Haggis Burgers & Battered Haggis Sausages

On the 25th January each year, Scotland celebrates Burns Night in memory of one its most beloved poets, Robert Burns. I’m not Scottish, and neither are any of my family, but we always make sure that on Burns Night we have a meal of Haggis. Now, I know a lot of you have either gone ‘Bleurgh’ or are looking a little bewildered as to what this is. In essence, Haggis is a mixture of various offal, grains and spices that is traditionally wrapped in a sheep’s stomach and boiled – but more often than not nowadays it’s enclosed in a synthetic casing. At this point a lot of people are put off by the description, but it really is delicious. It doesn’t have that rich irony taste that most offal-based products have, and it is lovely and peppery. Frankly, it probably has more actual meat content than many of the cheaper sausages that people eat and love.

Normally, in my household we cook up our haggis and serve it with mashed potatoes, swede, and oodles of gravy. However, this year we decided to try something different, and I thought I’d share it with you.

The main part of our Burns Night dinner this year was Haggis Burgers. The following recipe makes enough for three ½ lb burgers, or up to six smaller burgers.

Ingredients: 1 Onion (Finely Chopped) A Little Olive Oil 350g Haggis (Get it out of the fridge half an hour early to warm up a little) 400g Pork Mince 2-3 Generous Handfuls of Breadcrumbs A Handful of Chopped Parsley 1 Egg (Beaten) Salt 3 Large Baps Optional Extras: 1-2 Large Cloves of Garlic Sliced Cheese Onion Rings (We cheated and bought some nice ones from the supermarket)

Method:

1. To make the burgers, start off by heating a little oil in a frying pan and gently fry the onion for a few minutes until it has softened but not burnt. A useful tip here is to use a pan with a lid and keep the onion covered for a while as it causes them to sweat and soften without getting burnt. Once softened, remove from the heat and put to one side to cool.

2. Put the haggis and the pork mince into a large bowl, then get your hands in there and mix it together thoroughly.

3. Next, add in the cooled onion, breadcrumbs, parsley, beaten egg and a small pinch of salt. Mix together thoroughly. This isn't particularly easy, but keep at it.

4. Split the burger mix into three balls (or however many you are making with this recipe) and flatten down to make your burgers.

5. Place the burgers on a baking tray (preferably one with a wire rack) and cook in the oven at about 200C for 20 minutes or until cooked through. Alternatively, if making this recipe in the summer, pop them on the barbeque for a nice char-grilled flavour.

6. Meanwhile, Cut the baps in half and lightly toast them, and prepare any extras you want – e.g., cook onion rings, chips, prepare salad etc. (Optional: If you fancy something a little different, peel a garlic clove and cut it in half. Then rub the sliced end over your bun to give a lovely, but not too overpowering, garlic flavour.)

7. Once the burgers are cooked, assemble your burgers and enjoy!

Since we bought a fairly large haggis and we had some left over, we decided to try something out. When I was little, I used to go on holiday to Northumberland to visit some of my Mum’s family, and one year we went up to Berwick-Upon-Tweed, just on the border between England and Scotland, for the day. While we were there, we decided to pop into a fish and chip shop for a warming lunch. While there, we noticed something on the menu that we’d never had before – deep fried haggis. I was only young at the time, but I remember two things about the lunch: firstly, trying to eat this lunch through my hair, which kept getting blown into my face despite my best efforts to the contrary, and secondly, that deep fried haggis is bloody lovely. I haven’t had it since, as it’s not something you tend to see down in the south. However, this year we decided to try doing it ourselves since we now have a decent deep fat fryer. So here’s my quick and easy recipe for Deep-Fried Haggis Balls – it may be horrendously bad for you, but it’s a nice wintery, warming treat. I'm not going to put any measurements on here, because it all depends on how much you want to make up.

Ingredients: Haggis Plain Flour A Small Bottle of Light Beer/Lager Sunflower or Corn Oil

Method:

1. Take your haggis and mould it into sausage shapes and put to one side.

2. Take a bowl and put a few tablespoons of flour in the bottom. Now pour in a little of the beer and whisk together. You want your batter to be the consistency of a slightly whipped double cream, so add more flour or beer as necessary.

3. Place a little flour on a plate and you’re ready to get started.

4. Heat up your oil in the deep fat fryer to 180-190 degrees. (This can also be done on the hob with a large wok if you don’t have a fryer)

5. When the oil is hot enough, take one of the haggis sausages, roll it in the plain flour, then dip it into the batter, making sure that it is coated. Now pop it into the hot oil and let it cook until the outside is a nice deep golden brown (If using a fryer, it’s a good idea to shake the basket a bit as soon as you put in your haggis, to stop it from sticking to the bottom). When cooked enough – this should only take a few minutes – take the sausages out and put on a piece of kitchen roll to soak up any excess oil before transferring to a lined baking tray. Repeat this process with the rest of your haggis until you’re done.

6. Now pop the tray full of battered haggis sausages into the oven at about 150C for 10-15 minutes. This ensures that they are all thoroughly cooked through and that they are all nice and hot. I’ve found that keeping it at a lower temperature prevents the batter from burning, without sacrificing the crispiness.

As an alternative to the above, instead of using batter you can breadcrumb the haggis sausages to make Croquettes. To do this, Roll your haggis sausages in the flour, and then dip into a bowl of beaten egg. Finally roll the dipped sausages onto a plate covered with a decent handful of panko (Japanese breadcrumbs that are available from certain supermarkets). Then cook in the same way as you would with the batter.