Venison Haggis Wellington

  Today is Burns' Day. Which is, of course, a good excuse to eat haggis. And drink lovely whisky. We actually had ours on Friday evening, because Friday is better for drinking whisky than Sunday.

This year, I decided to do something a bit different and put the haggis in a Wellington.

I had a venison haggis, MacSweens, of course, and a venison "steak" (the butcher who sliced it and called it a steak should be run out of the profession): it made sense to put them together. So I seasoned and seared the steak and let it cool completely.

Then I rolled out a sheet of butter puff pastry and topped it with the venison and the haggis (it was a tidy little one in a plastic casing, not a traditional one).

I'm not very good at the wrapping up and sealing side of making a Wellington. I tend to end up with a lot of tears and leaks, so this time I folded and crimped and squashed and showed it no mercy. It probably compromised the rising of the pastry layers, but at least it didn't fall apart... Then I glazed it with egg yolk and baked it.

The whisky we had with it was far too nice to cook with, and the haggis itself was seasoned with port, so I decided to stick with a fortified wine flavour for my sauce. I softened a shallot in a knob of butter, added 150ml chicken stock, 150ml madeira and 1tbs green peppercorns and simmered the sauce until it was reduced by half. Then I added a heaped tablespoon of sour cream, whisked it in and just brought it back to a simmer.

Because of the pastry, I didn't think we needed potatoes or swedes or anything starchy with it. But I had been fascinated by this article on "kalettes" or flower sprouts so I bought some to try. Very pretty, they cook in moments and taste more like a brussels sprout than kale, which is a good thing to my mind! I steamed them for a couple of minutes and tossed in a knob of butter.

The kalettes were the perfect thing with the rich, peppery wellington and creamy peppercorn sauce. And then of course delicious whisky was the icing on the cake. Sae let the Lord be thankit.