I WAS reading the BBC News website when this heading caught my eye: Haggis is English! Naturally I had to satisfy my curiosity: was it a joke?
According to the historian Catherine Brown, a haggis recipe was published in an English book, called The English Hus-Wife, published in 1615, almost 200 years before any evidence of the dish in Scotland.
This would pre-date Robert Burns' poem To a Haggis, which brought fame to the delicacy, by at least 171 years.
Well, I feel sure this will spark a few comments; I might even don a crash helmet!
I am going to reserve judgment myself, as this is a hard one to swallow, and I feel sure someone will offer evidence of an even earlier mention in Scotland!
This is the time of year when the recipe for one of my favourite haggis dishes is most appopriate.
Pan-fried haggis cake
Ingredients
2 large baking potatoes
400g haggis, roughly chopped
100g butter
2-3tbsp of fine, instant potato mix*
3 egg yolks
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/gas mark 6.
Bake the potatoes for about an hour or until tender. Then remove from the oven and leave to cool a little.
Cut the potatoes in half, scoop out the potato and mix in a bowl with the haggis, butter and egg yolks.
Season to taste.
Scatter the instant potato on a clean surface, and shape the mixture into four even sized cakes.
Fry in a little vegetable oil for 2-3 minutes on each side before serving.
You could finish this dish with a soft poached egg on top.
* Using potato powder allows for those on gluten-free diets to eat this, and also gives a nice sandy texture to the cakes.
