GREAT CHIEFTAIN O’ THE PIE RACE!
Chef at Prince Charles’s Dumfries House adds a new twist to traditional Burns Night classic
PRINCE Charles may have had to cancel his annual Burns Night at Highgrove House.
However, he has ensured that a flavour of the Bard can be enjoyed by all after staff at his beloved Dumfries House revealed the secret to making haggis fit for a royal.
Monday marks the annual celebration of Scotland’s national Bard, Robert Burns.
Now Dumfries House in Ayrshire says it has its ‘own Robert B’ – Robert Bennett, a sous chef at the estate’s Woodlands restaurant for the past five years – and he has shared his recipe for a haggis, neeps and tatties pie in time for the January 25 celebrations.
Mr Bennett, 47, from Kilmarnock, said: ‘This recipe is so versatile and can be served with salad for lunch or with green beans, asparagus and sugar snap peas for dinner.
‘The size of ovenproof dishes you can use depends on your number of guests: you can lift the pie from one large dish or prepare an individual tartlet for each person.
‘You can make your own pastry or buy it ready-rolled from a shop, and your local butcher should supply a good chieftain haggis.’
He added: ‘I have fond memories of Burns Suppers at Dumfries House, some nights for 30-40 people with the bagpipes playing as the haggis is brought into The Great Steward’s Dining Room on a silver tray – a real showstopper.
‘This dish is family-friendly and dead easy to make, and I hope people enjoy cooking and eating it.’
Dumfries House was saved for the nation by Prince Charles and it is where The Prince’s Foundation is now centred. His Highgrove home in Gloucestershire normally hosts a glitzy black-tie Burns Night but the event has been cancelled this year because of the pandemic.
All profits from Burns Night and any other Highgrove events go to The Prince of Wales’s Charitable Fund.
The Burns-loving Prince has paid homage to the Bard on several occasions before, and has even recorded a recitation of his poems for the BBC. Previously, Charles supported the launch of a CD of some of the Bard’s most famous work, which was recorded by Aberdeen University’s worldrenowned composer Paul Mealor and its chamber choir.
Money raised from the CD went to Charles’s Ballater flood appeal to help affected when the River Dee burst its banks in Ballater in December 2015 during Storm Frank. Around 600 homes and 100 businesses in the village several miles east of Balmoral fell victim to the incident.
A spokesman for Dumfries House said: ‘As the estate is located just 15 miles from Alloway, birthplace of Robert Burns, we take pride in hosting our annual Burns Supper and ceilidh, which is incredibly popular with visitors and members of the local community.
‘Naturally, this is unable to take place this year.’
‘These suppers are often cooked by trainees on The Prince’s Foundation’s various training programmes, which are inspired by the vision of our president, HRH The Prince of Wales.’
In 2019 Charles walked around Hawick, Roxburghshire chatting to the public before visiting Lindsay Grieve Butchers, where he was given a haggis.
When he met one member of the public who said they had never sampled the traditional dish, he exclaimed: ‘You haven’t lived until you have had haggis!’
‘A real showstopper’