I’ve always been very fond of Scotland.  Perhaps it’s because the place and the people have a great deal in common with Ireland and so it just feels familiar.  While the stereotypes and the jokes would have us believe that every Scot has short arms and very long pockets, I’ve always found them to be a warm, generous bunch and truly hospitable. 

Scotland has proudly contributed such culinary delights as Scotch broth, Scotch whiskey, the Scotch egg and of course Haggis, the “Chieftain of puddings”, to quote poet Robert Burns.  They also gave us, and I say it with a whisper, the deep fried Mars Bar.  Oh yes, to the deep fried food devotee this sort of naughtiness elevates the deep fryer to a machine with an unprecedented level of badness when it comes to producing calorific food.  If you hadn’t heard of such a phenomenon I can tell you that it caused quite a stir when this dirty little Scottish secret came to light.  Needless to remark the food police were outraged at the idea of taking a high calorie snack, dipping it in batter and then deep frying it. (If you heard a loud thud it was all the nutritionists dropping in shock at the very thought of it.)   If, as an ordinary piece of confectionary, the Mars Bar is a naughty French maid showing off her stocking tops in a Carry On film, then battered and deep fried she is practically naked but for small pieces of very expensive underwear and six inch stilettos and very definitely confined to the top shelf!  The lovely Ms Lawson, being the very naughty minx that she is, took the idea but substituted a Bounty bar instead.  Nigella, perhaps, lent a little bit of class to such culinary filth, but it is still a mucky, mucky pleasure.  Such flagrant disregard for calorie content makes Elvis Presley’s infamous fried peanut butter sandwich look like a lunch recommended by Weight Watchers!

Anyway, I always think of Scotland in January as they have two of the finest celebrations around this time.  While the rest of the world celebrates New Year’s Eve, Scotland enjoys Hogmanay and it is nothing short of riotous.  Then on January 25^th they celebrate Burns’ Night, about which I knew little until I was invited to such a celebration a few years ago here in Ireland.   To be perfectly honest on my first Burns’ Night I was a reluctant reveller.  With Robert Burns being a poet I anticipated a refined, arty affair that would leave me cold.  I couldn’t have been more wrong.  I subsequently found out that Burns was known as the Ploughman Poet being from a poor farming background.  While he was very well read and literate his other main study interests were women and whisky!  Needless to remark both featured heavily in his work.  He lived a large, colourful life, was father to many illegitimate children before he married, received huge popularity and fame for his songs and his poetry, but never found fortune in writing.  He was incredibly prolific and died at the age of 37 leaving behind a fabulous legacy of work that is still popular today.  January 25^th is the anniversary of his birth and no Burns’ evening is complete without great company, fantastic food, plenty of whiskey and witty recitals of Burns’ works.  Indeed Burns’ Night is something you could well imagine Robert Burns himself enjoying immensely.  In Scotland Burns’ nights range from wonderfully formal affairs with many courses to small intimate casual suppers and buffets, but the theme is always poems and songs shared with good friends, great food and a few drinks. (Sadly, despite the fact that Ireland boasts some of the world’s best and most prominent literary figures we have nothing to compare to it.  Maybe it’s time we started one.)

My first Burns’ Night included my first brush with haggis.  Of course I had heard about it for years but never tasted it.  As a butcher I am not at all squeamish or offended by offal, which is just as well as haggis is a combination of sheep’s offal. The windpipe, lungs, heart and liver of the sheep are boiled together and then minced. This is mixed with beef suet and lightly toasted oatmeal. The mixture is placed inside the sheep’s stomach and sewn closed. The resulting haggis is traditionally cooked by further boiling for anything up to three hours.  Commercially prepared haggises tend to use other casings than sheep stomachs.  When cooked it doesn’t look too unlike a dark white pudding, but with a slightly crumblier texture.  The haggis I had was gloriously rich and tasty and was served with mashed carrot and parsnip and some cheesy, garlic potatoes.  It was divine although my Scottish hostess was severely ribbed by the other Scots for being too pretentious with her Potato Dauphinoise.  Not being Scottish I thought it was a great, hearty combination that all worked tremendously well together. 

Haggis is a pudding, but never really took off here like black and white pudding, which the Irish do rather well.   Recently, Inch House here in Tipperary and a member of the Tipperary Food Producers Network launched a gluten free pudding which is good news for the growing number of coeliacs in the country. This particular pudding is probably the closest to the Scottish square sausage recipe that we have available here in Ireland. It is quite amazing the difference in texture and taste when this particular product is roasted in the oven as opposed to fried in the pan. In a blind test I’d swear they were different products.  I am delighted to say that James Whelan Butcher’s, have Inch House Pudding instore.

 While black and white pudding is still very popular I do think that we often put it in a particular category of foods and fail to recognise its adaptability.  It is much more versatile than we assume.  It works very well in certain salads and starters but can also be a quirky addition to many main courses; all it takes is a little imagination.  Try doing something different with pudding this week.  There are several varieties available but I would advise a good artisan pudding if you want to really enjoy great flavour.  If you come up with anything unusual let me know.

I welcome your feed back to pat@jwb.ie

 Bacon, Black Pudding and Goat’s Cheese Pizza 

        Ingredients

• 1 ready prepared pizza base
• 1 tablesp. passata – sieved tomato, or 2-3 sliced tomatoes
• 2-3 slices Quality Assured streaky Bacon, diced and cooked
• 2-3 slices of Inch House black pudding, cooked and crumbled
• 50g (2 oz) goat’s cheese, cut into small pieces
•  A few sprigs of thyme

 Set oven to the maximum. Spread the tomato mixture or sliced tomatoes over the base. Sprinkle on the bacon and black pudding, then the cheese and thyme. Bake for 10-15 minutes until crisp and the cheese has melted. Delicious