Breaking with tradition (From Watford Observer)

Breaking with tradition

5:46pm Monday 1st February 2010 in

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Our Burns Supper at The Three Crowns was held on Saturday and I broke slightly with tradition.

Colin & Les from Edinburgh and Glasgow respectively hosted the evening in full Highland regalia and gave everybody who attended not only a good time but an insight into the life and times of Rabbie himself.

The lads stuck with tradition with Colin`s improvised bagpipes being one of the highlights of the evening and young Kris the Chef played his part manfully by downing his double malt in one after the address to the haggis ( last year I gave him apple juice )

The break in tradition was down to me and tweaking ( some might say messing about ) with the menu.

Instead of Scotch Broth or Cockie Leekie to start we had a lesser known but still traditional Scottish soup which is made with onions, potatoes, milk & smoked haddock.

It`s just a shame that somebody north of the border christened it “ Cullen Skink” and to this day that`s what it`s called.

For main course instead of a plateful of Haggis, Neeps & Tatties we had a chicken breast stuffed with haggis then wrapped in Ayrshire bacon and baked. The chicken was then sliced through at a diagonal and served on top of a little bit of the haggis that Colin & Les carved up during their address to the haggis

Alongside that were neeps ( I think you call them swede down here ) but we like to use 3 parts neep to one part carrot as it gives a lovely vibrant colour on the plate and the carrot adds a nice touch of sweetness, oh and don`t puree them to death it`s nice to leave some texture

The main was completed not with the traditional `champit tatties` ( that`s mash to you ) but some boiled new potatoes crushed still with their skins on and then some fried Stornoway Black Pudding forked through

Pud was 100% traditional, layers of raspberries, whipped cream flavoured with honey & Drambuie and toasted oatmeal , you know it`s traditional as it has a name that only we can pronounce

Luckily the plates were all scraped clean with compliments all round for chefs Al, Kris & Gary

Just leaves me wondering what to do over Valentines weekend, should I break with tradition again and make the Three Crowns a pink heart free zone ?