It’s Burns Night tonight which is an annual celebration of the Scottish poet, Robert Burns. I think it’s traditionally called a Burns Supper but we’ve never been to one before so we were not 100% sure what’s meant to happen. However, we have an Australian visitor joining us for the weekend so we did some research on YouTube and Google as we wanted her to experience a bit of Scottish culture. We served haggis (vegetarian of course), read poetry, and drank whisky. We think that’s what you’re meant to do.
Daniel carried the haggis into the dining room against a background of bagpipe music.
By a stroke of good luck, I happened to walk past a charity shop in Aberdeen this morning and found a man’s kilt, shirt, and jacket. They fit Ben perfectly. The kilt is beautiful and is very heavy with deep pleats. You can pay hundreds and hundreds of pounds for an authentic kilt like this but it was only £45 at the charity shop. I’ve been suggesting to Ben he gets a kilt for years and he’s never shown much interest but I think it suited him and complemented his excellent reading of Address to a Haggis very nicely.
I read the vegetarian version which is very good. I’ll paste the text at the end.
Elizabeth very expressively recited The Banks O’ Doon with a cute Scottish accent.
We had a clootie dumpling with custard for pudding.
And got a family pic of us all in tartan.
Earlier today we took our Aussie visitor for a cycle along the bike path followed by lunch at Newton Dee; one of my favourite things to do. I think she enjoyed it.
Ode To A Vegetarian Haggis
Tim Dalling January 1993
Oh vegetarian haggis whit a view
Thou glorious, steaming bag of veggie goo
No one could ever say that you
Dish death to beasts,
Not a single murdered chicken, pig or coo
Taints your braw feasts.
But noble pud you must ignore the taunting bores
From meaty Caledonia’s shores,
The moaning bloody carnivores
Who think you need
To slaughter sheep in scores
To have good feed.
Thy beauteous form can satisfy
The keenest neb or mouth or eye,
Wi’ as braw’ a meal as ane could buy
Pulse, veg and spice
And ev’n sheep eaters that dare to try
Say Oh it’s nice!
So stuff the purists and their cries of sin
Let’s split this pudding, serve and shovel it in,
And what the hell if it’s wee skin
A humble plastic bag is.
Let’s drink a toast and we’ll begin
The vegetarian haggis.
rachel.blog 
Clootie dumpling, now that’s something I’ve not made for a while or a veggie mealy pudding. I think it’s due, only I’ve not got any pinhead oatmeal, just porridge oats, but still, adaptation is the veggie way me thinks. Thank you for the post.
I hope you made it and that it went well. There’s nothing as comforting as a clootie dumpling with custard for pudding.
I’ve made it in the past, but that it hasn’t had a recipe, just the knowledge of what goes with what and how the science of make do with what you have goes. With all the faff of making vegan custard (of which I’ve now perfected a method) I prefer either Alpro vegan cream or Swedish glace which is also vegan.
Yes, we buy the Alpro vegan custard which is very nice and so easy.
Not as nice as my homemade version using Birds custard powder, but that it took several burnt efforts to perfect it, before getting there. The key is to always put half a cup of water in the pan first and bring that to the boil to heat the pan, then add the vegan milk, then add the really, really well mixed little bit of soy milk, sugar and powder… Anyways, there’s my secret out now.
Thank you! I will try it. The last time I made custard with powder it was lumpy.
Tea strainer the added stuff?
and to practice my French “Mélanger vigoureusement”
Ben looks ace, hope he was comfy too. Great to hear of Tim’s poem getting international renown too. His articles (in the Guardian I think) are also superb. Have used that fo mony a year too!
It’s a wonderful poem and is my annual Burns supper poem from now on. I think you shared it with me in the first instance. I didn’t know he was also a journalist!
Ben looks good in a kilt. I reckon you could sell the idea quite well go him emphasising the reduced need for a tie, which is something he has never been keen on. Kilts are the ultimate Scots’ outfit really, they can be more easily adjusted than a suit, and there are different trends for suits, they are really robust, don’t go out of fashion and save oodles on suit hire for occasions such as formal dance, presentations and the like. Getting one from a Charity shop is an added bonus, as that’s even more sustainable! Money goes back into the local economy vs being funnelled back into China where fast fashion is all the rage… With the Corona virus outbreak there might be some restrictions and reduction of trade, although I am not sure about where the affected provinces are in terms of factories etc. One of the concerns is that food is becoming a bit scarce.