Haggis, neeps & tattie tart with a whisky cream sauce

 

In Scotland every bairn is weened on haggis, South of the border some adults claim not to be ready for it but then I bet they are the same people who don't like black pudding, faggots, haslet, kidneys, and God forbid, liver. These people prefer prawns and buy prepared food at M&S. Yer average Scot though eats it stacked in towers, stuffed into chicken, in sandwiches with cheese and also in tarts like this. Washed down with Iron Bru and finished with a Tunnocks Bar. This is the nation that tosses cabers, endures midges, goes commando, drinks heavy, and gave us the dram we love. And now ye ken why.

Butchers over the border sell haggis by the slice which is what I used here.

Make some pastry, butter a flan dish and then roll it out and put it in. Pastry recipe below.

Put some potatoes on to boil and chop some swede, and steam or boil it.

In a pan gently fry some onion until softened then throw in the haggis and break it up into small pieces, after five minutes it's ready to be put as a layer across the pastry bottom. Mash your swede and season with lots of pepper and salt, put it over the haggis. Next mash your spuds, add a little milk, season, fold in some strong cheddar cheese and spread over the swede. Bake for forty minutes or so at 180.

Serve with a whisky cream sauce, simply made by gently frying finely chopped onion in butter, add in a small glass of whisky, simmer and reduce a little, then add some cream and teaspoon of Dijon type mustard and a teaspoon of coarse mustard, stir for a minute and serve over a slice of  the lovely tart.

Pastry

This is my perfect pastry method, put 4 oz of plain flour in a blender, add half a teaspoon of salt, wizz, add 2 oz of lard and 2 oz of butter in, wizz till you have what looks like breadcrumbs, run a cold tap till the water is really cold, put some in a glass, add a teaspoon of white rice vinegar, wizz and slowly add as little water until the mixture starts to form a ball, immediately stop. put it in cling film and put in the fridge for at least half an hour. This is enough to cover a nine inch flan dish at about 5 mm thick.