Haggis, Chips and Curry!

Well I’m back in the UK and a bit “jet lagged” or knackered to use a more technical term.  But the weather is really good for late March, flip flops and t-shirt weather, and the place is full of blossom and daffodils and stuff so it’s not all bad. 

We are spending a few days with my Real Man’s similarly real man father and have just had seriously excellent fish and chips for lunch.  

Generally speaking Up Northians do fish and chips wonderfully well and Gills at Seton Sluice is one of our favourite fish and chips shops out of many good ones; lovely sweet fleshed skinless haddock, super crispy light dry batter, mushy peas and good chunky real potato chips.  

The menu, however, did make me grin a bit offering such choices as …

2 Pineapple Rings, Chips and Gravy

or

Haggis, Chips and Curry

!

Talk about fusion!  

Maybe, of course, these combinations are great but I’m too tired to experiment at the moment – not sure if the pineapple rings are battered and fried or au naturel. 

If you do fancy doing something different with your haggis see here!

Mushy peas, sometimes known as sloppy peas, are ever so much nicer than they sound – just dried marrowfat peas soaked overnight (or possibly during the day) in copious cold water together with a little bic of sod, drained and then simmered in just enough fresh water to cover (topping up as necessary) till breaking down and soft and, in fact, mushy.  Add a knob of butter and season to taste.

These days a lot of chefs and cookbooks give a completely different twist on mushy peas using a combination of fresh or frozen peas, spring onions, fresh mint, butter and double cream cooked together and puréed with a few whole peas held back and stirred in at the end.  I am positive this is absolutely delicious and will be trying it soon but, to me, this is not the traditional dish.

In other news 

I have bought a copy of April’s Vegetarian Living to look at my article "10 Tasty Tear ‘n’ Share Loaves” and am all excited about getting down to writing again asap – loads of ideas!

So that’s about it – a short post just to say I’m back and as soon as I have created some leftovers I shall start using them up and letting you know about it!