I love Haggis with a passion, so I adore Burns Night. This year, I didn’t make my traditional Haggis pizza, I went to Battenburgbelle’s place where we had an amazing Scottish feast. Cathy cooked a delicious chicken stuffed with Haggis a la Nigel Slater, it turned out so deliciously moist, I am going to COPY this idea for sure.
Patrick, sporting tartan here in the background, delivered the Ode to the Haggis with aplomb.
We scoffed the chicken with a really yummy side dish of sliced and baked neeps and tatties, then we had some Scottish cheese…
and to end with Cranachan. Oh yum, yum. All utterly delicious. BB has blogged about this delicimo dinner here….
We kicked off this Scottish extravaganza with a Gloria Swanson cocktail. This is HIGHLY, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED. There were two reasons for having champagne on a weeknight.
1 – I was celebrating the fact that I have finished the penultimate draft of the Columbo cookbook. There may be some tiny tweaks to do, but essentially it is done.
2 – Battenburgbelle’s brother “Uncool P” was in residence for the evening. When he and BB tested a recipe for the cookbook, which involved cooking a pheasant in champagne and cognac, he came up with a great quote for the book. He said that he couldn’t particularly see what the cognac and champagne brought to the party and would have, “preferred them out of the casserole and in a glass (not together, obviously).”
Well, this reminded me, that champagne and cognac DO go in the same glass in a Gloria Swanson cocktail. So as he was around for Burn’s Night, I figured that we should have a GSC.
We all loved these at The Nunnery, I’ve made them before but this time they were perfect to my mind. I think it was to do with the cognac I used. This one,
rather than the cognac I usually bung into the champers, Sandra Bernhardt’s favourite, Remy Martin. Delicimo!
Here’s Gloria’s recipe, as it appeared in the Stork Bar Cocktail Book. She had hers for BREAKFAST! One pint of champers made 3 cocktails the size in the photo above…
Champagne Cocktail Gloria Swanson
1 pint iced champagne, very dry
2 oz the best cognac
twist of lemon peel
Served in a tall Tom Collins glass with a cube or two of ice
The Columbo Bowl Chili Cook-along is underway and I’ve already received 3 entries – fantastic! Keep ’em coming, chums! Johnny Cash’s family chili recipe is in this post, along with a veggie version – join in the fun!
