Pink Eyed Jim’s Blog

I’m one of the lucky souls who was brave enough to try haggis. I was well rewarded for my bravery, haggis rules! It all started in High School when my friend Jake’s mom made me a steak and kidney pie. I was hooked from the first bite. A few months later, I had a yen for steak and kidney pie again. I did a little research and found a place in New Jersey that makes their own steak and kidney pie, called Stewart’s of Kearny. I took the 40 minute ride from Trenton to Bricktown way back in 2001 just to try their steak and kidney pie. It was awesome. There, lingering in the freezer case next to the homemade steak and kidney pies were a few homemade haggises. I thought to myself “Why the hell not?” and picked up one ( I mean how often do I drive to Bricktown?).

I took the haggis and kidney pie home and set out to cook them. The kidney pie was frozen, so I baked it covered in a low oven. The haggis had to be steamed. I bombed it. The haggis got too hot and all the sausage filling leaked out of the casing and into the bottom of the pot and I had haggis soup. I cooked as much water out of the haggis as I could and still ate the salvageable bits, and from that day forth have been hooked on haggis - the allure, the taste, the poem. I have bought a haggis on or near Burns’ Eve every year since then. Some have been good, others great. All were better than that first haggis.

Early this year, I read in Saveur Magazine about a Texan who had decided to make his own haggis for the American market (since importing meat from the UK doesn’t happen that often). He calls himself “Laird O Tha Haggis.” Being a Texan, of course, he decided to use beef instead of sheep. It worked very well. He even makes a vegetarian haggis now! I bought the Haggis Sampler along with some neeps and tatties.

The haggis sampler contains one of each of their varieties of Haggis (Highland Beef, Sirloin Beef, and Vegetarian Haggis). A few months ago, I fried slices of the Highland Beef haggis as a breakfast meat. This morning I decided to try the vegetarian haggis. I was blown away.

I started the endeavor by frying some wedges of potato in a bit of butter, salt and pepper. Once those were nice and brown and crisp, I heated up half of a can of the haggis (I added a little bit of Tabasco). The vegetarian variety is made with mushrooms, pecans, beans, and oats. When the haggis is heated each of these ingredients stands out separately, yet they also combine to create that nice meaty, haggis taste. It was simply amazing. The pecans lent a bit of sweetness to the haggis, the mushrooms, a nice meaty earthy flavor, the oats gave it a nice chewiness. Coupled with the fried potatoes, it made a hearty lunch. I’m sure Rabbie Burns never envisioned a vegetarian version of his “Great chieftain of the pudding-race” but I think he’d be very pleased for when I tasted this vegetarian haggis my first thought was “O what a glorious sight, Warm-reekin’, rich!”

Try this stuff, you’ll thank me.