The Forager’s Haggis is ideal for Burns Night
The Forager’s Haggis
- Beef bung for stuffing
- 500g toasted pinhead oatmeal
- 200g of well cared for, organic, minced pork fat or belly.
- 1.4kg wild game pluck (heart, lungs liver), ½ diced, ½ minced
- 500g of mixed wild game trimmings
- 100g finely diced onion
- 3 cloves of garlic chopped fine
- 1.5 litres game stock
- For the seasoning: 6g juniper berries
- 6g dried coriander seed
- 2g ground mace
- 6g cracked black pepper
- 6g fresh thyme
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- Salt to taste
- For the Aelder braised cabbage: 1 small red cabbage
- 1 sliced red onion
- 70g soft light brown sugar
- 70ml cider vinegar
- 100 ml Aelder elixir
- One large knob of butter
- Sprigs of thyme
- Toast the oatmeal and set aside. In a large pan fry the onion, garlic and dried spices until onions are translucent before adding the meat and browning for 5 minutes (some prefer to cook the meat first but this method keeps the finished haggis more juicy).
- Add the oatmeal and ½ the stock and keep stirring, adding the remainder of the stock gradually until the oatmeal is al dente. Once done, season with lemon juice, fresh thyme and salt to taste.
- Let the haggis cool before spooning the mixture into the soaked, rinsed ox bung. Be aware the filling swells as it cooks, so pack quite loosely, and keep a little bung at each end. When the haggis is the size required, expel any extra air, pinch, tie with string and cut with scissors.
- Tie the new end of the bung, and continue stuffing. Freeze any spare haggises.
- To cook the final haggis poach gently at about 83 deg c for half an hour to 45 minutes.
- For the Aelder braised cabbage: Quarter the red cabbage and remove the core, then finely shred. Tip into a large pan with the red onion, brown sugar, cider vinegar, Aelder Elixir, thyme and butter and season well. Bring to a simmer, then cover with a lid, lower the heat and cook for 1 1/ 2 hrs, stirring every so often. Remove the lid and continue cooking for 30 mins until tender and the liquid is reduced and glossy .
Recipe © Buck & Birch | https://www.buckandbirch.com/
With Burns Night approaching, we present a tasty haggis with a difference.
We’ve teamed up with Buck & Birch to share possibly the most indulgent and decadent Burn’s supper recipes going- The Forager’s Haggis.
A Burns Supper would traditionally consist of Haggis, neeps and tatties but head chef, master forager and flavour expert at Buck & Birch, Rupert Waites has elevated the dish with foraged ingredients, wild game and a mound of sweet, sticky, braised red cabbage made with a generous glug of Buck & Birch’s award-winning elderberry liqueur, Aleder Elixir.
This recipe may seem a little daunting to make from scratch, but a butcher bought haggis will work just fine but don’t forget the Aleder Elixir braised cabbage – it makes all the difference!
