This Wednesday 25th January is Burns Night, an evening celebrating the life and works of the Scottish poet Robert Burns with many people gathering together to host a special Scottish dinner. Typically this starts off with some Cullen Skink, a creamy smoked haddock soup and is then followed by the main course of Haggis and Neeps and Tatties (mashed potatoes and turnips or swedes). Even though my husband is actually half Scottish I have yet to make a real traditional dinner of some haggis and neeps and tatties but I am a big fan of haggis. I have had this a few times when visiting Glasgow, with my favourite meal being at the Two Fat Ladies at the Buttery. It really is delicious, similar to black pudding but more rich in flavour. One of my most memorable moments of having haggis is from a time we were staying in a hotel in Glasgow and it was part of the New Year’s Day breakfast – speaking from experience, it is a fantastic hangover cure! Preferably washed down with some Irn Bru…
I am still debating if I should go all out and cook a haggis this Wednesday. First of all I would need to actually get my hands on it but the local English Store (yes, popping to the English store for Scottish food ..) usually has some in stock. If you are in Berlin and looking for places to go and enjoy a real Scottish Burns Night supper then I recommend heading down to Das Gift, a Scottish bar run by Rachel and musician Barry Burns (mogwai) where they will be hosting a typical supper and the traditional address to the haggis.
But there is one thing that I will be making for sure this Wednesday and that is Cranachan. It is a wonderful Scottish dessert. Sweet raspberries folded into whipped cream, honey and whisky and mixed with crunchy, sugar coated oats – what could be more delicious? There are many ways to serve Cranachan with some making a granola out of the oats with nuts, dried fruits and added sugars but I went for the more traditional approach. All you need to do is wash it down with a wee dram!
- 250g raspberries
- 2 tbpsn caster sugar
- 450ml double cream
- 2 tbpsn honey
- 2 tbspn whisky
- 50g coarse oatmeal
- 25g butter
- Juice of half a lemon
- Heat a large frying pan. Add the butter, sugar and oats and heat on a medium heat until the sugar and butter has melted and the oats are lightly toasted and nutty. Stir regularly.
- Whip the cream until thick. Then blitz half of the raspberries in a blender or food processor with the lemon juice.
- Gently fold the honey, whisky and half of the raspberry purée and half of the oats into the cream.
- Put a couple of raspberries at the bottom of each dessert dish. Then add a layer of cream followed by a tspn size of the remaining puree and a tspn size of oats. Repeat this 2 more times, making sure that the final topping is some fresh raspberries, oats and a final drizzle of the purée.
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