If you find you've got leftovers this Burns night, chef Gary Mclean has some great recipes and top tips to avoid food wastage.
Gary suggests serving up your haggis so that guests can help themselves, rather than piling unwanted food on to every plate.
“Serve your haggis, neeps and tatties family style by presenting it in a large dish that will allow your guests to help themselves,” he says.
“This will be a much better experience for your guests as they will be able to take as much or as little as they wish. It creates a much nicer environment for them as they do not feel bad if they can’t finish.
"I find when people have the opportunity to decide for themselves how much of a portion they want to take, they finish what they have taken, especially kids.”
Often people think they don’t like haggis but then they try it in something unexpected like on a pizza or as a canapé and they realise how delicious it can be!
Gary says, “Turn haggis into food that people love. It has such an incredible flavour and it can lift every dish it’s in.
"I have used it in loads of dishes from pakora, samosa, sausage rolls, potato hash and everyone’s favourite - haggis bon bons.
Picture: Chicken Balmoral
Gary says: "This dish is a huge hit in my house, if we have guests for dinner, this is always a great win. The crisp skin of the chicken and spice and texture of haggis, what’s not to love?"
Ingredients:
4 Chicken breasts, skin on
1 Savoy cabbage
50g Whole grain mustard
12 Rashers dry cured bacon
1 pkt Chives
50g Butter, unsalted
Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2.To prepare the cabbage, remove the outer leaves and discard.
3.Cut the root off and start to remove the inner leaves. Take each leaf and remove the centre spine and discard.
4.Shred the leaves by rolling them up tightly and running your knife through the leaves as thinly as you can until all the leaves have been cut.
5.Blanch the cabbage in rapidly boiling water then drain in a colander and cool with ice cold water.
6.Time to prepare the stuffed chicken breasts. Place the chicken breast skin side down on the chopping board, carefully make an incision from top to tail of the breast, without going all the way through. Then open up the incision on each side to make a pocket.
7.Next take about 75g of Haggis and roll it into a long sausage shape the same size as the cut in the chicken. Place the haggis into the space in the chicken and cover and roll.
8.In a hot pan sear your chicken breasts, skin side down first until crisp and golden. Remove from the pan and place onto a roasting tray and pop into the oven for about 15 minutes or until the thickest part reaches 75°C.
9.Take half of your bacon and cut into thin strips, pan fry the bacon until cooked add the blanched cabbage, chopped chives and the whole grain mustard and mix well.
10.Once the chicken breast is cooked, you are ready to serve.
Dauphinoise Potato
The creamy gratin potatoes can be pre-made in advance, if you don’t have time or are looking for something a bit healthier this dish works well with simple new boiled potatoes.
Ingredients:
750g Potatoes, Peeled and Thinly Sliced
300g Double Cream
50g Unsalted butter
3 Cloves of Garlic, crushed
1 Sprig Thyme
1 Sprig Rosemary
Salt/Pepper
100g Smoked cheddar cheese
Method:
1.Pre heat the oven to 180°C
2.In a thick bottomed pot add the cream, butter, rosemary, thyme and garlic, bring to a boil.
3.Season with salt and pepper.
4.Once the cream solution has boiled, strain it and add the sliced potatoes and slowly simmer until the cream starts to thicken.
5.Next carefully layer the potatoes into your tray, I like to add a little grated cheese into each layer as I go making sure you reserve some for the top at the end.
6.Scatter the top layer with the cheese, cover your tray with tin foil and place into the oven.
7.Bake in the oven at 180˚C for 20 minutes after which time removing the tin foil and bake for a further 15-20 minutes or until a knife can easily be inserted.
Picture: Haggis hash and hens eggs
This is a very easy dish to make and is perfect for a Sunday brunch.
Ingredients:
300g Haggis (sliced & quartered)
500g Frying potatoes (diced)
2 cloves Garlic (crushed)
2 tsp Oil
4 Eggs (free range)
Bunch Flat parsley (shredded)
Method:
1.Pre heat the oven to 200°C.
2.Dice the potatoes and place the potato into a medium heated frying pan and fry until golden and crisp.
3.Next crumble in the haggis and cook until it starts to crisp up, then add the crushed garlic and cook out for a couple of minutes.
4.The last thing to add is the shredded flat parsley.
5.Split this mixture into four oven proof dishes and then crack an egg into each dish and bake until the egg is cooked, try when cooking to keep the yolk runny.
This is a very different twist on our traditional haggis neeps and tatties. This is great party food and should attract people who wouldn’t normally have haggis.
Ingredients:
450g Haggis
450g Beef mince
12 Slider buns (toasted)
2 Plum tomatoes (sliced)
1 tub Cherry tomatoes
2 Red onion (sliced)
2 Large Dill pickle (sliced)
1 jar Relish
2 Gem lettuce
Method:
1.To make the burger it’s as simple as mixing the haggis and the minced beef together and add a touch of salt.
2.Find a jar or plastic tub lid that’s about 6cm wide x 2cm deep. Take a large piece of cling film and cover the lid.
3.Take some of your mixture and press it into the cling film-covered lid, then fold over the excess cling film, upturn the lid and push down onto the work surface and press the burger. Remove the burger from the lid and cling film.
4.Heat up a griddle pan or frying pan, add a touch of oil then place the burger into the pan. The secret is to not to touch the burger or turn it over until it has a chance to brown. With the burgers being so small they will cook very quickly.
5.Once cooked you can now start to build the burger, I like to build the burger up in as many layers as possible.
Turnip and whole grain mustard slaw
Ingredients:
1 med Turnip
1 large Carrot
½ Lemon
1 small Bunch of Chives
50g Whole grain Mustard
150g Mayonnaise
Method:
1.Peel then grate a medium-sized (450g) turnip and carrot.
2.Toss them immediately in the juice of half a lemon.
3.Mix together 4 heaped tbsp of mayonnaise the whole grain mustard and 2 tbsp of chopped chives.
4.Season with salt and black pepper, and then fold into the grated root vegetables.
For the spicy wedges
Ingredients:
1kg Red rooster potatoes
40g Parmesan
20g Cajun spice
Oil
1.To make wedges is very easy, the first thing to do is to microwave your potatoes until soft. This should take about 10 minutes. Using the microwave to cook the potatoes saves loads of time and energy.
2.Allow the potatoes to cool and settle, cut the potatoes in half then cut into wedges.
3.Drizzle a little oil in a frying pan, put the pan on the heat and then place in the wedges, because the potatoes are cook all you are trying to do is colour and crisp the potato.
4.Once you have achieved some colour turn the potatoes over and do the same on the other side.
5.Turn off the heat and toss in some of the Cajun spice, remove from the pan and sprinkle with grated parmesan.
Scran episode 7: Burns Night Special - the expert's guide on what to eat and drink
