Nae neeps: new haggis with a twist

Pair team up for recipes

One of Perthshire’s top butchers has teamed up with a chef to create a twist on a traditional Burns night.

Simon Howie is working alongside Gary Maclean to reinvent three haggis recipes.

Gary won ‘Masterchef: The Professionals’ in 2016 with his crispy fried haggis.

The pair have come up with three recipes of crispy fried haggis, haggis burgers and haggis Yorkshire puddings to tempt the tastebuds.

They shallow-fried haggis, wrapped in a light filo pastry with red onion chutney, mashed potatoes and roasted turnip to create the crispy fried haggis.

The Scottish burgers were created by adding haggis to beef mince, served with hand-cut chips, celeriac and wholegrain mustard slaw.

The third recipe involved filling a Yorkshire pudding with haggis and serving it with pea puree and onion gravy.

Simon, who has shops in Perth and Auchterarder, said: “Haggis is such an iconic dish here in Scotland and is growing in popularity south of the border too.

“In fact, almost half of our haggis sales are outside Scotland.

“We know families up and down the country will be celebrating Robert Burns’ birthday with haggis on or around January 25 and we wanted to offer some new ideas on how to enjoy our national dish beyond the well-loved classic of haggis, neeps and tatties.

“We hope people have fun creating and sharing the dishes. We think Rabbie would approve.”

Gary, who is based in Glasgow, said he thought the link-up was fruitful, adding: “I’ve really enjoyed working with Simon Howie to create a few twists on our national dish. I’m pretty excited about my Yorkshire pudding stuffed with haggis for something different plus a haggis burger recipe is sure to be a crowd-pleaser.”

Simon Howie will offer haggis tasting in Perth’s Morrisons supermarket on Wednesday, January 17.