Our Burns Night Menu of the Week supper was excellent, truly it was. A simple, easy menu that was very quick and easily put together and tonight we have made another Mock Haggis microwave cooking it this time in just 15 minutes.
The first haggis was cooked in our Prestige pressure cooker in 40 minutes, that is 30 minutes steaming, lidded but minus the three-piece weight, then cooked for 10 minutes with the 5lb. weight in place. The pressure was reduced slowly because a quick release could make the pudding sink, and that took about 45 minutes. It turned out well onto a warmed plate and then I added a trail of hot gravy and the mock haggis was complete. We served it with a jug of extra gravy plus mashed tatties and neeps which made for an excellent supper.
Cock A Leekie soup made with vegetables, chicken stock, long grain rice plus diced cooked chicken which I added 15 minutes before end time plus the prunes which were really delicious in the hot soup. The soup was made in a medium-sized saucepan with leeks, carrots, celery, a little turnip and a Bouquet Garni. The recipe uses a small fresh chicken cooked in water in a large lidded pan with the herbs but as we had left-over roasted chicken from the previous evening, it was a simple matter to strip the carcass and cut up the meat.
The WI recipe for the dessert was adapted by Diane Sanderson who is a Home Economics Adviser and what she created was a simplified version of the traditional Scottish Dessert, Cranachan, which also includes toasted oatmeal with sugar which is then soaked overnight in a little whisky. The oatmeal mix is then either layered with the whipped cream and crushed or pureed raspberries or used to decorate to top, with a few whole raspberries. Diane’s Raspberry Burns Night Dessert omits the oatmeal but includes a little sweet white wine, plus whisky, and the dessert is served with shortbread fingers or petticoat tails. It was absolutely delicious. I omitted the whisky altogether as I didn’t have any and because I don’t like it, but I know it definitely adds its own distinctive flavour of whisky smokiness which lifts the dessert out of the delicious to the sublime.
I’ve not made the Wassail Cup yet but I might just make it this weekend or sometime soon. I’m sure it will be delicious!
Here are my photos for you to see…
Happy eating…
Margaret Halstead xxx