Haggis, Pretend
It's all very well to joke about haggis, but a good one is wonderful, and this one is very good. (Besides, it's usually served with plenty of whisky, which really helps it go down.) I'll get around to putting up my recipe for hardcore haggis, complete with very graphic photographs, but I'll confess that the last time I tried to make it, I got grossed-out and my hard-to-assemble ingredients went to waste.
This recipe is ten times easier, to both source and make. You can make it as a meatloaf, since that's what it is, but you could fool basically all Americans and most Scots by stuffing this into a beef casing (large intestine), which has the great advantages of being properly gross, with large veins running all over it, and is also legal and available in America. (To make real haggis, you need the help of a friendly butcher who will "gift" you the necessary lamb-innards, because some still give the FDA conniptions.)
1 lb / 500 g ground lamb
7 oz / 200 g lamb's liver cut into very small pieces (beef liver does fine as a substitute)
4 fl oz / 125 ml water
1 finely chopped small onion
1 large egg
3/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/8 teaspoon ground cloves
1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
6 oz / 175 g steelcut/pinhead oats
4 oz suet (much preferred) or lard
1 large beef casing (optional)
Using a food processor, chop half of the lamb, the liver, onion, suet, egg, salt, pepper, sugar, ginger, cloves, nutmeg and water until finely combined. Add all remaining ingredients, mixing thoroughly until everything is just mixed together well. You want a matrix of larger and smaller pieces.
Easy: Put the mixture into the greased loaf pan and flatten the top. Bake 45 - 55 minutes in a pre-heated oven (350°F / 180°C) The centre of the loaf should be firm when pressed. Leave in the tin for around 2 - 3 minutes to cool. Gently turn on to a serving plate and serve right away.
"Authentic": Beef casings come packed in salt. Thoroughly rinse inside and out, and tie off one end. Fill with the mixture, taking care to not stretch it more than about 6" wide, because it might burst when boiling. Tie off the other end, cover with water in a pot, and simmer for 90 min, then serve in the authentic way, which involves marching it around the dining table preceded by a bagpiper. How much stuffing is too much? A casing burst on me when I stuffed it to where it was more than 6" wide. Luckily, the haggis stayed in one piece, and I was serving to Americans, who didn't notice.
Serve with champit tatties and bashed neeps, of course.