27 replies to this topic

[helena]

Alex just came back from Portugal and brought some nice sausages, gifted to him by one of his interns. The stuff is produced in some remote village where this boy lives. Two types of blood sausage - one is a regular looking that i know what to do with, and another one is thick and short.
Any suggestions on how to cook it?

[Slapsie Maxie]

Alex just came back from Portugal and brought some nice sausages, gifted to him by one of his interns. The stuff is produced in some remote village where this boy lives. Two types of blood sausage - one is a regular looking that i know what to do with, and another one is thick and short.
Any suggestions on how to cook it?

it will probably be cooked already (boiled) so just warm it through

One of my favourites is to slice, fry and then mix with red peppers and scrambled eggs

Mind you, it is good on its own too

[LML]

Remove the skin and gently fry it either side in a covered pan. The idea is to remove as much fat as possible. In another pan fry heat olive oil and colour a sliced clove of garlic, add julienned red peppers (piquillo, preferably, de Lodosa, ideally) and a pinch of salt and sugar, then add a bit of water (red peppers will emulsify oil if they are moist enough). Place the black pudding on top of the peppers and cook on a low heat, turning the peppers once or twice. Swirl the pan a bit before serving to emulsify the cooking liquid, and serve on thin slices of decent baguette type bread.

[Carolyn Tillie]

I would cook down an onion or two ('till limp and brown) and serve with a bit of mustard de violet...

[SRD]

Remove the skin and gently fry it either side in a covered pan. The idea is to remove as much fat as possible. In another pan fry heat olive oil and colour a sliced clove of garlic, add julienned red peppers (piquillo, preferably, de Lodosa, ideally) and a pinch of salt and sugar, then add a bit of water (red peppers will emulsify oil if they are moist enough). Place the black pudding on top of the peppers and cook on a low heat, turning the peppers once or twice. Swirl the pan a bit before serving to emulsify the cooking liquid, and serve on thin slices of decent baguette type bread.

Sounds glorious, but I'd want bread or potatoes fried in the rendered fat in order not to waste it.

[Wilfrid1]

My local supermarket not only sells pig's feet, in defiance of the city's paper of record, but is also carrying a rather good morcilla made by a company called La Caribeña. Although the color of the filling is as one would expect, it's packed into a loose white casing, which I take to be simply a pig's intestine. It's very loosely packed, so hard to cook neatly, but the flavor is excellent.

Keep an eye out in Latino neighborhood supermarkets (I bought it in a C-Town).

[Sneakeater]

I always use cheese when I can't find blood sausage.

[Wilfrid1]

That's the obvious substitution, I agree.

[Gavin]

Cheese? Instead of blood sausage? How?

Bury Black Pudding for tea tonight, damn good it was too.

[Wilfrid1]

Cheese? Instead of blood sausage? How?

The New York Times grappling with the mystery of St John meat pie recipe earlier this week, inexplicably proposed replacing a broth made from pig's feet with cheese. "Cheese?" Henderson said. "Are you dicking me around?"

But if trotters are hard to find, and suet — solid beef fat — nearly impossible, so be it: we can cheat. We can use cheese instead of trotter gear. (“Cheese?” Henderson said, slightly aghast. “Cheese is a bit racy!”)

[Gavin]

I must hie me to St John to get some of this Gear. Can you point me at the pie recipe?

[Suzanne F]

Here you go.

[Gavin]

Thanks Suzanne. Will report back.

I know that Slapsie went to the launch party for Trotter Gear, be interested if you've used it at all?

[voyager]

One of my favorite travel vignettes was at the Foire de Jambon in Bayonne. My husband bought a lunch-worth of Iberican ham at a stall. As he was paying, I asked the seller if he would sell me a portion of a blood sausage. (I'd tasted a couple of samples and it was lovely.) He looked at me, smiled, wrapped up a whole sausage and handed it to me, "un cadeau, Madame". How many American women have been received a blood sausage as a gift? (Okay, read it straight, please.)

[Suzanne F]

Seeing the picture here, I was reminded that I just had a taste of the black pudding being made at CommonWealth Gastropub in DC. I love the stuff in all the ethnicities I've tasted (Spanish, Polish, British), but have little idea of what is a "proper" British version. The one from CommonWealth used oatmeal (rolled oats) as thickener/filler. Is that standard? It was very good.