they brown and burn very easily
8. Pour hot oil and onion/garlic over hot eggplant - the sizzle is very satisfying!

In a new home.. Rossland

Wow, it's been almost a year since the last post, guess life has been kinda busy. We've moved from the Southern Hemisphere to the Northern Hemisphere, leaving in winter and arriving to enjoy some heat (& humidity) in Vancouver before flying across to Rossland to experience a fabulous late Summer and Fall.
Never in our lives have we had such a stretch of sunny days, clear blue skies.
We'll do some catch up hopefully, with some of the hiking, food foraging and cooking that has taken place since then.

In the meantime, a brief offering of improvisation - trying to do a chinese steamed fish in our temp accomodation showed that we could do the same with the microwave and less mess!