To beg any of you Scottish mumsnetters to help me with a Burns Supper?

[Diddydollydo]

In his drunken rantings on NYE, DH has invited 4 other couples to our house at the end of Jan for a 'Burns Supper'. DH's best mate is Scottish, hence the idea and thought it would be a nice change for the rest of us. I'm quite happy to do this as I love cooking (except our house is tiny so it'll be a squeeze . Now here is my problem - I have NO idea what to serve apart from haggis, tatties and turnip (neeps?) so I need help! I want to do a haggis dish and a simple chicken dish and also serve some other traditional Scottish bits like shortbread etc so Scottish mumsnetters, HELP!

1. Make tablet

I often make chicken stuffed with haggis, wrapped in bacon and served with whisky sauce. Yum.

Combine both and make Balmoral chicken? Haggis stuffed chicken breast wrapped in bacon. A little less 'in your face' than a whole portion of haggis maybe.
Shortbread quite easy to make and can be made a wee bit in advance.
Cranachan for desert maybe, or a cheeseboard with oatcakes and Crowdie.
Some Irn Bru?

x posts Not!

Some cranachan would be good for pud.

Great minds scrablet and yy to the IrnBru

Oh I hadn't thought of Irn Bru! How do I make tablet?

The reason for the chicken is because DH's mate's wife (also Scottish) said that haggis was 'boggin' (my new favourite word!) so the chicken is for her!

I don't want it too fancy either Euphemia, I love cooking but simple and tasty is my motto!

If the thought of meat haggis is too much, veggie haggis, especially MacSweens is delish.

Tablet - bleurch!

Cock a leekie soup or salmon
Haggis and veg or chicken pie
Crannachan
Whisky

Naked twister is also traditional (i made that bit up)

Usual menu IME is:

Cockaleekie soup
Haggis, neeps and tatties
Cranachan and/or oatcakes and cheese

Sometimes a steak pie or beef stew gets served along with the main - the main advantage to this over the chicken is that it comes with gravy and traditional HNT can be a bit dry otherwise (although I'd ditch one of the other courses in this case).

Google for "Sunday Herald tablet recipe" for tablet - it can be a bit tricky to make as it involves boiling sugar to high temperatures, it's worked three out the four times I've made it.

Also, lots of whisky.

The whole poetry aspect can easily be dispensed with, but if you want to have one or two, then I'd go for the Address to a Haggis and the Selkirk Grace (unless your DH has ambitions of reciting the whole of Tam O'Shanter!).

Aha weblette I was just also about to suggest cranachan -great minds!! It's a doddle to make, can be done in advance and is utterly delicious!! I always include some scottish raspberries with mine but might be tricky to find at this time of year. If you want an easy starter, you can get some lovely smoked venison slices with some salad on the side and a drizzle of balsamic. For what it's worth, my absolute fave haggis is Macsween which I am sure you could source on the net and M & S does a nice onion gravy that goes well (not really traditional but yum all the same!!)

Oh and whisky. It's a must!!

Such fun!

When we do Burns' night we have the following for pudding:

Give each person a small plate. In the centre of the table place:

Tablet
Shortbread
Oatcakes
mini meringues
A big bowl of raspberries (sometimes other berries too)
runny honey
a bowl of oats which you have toast-fried in butter till golden
some sweetenned whisky-cream (double cream to which you have added some whiskey and some golden icing sugar)
some plain cream
Several different single-malt whiskies.

Everyone gets to combine these ingredients in whatever ratios seem good to them.

There is no need for the main course to be any more complex than haggis with neeps and nips (any root vegetable, doesn't have to be turnip specifically - we usually have a small amount of turnip in a medelly with carrot, parsnip and sweet potato. Although traditionally your veg should be "bashed" (i.e. mashed) we usually have some mashed and some roasted as wedges for variey - and one green veg usually peas.

We don't usually bother with a starter but if you want one then you can't go wrong with Scotland's National Soup.

Your other indispensible requirements are a good supply of decent single malts and a book of The Bard's poetry for you to take turns reading from (the former is indispensible in order to give you the courage to do the latter). And a CD of bagpipe music to play when you carry in the haggis. The ode to the haggis should be read before the haggis is cut into, with a large knife weilded and plunged into the haggis at the appropriate point in the poem. We sometimes also read from McGonagall too for variety. There is no need to bother with the traditional "toast to the lassies" and "response from the lassies" if you don't have participants who are enthusiastic enough to do them.

Wow thank you all so much! All sounds very complicated! I'm looking forward to it actually I think it'll be great fun. I don't suppose Just Dance is traditional after the meal by any chance? :)

Stovies would be better!

Stovies would be better!

Only if it's Scottish Country Dancing on Just Dance

Haggis pie with peppercorn sauce

Layer it up add caramelised onions between the haggis layer and turnip/carrot layer then mash on top with breadcrumbs on top. Serve with peppercorn sauce. Very successful and easy to make.

Or see if you can get a playlist made up entirely of Runrig, Capercaillie, Proclaimers etc.

At formal Burns Suppers, the haggis is often served as a separate course with something else, often steak pie, as the main, i.e, largest dish. Also, in Scottish restaurants, HNT is sometimes served as a starter in a stack - formed in a metal ring with mashed potato base, then haggis, finishing with mashed turnip (the type you might call swede). A whisky sauce often accompanies.

I wholeheartedly endorse cranachan as a suggested dessert. Truly gorgeous even if raspberries are out of season. If you get tablet (I'd probably buy, rather than make), you can serve it in place of mints with coffee.

Lentil soup
Haggis, neeps and tatties layered in a pie
Cranachan
Tis tradition in this house

One of my mates does a Burns Night supper every year: we have oatcakes with smoked salmon and cream cheese followed by soup (usually chicken and veg though it varies). Then the haggis, served with mashed roots (potato, carrot, swede, parsnip, turnip in various proportions) and a whisky-cream sauce. Followed by cranachan and a shot of whisky.

Followed by depravity over which I shall draw a veil .

And remember, neeps are NOT the English turnips, the little white and pink things you get here.

Back home in my part of Scotland, neeps are what Sassenachs would call swede.

I was confused when I moved here and someone served turnips at tea time!

I have a Burns Supper for 12 every year. I start with Scotch Broth (yuk, but it's traditional and everyone else likes it) then haggis neeps and tatties, with individual steak pies for the two weirdos people who don't like haggis.

You'll also need someone to address the haggis, a man to toast the lassies, and a woman to reply. At mine, everyone reads a favourite Burns poem or makes one up in the style of Burns. He was filthy - take a look at Cock Up Your Beaver, for example.

And then we just have whisky for pudding.

Not traditional but you can't forget "Deep Fried Mars Bars" for pud.

And there's an ice-cream in Sainsburys (IIRC Mackies that my Glaswegian DH raves about.