ottawa foodies

Greetings,

some colleagues and I do a regional potluck thing once in a while, each person doing dishes from the region selected for the night. I'm considering Scotland for my night and Haggis for the main meal. I'd like to do it "authentically", though I'm willing to do sausage casing instead of stomach if that's easier. I'm wondering if anyone here might know of a reliable place where I could get the ingredients (heart, liver, lungs and suet)? Thanks.

Visit this thread

ottawafoodies.com/forum/1858

Call a few farmers, and ask if they know of someone who does lamb. I know at least 1 or 2 on that list who will be able to put you in touch with lamb farmers.

If you want to save yourself the trouble of putting together a haggis yourself, I can personally recommend the ones from the Glebe Meat Market. A friend of mine gets his from there for his annual Robbie Burns birthday bash. Very tasty!

BTW, there's a food entry for Haggis here: Haggis

Some of the Middle Eastern markets around town get very good fresh lamb in regularly and is seems that they get a lot of the offal cuts as well, not sure if A)lungs and stomach are included in that category and/or B)if lamb is a sufficient substitute in haggis...but it could be worth a shot. I'm particularly thinking Arya on Gladstone.

Good luck that is definitely a hardcore project...

I know that Market Al balad on Richmond Rd. used to sell whole lamb for mechoui style roasting... not sure if they still do?

Fresh Foodie: thanks for the tip! I tried haggis once a number of years ago and thought it wasn't half bad. I'd like to have it again. Do the ones you buy at GMM require much prep?

Saurian, I can't say for sure because I've never purchased and prepped the haggis myself, but I'd expect you to get it whole and raw, leaving you to steam (boil?) it and split it open for serving. The folks at the Glebe Meat Market would surely tell you exactly what to do with it.

Neat. Thanks!
Although I'm not sure when that'll be, next time I have a get-together or adventurous foodies (or tradionalist Scots), I will be sure to call them up.

Update:
It's on. The Saslove's in the market happened to have it all on hand when I stopped in today to ask them about it. I had to buy a big chunk of sausage casing which drove the price up a bit but I can use that for other projects once the haggis is out of the way. The meal won't be till later in the month. I'll let people know how it goes.
Now I just need some Irn Bru and a nice scotch.

Great news! You should go all counterculture and cook it on March 17th instead ;)

There it is. I was working on it from 9 a.m. till around 5 p.m.. Ingredients were sheep heart, liver, lungs set boiled then minced, some stock from the boiling, three onions, finely chopped, 1/2 cup of lamb fat, 1 lb ground lamb, 4 cups steel cut oats, 4 tsp salt, 2 tbsp fresh ground pepper, 1/2 tsp each cayenne, allspice and nutmeg. It was much larger than I expected, and I either overpacked or didn't watch it closely enough when cooking it as a small tear did form. Nevertheless, it was a success, though not many people showed up for the potluck. Those who did appreciated it. I enjoyed it, both the cooking and the eating, though my mind kept screwing around telling me: 'it's strange to eat organ meats' or 'think how much fat/ cholesterol is in that'. I would do it again, but only if there was a committed group large enough to pack the whole thing away in one sitting. There's almost half of the thing left. I'll do some leftover tomorrow I guess, but after that...

Maybe you should have had your potluck on Robbie Burns Day...Sure hope you can get through the leftovers :)