Week 49- Burns Supper Leftovers

The great chieftain o' the puddin' race- dressed for battle!

The 25th January has come round again and Burns Night is upon us. We will be raising a glass to toast the Baird, and piping in the haggis this Saturday night.

This is as much in remembrance of my teenage years, growing up in the village of Alloway in Ayrshire, as it is a celebration of his poetry.

Smoked salmon starter

As last year ( see blog entry 'Here's tae us' ), we will be dining in Caledonian style with a Scottish seafood starter, (mussels or Orkney crab or smoked salmon with rye or soda bread), the main attraction- haggis, neeps and tatties, then a pudding of whisky cake with cream. All of these recipes are on the blog or in the cloud above.

Whisky cake

Soda bread

Scottish mussels

Rye bread

However, for this year's Burns blog, as you already have the recipes for the event itself,  I thought I would look at creative ways to use up the leftovers from the feast- so I'm making spiced clapshot soup with haggis samosas, followed by a haggis hash with crispy ham and eggs, and whisky cake pieces with cranachan topping.

The clapshot soup uses up the leftover root veg from your meal. I roast mine prior to 'bashing' for the 'neeps'- but if your leftovers are already bashed, that's even simpler.

Veg ready for the soup

I fry the root veg in a tablespoon of curry paste or powder and add 1 litre of strong stock (chicken is best but vegetable is OK if you're cooking veggie). Simmer for a short while (the veg is already cooked after all, you just want the flavours to mingle.) Blitz and serve with the samosas.

Spiced clapshot soup with haggis samosas

For the samosas, I use spring roll wrappers from the Chinese supermarket, but filo pastry is fine too.

Fold the square of pastry in half lengthways, put a  large teaspoon of haggis in the bottom right hand corner, fold over, then back on itself, and again, until you have a neatly wrapped triangle.
Brush the triangles with a little melted butter or Flora and a sprinkling of black onion seeds if you have them.

Place on a greased baking tray and bake at 200 degrees for 10 minutes or so until golden.

You could make spring rolls if you prefer using the technique below.

Fold over top corner

Fold in sides and roll

Any remaining haggis is delicious combined with leftover mashed potato and fried in a little vegetable oil to make patties. The flavour is like a hash.
Top with some crispy grilled Prosciuttio and a poached or fried egg.

Haggis hash with poached egg and ham

For dessert, I took some of my leftover whisky marmalade cake, cut out rounds and topped with ice cream (I used creme brulee flavour and it went well) and some toasted oats, with extra whipped cream and whisky/honey syrup.

To toast the oats, melt 100 g of butter in a frying pan, add some rolled oats and stir through until the oats begin to turn golden, add a drizzle of honey or golden syrup and as soon as it bubbles, pour over the ice cream.

Cranachan topping toasting in the pan

Whisky cake pieces with cranachan topping

Anyway, enjoy your haggis on the 25th- boiled, steamed or lightly grilled!

Lightly grilled haggis!

Slainte!