Philippa Davis takes inspiration from India for this post Burns Night snack. Use up your leftovers and impress your guests with haggis pakora
Haggis pakora is a delicious starter that will use up your Burns Night leftovers. Surprise your guests with this fusion of Scottish and Indian cuisine, which cleverly brings haggis together with a favourite Indian fried snack.
For more inspiration on how to serve up haggis leftovers, try our millerighe haggis pasta with pesto, a wonderfully warming lunch for a cold winter’s day.
HAGGIS PAKORA
Pakora is a vegetarian Indian fried snack coated in a chickpea flour batter.
Having cooked and eaten in Scotland a lot I am now a firm believer that just because you can deep-fry something doesn’t mean you should. However, in this case, the haggis works extremely well and makes a delicious starter as haggis pakora.
Makes 12
- 150g chickpea/gram flour
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp turmeric
- 1 tsp ground ginger
- 1 tsp paprika
- 300ml buttermilk or yoghurt
- 2 tbs milk
- 1 lime (juice and zest)
- 3 spring onions, finely chopped
- 10g finely chopped coriander, stalks and all
- 1 litre (approx) sunflower oil for deep-frying
- 250g cooked and cooled haggis, chopped into 12 chunks
To serve
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
- 1 green chilli, finely chopped
- 4 sprigs coriander
- 4 portions green tomato chutney
To make the batter, mix the flour with the spices in a bowl and season with salt and pepper.
Whisk in the buttermilk or yoghurt, milk and lime juice and zest. It will be quite a thick batter. Stir in the spring onions and coriander.
In a heavy-based pan or deep-fat fryer heat the oil until a cube of bread dropped in fizzes and turns golden.
Dip pieces of the haggis into the batter. Then, using a slotted spoon, lower into the oil.
Fry in batches till golden (it will take only a couple of minutes), then remove and drain on kitchen paper.
Serve the haggis pakora hot with wedges of lime, a sprinkling of chilli, fresh coriander and some green tomato chutney.