Neeps and Tatties for Burns Night
Today is Burns Day (the 25th of January) and all over the world people will be going to Burn’s Suppers, eating traditional Scots food and toasting Scotland’s National Poet.
Burn’s Suppers are famous for The Haggis. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times I have eaten Haggis – it may be traditional Scottish food, but I have fairly successfully have managed to avoid it for the past 25 years. To me it just doesn’t sound very appealing.
However there are other parts of the traditional Burn’s supper I want to partake of (and no not just the Whisky).
Neeps and Tatties is a simple side made from mashed potatoes and mashed turnip. Traditionally it is served alongside haggis, but last night we had ours with pork sausages and apple sauce.
Neeps and Tatties
- 280 g turnip
- 380 grams potato
- butter, optional (I didn’t add any to mine as I felt it didn’t need it)
I always make my mash in a sort of rustic manner, I never peel potatoes, although I did peel the turnip. I slice them into a fairly big dice and add them to a pot of boiling water.
ITechnically you are supposed to boil and mash the turnip and potatoes separately and then mix, but I don’t see the point of dirtying two pans!
I left them to boil for over half an hour just to make the mashing as easy as possible. As long as you cook the vegetables until they are easy to slice you should be fine.
After draining the vegetables I like to add a teaspoon of mustard into the mix, and then begin to mash.
I don’t like mine to be perfectly smooth, and by this point my arm was starting to hurt from all the mashing, so I left mine with small chunks of turnip.
I hope you all have a wonderful Burn’s Night.
Related posts:
on Twitter
January 25th, 2010 at 9:18 pm
Interesting take on neeps and tatties, a bit of an Auld Alliance with the french mustard. I blogged about haggis on Saturday, I love it.
January 25th, 2010 at 11:03 pm
I was wondering if anyone would notice the French mustard, and the Auld Alliance ref! My man is particularly impressed with the bottle of Talisker in the background – good choice. We’ve got Highland Park instead
January 25th, 2010 at 11:14 pm
I simply love the idea of adding mustard!
I bet it must create a very interesting little kick!
January 26th, 2010 at 10:07 am
I love tatties. Your tatties look very delicious. However, I’m not into haggis. Hear too much what it’s made of. I can have this with angus beef sausages. Would be so delicious.