Like many Canadians, Cinda Chavich, our food and cooking columnist has some Scottish heritage. And this week she’s ready to celebrate the famous bard Robbie Burns, with a look at that oh-so-Scottish specialty, haggis.

SO YOUR GRANDMOTHER WAS FROM SCOTLAND – WHAT ELSE HAS YOU INVESTIGATING HAGGIS THIS WEEK?

Yes, like many Canadians I have a wee bit of the Scot in me - my maternal grandmother was actually born in Glasgow. So while I was in Scotland recently, I spent some time exploring the topic of local and traditional foods, especially the much maligned haggis.

As you probably know, haggis is a strange kind of Scottish sausage – made with onions, oatmeal and ground lamb scraps, seasoned with lots of pepper and stuffed into a sheep stomach.

Because Robert Burns wrote a poem, or actually and address to the haggis, it’s read at the annual Burns Night Dinners celebrating the poet’s birth.

And with Burns Night coming up January 25, I thought it was fitting to talk about the modern world of haggis.

HAGGIS IS STILL BEING SERVED IN SCOTLAND?

It certainly is, and in a variety of modern guises. Not only do you find the classic haggis, sheep stomach and all, at traditional butcher shops and on some menus, the whole regional cooking craze seems to have inspired chefs to do some creative things with haggis.

I ate haggis for breakfast, lunch and dinner – from Edinburgh to Loch Ness. It’s just part of the food culture there.

For breakfast, it’s usually a fried patty, like a haggis burger on the plate. Butchers are now stuffing haggis into fat sausage casings, like haggis salamis, and chefs just slice it, brown it, and serve it alongside the eggs, bacon, fried mushrooms and broiled tomatoes for a traditional Scot breakfast.

At lunch or dinner, in some cases the haggis arrived in a mound, obviously scooped from it’s casing, with the traditional tatties and neeps – mashed potatoes and turnips – alongside. At one spot I had it with a rich whisky sauce, at another, with a creamy leek sauce.

But I also had little haggis balls for canapés. I had a haggis tower appetizer – with the haggis served atop a layered stack of mashed potatoes and turnips. And I had haggis wrapped in puff pastry with a red wine sauce.

WOW THAT SOUNDS CREATIVE

I thought so, but that was really the most traditional kind of haggis I found being served in Scotland. It’s everywhere.

These days you’ll find haggis on all kinds of ethnic menus, too - spicy haggis pakoras, haggis samosas, spring rolls stuffed with haggis and chicken breasts stuffed with haggis and wrapped in prosciutto.

You can buy haggis in a can, and even “1-minute haggis” – two slices in a plastic packet that’s ready to microwave in a minute. So you can nuke your haggis for lunch at work.

SOUNDS LIKE YOU ATE AN AWFUL LOT OF OFFAL – YOU MUST LOVE HAGGIS

Well, not really. I was working. It was research. But everywhere I went, I felt compelled to try the haggis, whether I was in a fine boutique hotel or a rural pub.

And some of it was really not that bad. The high quality versions – from butchers like Findlay’s or Ramsay’s – are now made with lean ground beef and lamb, with lots of onions, steel cut oats, and only a little of the organ meats. So they can be quite good – sort of like a meat loaf or pate, that’s seasoned with lots of black pepper.

But my favourite haggis was actually the vegetarian haggis I had at the Urban Angel in Edinburgh.

VEGETARIAN HAGGIS?! ISN’T THAT A BIT OF BLASPHEMY?

Well, it is an oxymoron. But vegetarian haggis is very popular in Scotland. The MacSween company, which specializes in haggis of all kinds, made a vegetarian haggis several years ago as a PR stunt, and now it makes up nearly ¼ of their business.

They sell full-sized haggis balls (to serve four), smaller balls that serve two, and even little golf-balled sized haggis for canapés – in both traditional and vegetarian versions. You’ll find this McSween haggis in gourmet groceries and supermarkets throughout Scotland.

SO WHAT GOES INTO VEGETARIAN HAGGIS?

I’m not exactly sure about everything in those commercially-made vegetarian versions, but most vegetarian haggis recipes I found included the traditional oatmeal, onions and black pepper, but with beans, lentils and ground walnuts or cashews standing in for the meat. It’s really similar to a vegetarian nut loaf, but with the classic Scottish spicing.

Some of the recipes have finely chopped or grated carrots and turnips in the mixture, too. Some have a shot of whisky.

They’re usually baked in a loaf pan, some include a beaten egg to keep the mixture together.

AND HOW IS IT SERVED?

There isn’t a really pretty way to present haggis – it’s generally scooped out into a bowl, with mashed potatoes and turnips – either mixed together or mashed separately – on the side.

If you want to do the haggis tower – like the Scottish chefs I encountered – take a clean soup can, remove both ends and use it as a mold. Place the can in the centre of the serving plate, fill with a layer of hot mashed potatoes, a layer of cooked rutabaga and then a layer of cooked haggis. Press down lightly and pull the can straight up – you should have a nice layered stack that can be surrounded by whisky sauce or red wine gravy.

WHAT ABOUT LESS TRADITONAL SIDE DISHES?

One one-line cook suggested making a potato and rutabaga rosti – a sort of fried pancake made with shredded potatoes, onions and turnip – with some steamed broccoli to serve alongside. That sounds like it would be tasty – and colourful.

And while it’s not really traditional, I think haggis does benefit from some kind of sauce. I enjoyed it with the cream sauce flavoured with butter and sautéed leeks – but you could make a creamy whisky sauce, too.

And some cooks even suggested using their vegetarian haggis mixture like ground beef – in things like haggis lasagna and haggis nachos.

DID YOU FIND A RECIPE FOR VEGETARIAN HAGGIS?

I found several on the internet and came up with my own version. There’s mashed kidney beans and cooked red lentils in the mixture, but I think it’s best if you include lots of coarsely chopped toasted nuts for flavour and texture. I use steel cut oats, too, because they don’t get mushy, and keep the haggis toothsome – and it’s bulked up with sautéed vegetables, lots of onions, mushrooms and grated carrots.

THAT SOUNDS TASTY

It was. I had it with mashed potatoes and turnips – the traditional Scottish way – but I’ll make this vegetarian loaf again, even if it’s not Burns Night.  It’s just a great vegetarian main coarse – much like a nutty meat loaf – and makes a healthy, low-fat meal. It’s the perfect way to stretch a dollar in January, with enough left over for a dram to toast the bard.

Click here for Cinda’s Vegetarian Haggis recipe....

©Cinda Chavich 2011

www.tastereport.com