Alex Smith, butcher, with an example of his finest haggis at his shop in Edinburgh. Photograph: Murdo Macleod
It's Burns Night on Friday night and I for one will be tucking in to the traditional dish of haggis with neeps and tatties. It's a great winter meal - warming, a bit stodgy, and with just a hint of spiciness. And, of course, you get two of your five a day. But a couple of things bother me about the whole thing.
First, I cook my haggis in the microwave. It says you can do it on the packet, and it sure beats hanging round for three hours while it cooks in a pan. But am I missing something? Baked beans taste better when you take the washing up hit and cook them on the hob, so would I enjoy my haggis even more if I went for the slow cooking method?
Another issue is gravy. "While thro your pores the dews distil / Like amber bead" says Rabbie Burns of his haggis, but mine - perhaps because I microwave it - is usually a drier beast. And veggie haggises seem doomed to be dry however you cook them. Last year, I resolved this with a concoction involving gravy granules, a splash of scotch and the water from the neeps and tatties. It did the job, but better ideas would be welcome.
And lastly, theres the issue of leftovers. As a two-person family we can't get through a whole haggis in one day. Last year, rather than have the same dinner two nights running, I surfed the internet for some haggis recipes. Amongst all the recipes for haggis, I found some that used one that was ready made.
The recipe for haggis lasagne sounded the most edible on the Macsween's website and inspired me to try my own dish combining pasta, tomatoes and the great chieftain o the puddin'-race. And so spaghetti hagginese was born.
It was a little odd, as the nutmeg and mace in the haggis didn't quite hit it off with the basil and oregano I threw in with the tomatoes, but I would make it again (although not for guests) - unless anyone has any better suggestions?
