It is Burns Night tomorrow, but we are otherwise occupied, so we had to cook haggis tonight. We tried a twist on the idea though – doing it in a cottage pie style, with the haggis filling underneath and mashed tatties and neeps (i.e. potatoes and swede) on top.
We chopped up a couple of large potatoes and half a swede, then steamed them until soft and then mashed them all up together with some butter, salt and pepper. We skinned the haggis and chopped up the filling. We put this into a saucepan with a little water to soften and moisten so that we could layer it into the oven dish easily.
When these were both done, we assembled it in the dish just like a cottage pie and baked for almost an hour. It was a partial success – the haggis wasn’t as fully flavoured as it has been when we’ve had it cooked on its own. It was worth a try though. We figured that the lack of flavour was due to the lack of sticky “edge pieces” on the haggis, which needed more cooking to achieve. It would have been better to have the haggis layer in the oven on its own for at least half an hour and then put the mashed potato and swede on top afterwards.
I called it Scottage Pie, given that it’s a Scottish version of Cottage Pie. I know, not that clever, but it amused me at the time.
We haven’t had any whisky yet – will be having that shortly!
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I’ve never tried haggis, but I keep meaning to. The crust on your pie looks delicious!
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Lizzie, if you like black pudding then you’ll probably like haggis too 🙂
That pie is a thing of beauty!
Helen’s last blog post..helen_m: Making dulce de leche brownies
What a wonderfully inventive way to prepare haggis! It looks delightful. Normally I would shy away from eating the Scottish delicacy, but I would give it a go in you incarnation.
Katie xox
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Looks lovely very creative , perfect crunchy topping
Girl Interrupted Eating’s last blog post..Pot Roasted Beef Brisket with Vegetables
Great crust, I like how it’s all puffed up. It looks perfect! I like the idea of the haggis in there too – shame it wasn’t as flavoursome as you thought it would be.
Helen’s last blog post..Crispy Chinese Roast Pork Belly.
Thanks Helen!
Katie – I think this would be a great way to eat haggis if you’re not normally keen on it as it doesn’t look so scary.
Thanks GIU, the topping was really good.
It wasn’t actually that puffed up Helen, we just had loads of it!
I made something similar last night and you’re right, it’s a bit of a 2 stage operation. Bake the haggis to get some crusty bits then put it in the pie. I also mix in a bit of onion gravy which improves the texture. Loved your mash tho. That looked really good
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That looks so good! Every year I want to celebrate Burns Night but I never seem to be able to get it together….this looks divine!
The gravy idea ias a good one Fiona, I did wonder before we assembled it whether it would benefit from some extra liquid and I totally agree that it would have.
Thanks Jen, this is the first time we’ve really celebrated as we normally go to a friend’s place. I think we need to remember to eat more haggis and not just save it for Burns Night.
What a great twist on the usual haggis, neeps and tatties. I’ve been away all week so missed out on my annual dose of haggis.
I like the idea of adding some onion gravy too.
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Every year we vow to eat more haggis but never really seem to, I think you should cook some haggis anyway!
We make this pie, but cook the haggis in the microwave then add aone haggis to 500g cooked mince, with onions, guaranteed to taste good. Plan to try your topping, we have used half turnip/swede and half potato lightly topped with grated cheese. High on the calories, but tastes great
Ah, the addition of mince is a really good idea, Jean. I think it’s probably getting too warm to do this again now but I’ll remember that for the winter – thank you!