Burn's Night - Part 1

Now, although we were planning to have an informal Burn's Night there are a number of formalities that need observing and so I spent quite a while on the internet yesterday researching Burn's Night's Supper formats (I wanted to put itinerary but couldn't work out how to spell it!)

Anyway, we needed the Selkirk Grace:

Some hae meat and cannot eat.
Some cannot eat that want it:
But we hae meat and we can eat,
Sae let the Lord be thankit.


Then there was the parade of the Haggis, the address to the Haggis and then the best bit......
the eating of the Haggis.

I also printed off a few of the shorter Burns poems, and that's not a big selection as Burns was not known for his short writings, some of them go on for several pages.

And then there was the scary bit - the toast to the Immortal Memory of Robert Burns - hey ho, time for more research and some speach writing to be done.

And so to the Haggis. Now, where on earth are we to get a Haggis in Spain, and if we do get one - what will it taste like? No, it has to come from Scotland so, a few weeks ago I had found 'McKean's of Scotland - haggis makers since 1850' on the interenet. http://www.scottishhaggis.co.uk/
Their website said they delivered to Spain and I rang them to clarify a few details and then ordered on line. There was going to be about 15 of us so we ordered a Chieftain Haggis, all 2.5kg of it and also a Veggie Haggis for our vegetarian friends.

I ordered them on Monday 12th January and by last Monday I was beginning to panic about whether they would arrive in time so I gave them a quick ring to make sure they had processed the order ok. Yes, they assured me they had dispatched the order on the Thursday and it would arrive with us either that day or the next. 6 days for a delivery from Scotland to Spain, including a weekend? No, can't be right.

We had friends flying out on Friday so as a standby they could bring a small Haggis with them - but, it wasn't necessary. On the Tuesday as I was out walking with the dogs a UPS van drove onto the estate. I stopped him and asked if he had a delivery for our address and he said yes, so he got the package off the van and there it was, as promised - 2 Haggis. They were in a good sized polystyrene box with ice packs around them to keep them fresh. We opened the box to put the Haggis in the bottom of the fridge until yesterday and wow - 2.5 kilos is a lot of Haggis. Fortunately, we had a large pan to cook it in.

That's the veggie Haggis on the left.....ahhh, bless! The big Haggis would need to be cooked for 2 hours and the little one for 45 mins.

Now, everyone knows that along with Haggis you need turnips and mash - only one problem, you don't get yellow turnips in Spain!

Next: Planning and cooking the Haggis supper............