Haggis Championships 2014 - Sykes Cottages

When Jamie from Sykes Cottages approached us and asked if we would like to take part in the first Sykes Cottages Haggis Championships we couldn’t resist. They found from a recent survey that two thirds of those surveyed would not order haggis if they saw it on a menu. This prompted them to try and change peoples ideas and see if those taking part in the competition could come up with creative and tasty ways of eating haggis.

So the brief was pretty simple – design a dish to change people’s ideas on haggis and make it something they’d jump at the chance to eat. Sykes Cottages provided us with our very own personalised apron and £15 towards our ingredients.

Now we know not everyone is a fan of haggis, it’s a bit like marmite, you either love it or hate it. It did take me a little while to be convinced it was actually very tasty, the dish which did it for me was haggis balls dipped in a whisky sauce.

Our initial thoughts were to do something with the traditional haggis, neeps and tatties but with a modern twist but after a bit of discussion Mr Edinburger came up with the idea of – Haggis and Goat’s Cheese filo parcels with a chilli dip. He comes up with the ideas and I then have to turn them into something edible (guess who’s the cook in the house!).

Haggis and goat’s cheese filo parcels

Ingredients

50g butter (can substitute with olive oil for a healthier version)
100g goats cheese
Jus Rol 6 Filo pastry sheets 270g
Massween traditional haggis 454g (serves 2-3)
Galloway Chilli – Chilli Lemon Citrus with Lime

Method

First thing to do is get the haggis out of it’s wrappers and sliced or cut into chucks and into the microwave to cook. Gone are the days of boiling it to death. Our brand takes 9 minutes in total. Place it in the microwave, medium heat, covered, cook for 4 minutes, break up with a fork and then continue cooking for a further 5 minutes. Once it’s cooked allow to cool.

Whilst the haggis is cooking, you can prep the goats cheese. We cut ours into chunks. It would work with either chucks or slices.

The 50g of butter will also need to be melted. This is to be used on the filo pastry.

Pre-heat oven to 190°C (fan oven) mark 6.

Next thing is to prepare the filo pastry. As it dries out quite quickly leave this a long as you can. Take it out of it’s packaging and open out the sheets. We cut the sheets in two to form 12 squares. Then cover the pastry with a damp tea towel just to stop it from drying out until you are ready to use it.

Take 1 sheet of the filo pastry and brush with the melted butter (this can be substituted with olive oil to make it more healthier). Cover the sheet almost to the edges. The melted butter with help the layers to stick together.

Place the next layer on at an angle, repeat the last step and again until there are three layers. The top layer does not require melted butter brushed on it. You should end up with something like this:

Take a large spoonful of the cooled haggis and place in the centre of the filo sheets. And then top with a chunk of goat’s cheese.

As the squares are quite large, make sure you put a good serving of haggis on it otherwise your parcel will end up more pastry and less filling.

Pinch together the pastry sheets to cover the haggis and cheese (making a parcel). Open out the edges and brush with melted butter to brown the pastry.

Place on a lightly greased baking tray.

Then place in the middle of a pre-heated oven and cook for 15-18 minutes, until golden brown.

Serve up with a side of seasonal salad and cherry vine tomatoes.

For the chilli dip, we used our new favourite made by Galloway Chillies. It works brilliantly well with the spicy flavour of the haggis and the tangy taste of the goat’s cheese. Not being a huge chilli fan it’s hot enough for me without making me reach for milk.

This can also be done with large flat mushrooms.

We placed the mushroom on the filo pastry then topped with haggis and goat’s cheese before we made a little parcel shape. This bakes for the same length of time and is equally as delicious.

Hopefully we’ve given you lots of ideas and inspired you to make your own haggis creation.