At the risk of upsetting any passing Scots, we had a haggis with meat tonight and I’m not sure it won me over. It’s a long time since I last had haggis and comparing it with the vegetable version we had last week there is no clear winner.
They were both spicy and tasty and in terms of texture the meaty one was a bit spongy. As it is 33% sheep’s lung (with added beef fat, liver and heart) I suppose this shouldn’t be a surprise.
To continue the downward trend, the veggie burgers are currently in the oven, and they are not holding together quite as well as last week’s attempt. They seemed a bit wetter when I mixed them, which I put down to the quality of the mashed veg.
That is the eternal quandary. Do I treat it like a chemical experiment and measure all the ingredients, or do I just lob it all in and enjoy the mystery?
I think we all know the answer to that.
Alea iacta est, as Caesar said – the die is cast – and it is too late for me to become a Michelin starred chef. I’m a rough cook and I’m fated to remain a rough cook.
Close up of the vegetables
Sorry about the small size of the photo in the text – I only have a choice of two sizes and the next one up is so large it could cause alarm in people who aren’t expecting life size carrot slices.
I really should try to do something about the quality of my photography.
The veggie burgers are out of the oven now, and hanging together. I’ll have to see what they taste like tomorrow. A quick test of some bits that fell off indicates that they will be OK. After Julia’s complaints last week I’ve been less forthright with the spicing and they are tasty without being to fierce.
I this my life? I wanted to be a captain of industry and leader of men, when I wasn’t being a famous writer or doing good works or fishing for Nile Perch.
Instead, I’m wittering on about haggis and the big excitement of the day was when I was trying to park outside the shop this morning. I stopped to allow a young woman to walk past and she tried to get into the back of the car, mistaking me for her regular taxi. Like me, he has a silver VW, and was parked outside one of the other shops, waiting for her.
Tomorrow I am planning on polishing the counter tops.
Be still, my beating heart…
It is very difficult to get a mutton pie these days. When I was a student, my lunch was often two mutton pies and a cream doughnut. Those were the days. Some snotty professor did some research which purported to show that the paper bag that the pies came in was more nutritious than the pies. You can’t get fat running down your chin from eating a paper bag though.
I remember Magnus Pyke making the same sort of comment about breakfast cereal and the box.
It’s always a shame when the old ways die. Makes you wonder how we lived this long when you listen to nutritionists.
That is true, especially when you factor in smoking Capstan full strength.
In my father’s day he was given a cigarette allowance as a salesman so he could offer cigarettes to customers. How times change.
I was listening to someone talking about the EEC meetings in the early 70s when everyone smoked and at least a quarter of them were smoking cigars.
Different times…
I’m with Lisa. I’ll take those eggs, which are very good.
Who’s Heston Blumenthal anyway? Not so long ago I got into a parked car and surprised the woman driver. Jackie was parked next to her. I may have blogged it.
Sounds like you had an exciting day with a good cap off of haggis. 🙂
🙂
That haggis looks singularly unappetizing, though the veggies are attractive. A friend ate haggis at a restaurant in Kyle of Lochalsh and pronounced it tasty, but he will, in fact eat anything (fish eyes, rat on a stick), so it wasn’t much of a recommendation. I’d stick with the oath, vegetarian kind…
It’s OK. I prefer black pudding but they are really just different ways of presenting offal to the peasantry.
The Scots have a distinctive cuisine including mutton pies (aka Scotch pies) and Lorne Sausage (which is square).
And then there are those eggs…which I quite liked…