SIMON HOWIE PARTNERS WITH SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL CHEF TO CREATE NEW RECIPES FOR SCOTLAND’S NATIONAL DISH

Burns Night Recipes from Gary Maclean for UK’s Number One Haggis

Scottish butcher Simon Howie, producer of the UK’s number one selling haggis, has partnered with Scotland’s new national chef, Gary Maclean, to share an exciting twist on Scotland’s national dish in preparation for Burns Night. Gary Maclean is a huge haggis fan and his show-stopping haggis dish took him through to the finals on MasterChef: The Professionals. Working with Simon Howie, the duo have come up with three exciting recipes to re-invent the Scottish staple, including crispy fried haggis, haggis burgers and haggis Yorkshire puddings.

Maclean’s Crispy Fried Haggis, first seen on MasterChef: The Professionals, turns the classic texture of haggis on its head, shallow frying Simon Howie haggis wrapped in a light filo pastry and combining it with a red onion chutney, mashed potatoes and roasted turnip.

Simon Howie haggis burgers have been created as a guaranteed crowd-pleaser, with haggis added to beef mince to create perfectly seasoned burgers, served with hand cut chips and celeriac and whole grain mustard slaw.

Haggis sales south of the border have grown significantly in recent years and Simon Howie now sells almost half of its haggis (48% in 2017) in the rest of the UK, outside of Scotland.  The third recipe fuses two Scottish and English culinary staples together, filling Yorkshire puddings with Simon Howie haggis and serving with a pea puree and onion gravy.

Simon Howie haggis is a firm family favourite, with their 454g Original haggis outselling the nearest competitor by 2:1 during Burns, and their family-sized Chieftain haggis, vegetarian and gluten free haggis all rank as number one in their respective categories.

Simon Howie is the only haggis to have grown sales in January 2017, with an increase of almost 20%.

Sales figures in 2017 show that almost 1.5m people across the UK enjoyed Simon Howie haggis for Burns Night celebrations.

Simon Howie commented: “Haggis is such an iconic dish here in Scotland and is growing in popularity south of the border too, in fact almost half of our haggis sales are outside Scotland.  We know families up and down the country will be celebrating Robert Burns’ birthday with haggis on or around 25 January, and we wanted to offer some new ideas on how to enjoy our national dish beyond the well-loved classic of haggis, neeps and tatties. And who could be better than Scotland’s very own national chef to come up with some inspiring new ideas for our national dish?  We hope people have fun creating and sharing the dishes. We think Rabbie would approve!”

Scotland’s national chef, Gary Maclean, commented: “I absolutely love haggis.  I’ve really enjoyed working with Simon Howie to create a few twists on our national dish. I have to say, I’m pretty excited about my Yorkshire pudding stuffed with haggis for something totally different plus a haggis burger recipe, sure to be such a crowd pleaser. I’ve also included what has really become a signature dish for me, and the one that got me through to the finals of MasterChef: The Professionals, my crispy fried haggis.”

View our Burns’ Night recipes and try them out for yourself!