Black Pudding Delight

Cooking for large number's of people sometimes has it's benefits. It normally mean's that there are plenty of leftovers after cooking at events, whether it be actual leftovers or surplus ingredients, there is always something left over. The struggle is sometimes what to do with the leftovers. So after a hectic week of secret suppers at The Nursery Festival and with a lovely group of women containing a soon to be bride, I was left with a load of Black Pudding and Salsa Verde. Rather than adding to the ever growing food waste mountain, it only seemed right to try and conjure up a magnificent meal from the leftovers of others.

Now I love a bit of black pudding every now and again, but find that I mainly use it for weekend lazy breakfasts, especially my favourite, Breakfast of champions. After rediscovering Andrew Pern's book Black Pudding and Foie Gras in a recent clean up, I thought it was time to be a bit more adventurous with the black pudding and use it in a Monday night Supper for me and the flatmate.

Black Pudding and Chilli Pasta 

Serves 2

Brown onion finely diced

3 cloves of garlic finely diced 

1 red chilli 

Half a ring of Black pudding thickly sliced

About 5 good tablespoons of Salsa Verde 

200-250g of Spaghetti  (depends how hungry you are feeling, and to be honest I never weigh pasta out I just do it by judgement)

Maldon Sea Salt

Freshly Ground Pepper

Olive oil

1. First start by heating up some olive oil in a heavy based saucepan, once hot add onions and then garlic and let them soften slowly

2. Put another pan on full of salted water and bring to the boil for the pasta 

3. Add finely diced Chilli to the onions and garlic and sweat for a few moments.

4. Place spaghetti into the pan of boiling salted water and cook as directed on the packet, preferably until al dente

5. Once Spaghetti is pan of simmering water, crumble the black pudding in to the onion, garlic and chilli mix and gently fry, until the pasta is cooked .

6. Drain the cooked pasta and return to the pan.

7. Add the pasta to the  black pudding and onion mix  and then combine together.

8. Then spoon in the salsa verde into the pasta, mix thoroughly once again and serve

It was a joy to discover that the dish contain the right balance of heat from the chilli, herby goodness from the Salsa Verde and earthiness from the Black Pudding. We enjoyed the pasta with a bottle of young Portuguese Vino Verde which proved to be the perfect accompaniment for this unusual offally pasta dish

Breakfast of Champions

Okay,  I admit that I stupidly decided that I wasn't going to go to Glastonbury this year. Deciding that I wouldn't peruse an opportunity to work or even to buy a ticket to go to the festival, was quite a big step. Deciding I was finally to old to be kicking around and causing mischief at festivals. I was happy, in fact proud, that my summers didn't consist of traveling the summer months in a trannie van with a group of boys selling goods to festival goers. The reality is, I am absolutely gutted that I didn't pull my finger out and get a ticket of some kind to the greatest festival on the earth.

We use to leave London half way through June and wouldn't return until mid September, apart from a couple of days here and there. To say that we ate well whilst gallivanting around the countryside, is a massive lie. On a good day, our diets consisted of service station sandwiches, crisps, bacon butties, cups of strong builders tea and not much else. Breakfasts were unheard of in those days, and if by some strange incident we were awake at that hour the breakfast of choice was usually a warm can of larger and a rollie. Later to be named by the motley crew as a 'Breakfast of Champions'.

To combat the misery of not going to Glastonbury I went out on Friday night and drank a copious amount of gin and woke up on Saturday morning feeling a little worse for wear. There was only one thing for it and that was to make a breakfast fit for a proper champion.

The other week I was lucky enough to be given a free ticket for Taste of London in Regents Park . I got there quite late after a busy day at work and by the time I got there I was Hank Marvin. I met up with some fellow foodie friends to have a wander  around and taste some wonderful food cooked by some of the country's finest chef's and meet some suppliers. After consuming too much gin at Sipsmith 's stall, I was steered in the direction of clonakilty blackpudding   exhibition and forceably had a pack containing both their fabulous white and black puddings handed to me. I completely forgot that had this pack left in my fridge and couldn't contain my excitement, once the gin haze had disappeared on Saturday morning when I remembered. For that mornings 'Breakfast of Champions' wasn't going exist of warm larger and a rollie,oh no - only the best Irish Black pudding would do that morning.

 

Breakfast of Champions

Serves one 

Ingredients

6 thick slices of Black Pudding 

1/2 White Onion peeled and diced 

1 Potato peeled and diced 

1 Egg 

Oil 

Maldon and black pepper

1. Place diced potato in to a pan with water and par boil for 8 minutes.

2.Heat the oil in a frying pan and add the potato gently fry off to reach a golden colour.

3. After a few minutes add the onion and black pudding and fry gently for a further 4 minutes.

4. Season with Maldon and black pepper

5. Transfer the onion,potato and black pudding to a plate and keep warm under the grill.

6. Fry the egg in oil, once done place on top of the onion, potato and black pudding mix and eat straight away.

Defiantly a 'Breakfast of Champions', so much so it 'll put hairs on your chest !

clonakilty blackpudding was some of the best black pudding I've ever tasted. It reminded me a lot of the black pudding I tasted in San Sebastian in the Basque region of Spain. Mainly because of the texture, I think  this is because Clonakilty use pin head oats in their puddings - a good choice in my opinion. Needless to say though, I will be attending the next Glastonbury Festival. I have decided that your never to old to enjoy a bit of what you fancy every now and again.

Photo of Glastonbury festival used courtesy from the offical Glastonbury festival website.