FEELING THE BURN?

Then you need the Great British Chefs’ recipes for stovies, haggis and whiskey desserts, forming the ‘traditional supper’ to celebrate the life of Robert Burns

What originally started as a friends’ tribute to the poet Robert Burns 220 years ago has become a worldwide tradition on 25 January, full of eating haggis, drinking whisky and reciting the Scottish Bard’s literary works. Celebrate with our pick of Scottish-inspired recipes.

Stovies by Graeme Taylor

The word stovies comes from the French étuves, meaning “to stew in its own juices”, and it is the perfect recipe for leftover roast meat. Just about every home in Scotland will have a different recipe for this dish, depending on everything from where you live, to what meat you prefer for your roasts.

Mutton gives a deeper flavour but beef or lamb work well too. Fresh stock is best but use a cube if you

don’t have any.

2 onions, roughly chopped ½ turnip (swede), roughly diced 2 medium potatoes, roughly diced carrots, 1-2, sliced (optional) 400ml of beef stock, preferably homemade, but 2 stock cubes in 400ml of water will do leftover roast beef, lamb or mutton, 300g-500g, roughly chopped 2 tsp oil, or dripping, for frying

In a heavy-based pot heat the oil or dripping then add the onions. Sweat down a little, allowing no more than a little colour to form. Add the remaining vegetables and stock and bring gently to the boil. Turn down to a simmer. Continue to simmer until potatoes and turnip are cooked and carrot and onion have softened. Add the meat, stir, and heat gently for a couple of minutes to warm the meat through. Serve in bowls, ideally with warm bread and a dram of whisky.

Veggie haggis and mustard bites by Jacqueline Meldrum

Serve these great Scottish canapés at your Burns Night party alongside the finest champagne and some toe-tapping music.

250g puff pastry flour, for dusting milk, or soy milk, for glazing 454g haggis, vegetarian 8 tbsp wholegrain mustard

freshly ground black pepper

Remove the pastry from the fridge and allow it to come up to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6, and line two baking trays with greaseproof paper. Dust a rolling pin and work surface with flour, and roll the pastry out into a rectangle – you want it to be fairly thin.

Spread half of the mustard up the middle of the strip, covering the middle third, then top with half of the haggis. Season generously with black pepper. Wrap each side of the pastry over the filling until you have a long sausage shape. Slice into 1cm discs and place each disc on their sides on the baking tray. Glaze with milk and bake in the oven for 12-15 minutes, until golden. Serve warm.

Raspberry and whisky cream pots by Karen Burns-Booth

To finish off your Burns Night supper how about a quick and easy dessert that encapsulates the essence of Scotland? This delightful recipe uses Scottish raspberries, whisky, heather honey and buttery shortbread.

Shortbread, 4 biscuits raspberry jam, 4-6 tsp 4 tbsp cream cheese 4 tbsp crème fraîche 2 tbsp single malt whisky 2 tbsp heather honey

To serve: frozen raspberries, around 6-8 per pot shortbread, 2 biscuits broken into quarters

To start the dessert, crumble the first four shortbread biscuits into smallish crumbs and sprinkle the crumbs into the bottom of each glass bowl. Warm the jam slightly and spoon over the shortbread crumbs. Mix the cream cheese, crème fraîche, whisky and heather honey together, beating well to make a smooth cream. Divide the cream over the top of the jam and shortbread crumbs, then scatter the raspberries over the cream. Garnish with the shortbread biscuit quarters and serve with double cream and a shot of whisky on the side.

These recipes originally appeared on the Great British Chefs (thegreatbritishchefs.com)