Shooting Times & Country Magazine
Ingredients
200G PHEASANT HEART AND LIVER
400G BONELESS AND QUITE FATTY PHEASANT THIGH, DICED
200G PINHEAD OATS OR ROLLED OATS
1TSP CORIANDER SEEDS
1TSP DRIED GREEN OR BLACK PEPPERCORNS
1TSP FENNEL SEEDS
1TSP GROUND MACE
A SPRIG OF FRESH THYME
8G SALT
1 MEDIUM ONION, VERY FINELY CHOPPED
EQUIPMENT REQUIREMENTS
You will need a mincer
If you have a sausage stuffer and can get some ox-middle casings, excellent, or you can hand-stuff into an ox bung.
If you can’t be doing with all that, the haggis mix can be cooked in a cling film-lined terrine mould. If you do this, don’t bother with poaching the haggis in the pheasant stock (as below), simply poach in water or bake in a low oven in a water bath.
You will also need some butcher’s string, if using ox-middle casings.
TIMING
It doesn’t take very long to mince, season, cook a little to test seasoning and stuff into the chosen container for cooking — 30 minutes should cover it.
Cooking time is around 90 minutes, depending on how big the haggis is. I made it quite narrow in an ox-middle casing and it took around 50 minutes.
Once cooled, the haggis should keep for four or five days in an airtight container in the fridge. It is delicious fried and added to a few eggs for breakfast. It will also freeze well after cooking and this is best done in a vacuum-pack bag or well wrapped. Well wrapped or packed, it should keep in the freezer for more than six months, but is best used within three. 1 The first job is to mince the offal and all of the diced leg meat. I tend to do this on a medium mincer plate, so that it’s not too smooth. If you are using jumbo oats, it may be best to give them a quick whizz in the food blender to chop them up a bit smaller.
Toast the coriander seeds, green or black peppercorns and fennel seeds before crushing in a spice grinder or a pestle and mortar. Add the ground mace. This creates the seasoning mix that, along with the thyme and salt, will be used to flavour the haggis.
I had to try very hard not to add garlic and a reduction of some sort. Perhaps I will next time, probably with a little stock and some cider reduced to a syrup, plus two cloves of finely chopped garlic.
Mix together the oats, onion, thyme and the minced meat and offal. Season well with the spice mix and add most of the salt. Mix the haggis mixture together well. At this point, there is a decision to be made about whether to have the haggis coarse or fine. If you decide to go for fine, put the whole show back through the mincer again. Next, place a dessertspoonful in a hot frying pan with a knob of butter and allow it to cook over a moderate heat. Taste it and adjust the seasoning as required. Add more salt and/or spice mix if you think it needs it. 2 Either fill a sausage stuffer and pipe the mix into a length of ox middle, or line a terrine mould with three layers of cling film and place the mixture in that before wrapping and then rewrapping in foil.
Take care when filling the sausage skin not to overfill it. If the skin is too tight, the haggis will burst in the pan as it simmers. I used about 1ft of ox middle and, once filled, I tied it off into three roughly equal lengths using some butcher’s string.
Ideally, leave the haggis in its casing uncooked for a few hours in the fridge to allow things to settle and gel together nicely and for the flavour to intensify. This will help to prevent it bursting during cooking.
In a large pan, put enough water to immerse the haggis. Bring it to a gentle simmer, salt the water and add the haggis. Cover with a lid and cook on a low simmer for around an hour and a half. Alternatively, simmer in a pheasant stock for added unctuousness. If using the terrine-mould method, this will need around one and a half hours at about 120°C. Allow the oven and the water bath time to get up to temperature before adding the terrine and starting the timer.
STORAGE
METHOD
3 Once the cooking time has elapsed, remove the haggis from its cooking liquid. If using stock, retain this for making gravy at a later date, or splash a little of over the haggis when serving.