Black Pudding and Pea Risotto

Posted By Stephen

black-pudding-and-pea-risotto

I can’t remember how we came up with this idea, but I do remember that we thought it would be brilliant. It didn’t quite turn out that way.

We started off by chopping the black pudding into cubes and frying it. We had planned to remove these and then put them back in at the end, but we only took half out and left the others in as they had started to break down a bit. Then we followed a normal risotto recipe – added onion, celery and garlic, softened that, then added rice and vermouth and then progressively added chicken stock.

It was at the first ladle of chicken stock that we realised that it was going to look like mud risotto because the black pudding had completely broken down. Not very appetising. We thought that it reminded us a little of cooking with squid ink which isn’t so bad, but the black pudding was a lot grainier.

Anyway, near the ended we added some peas, chopped parsley, grated parmesan, a squeeze of lemon juice and some salt and pepper. It didn’t taste that bad, just didn’t look particularly appetising. If we try it again, we’ll definitely cook the black pudding first, then remove it and put it back in at the end.

Aug 18th, 2009

7 Comments to 'Black Pudding and Pea Risotto'

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  1. Jonathan said,

    What an interesting idea. I love black pudding. Maybe it would work better with morcilla? And what sort of rice have you used… it looks a bit like spelt…
    .-= Jonathan´s last blog ..La Barca – Ideal for Dinner before the Old Vic =-.

  2. Stephen said,

    Jonathan, I think you might be right about the morcilla being better suited to it, it would crumble better. And I’ve just investigated, it’s made from rice rather than oatmeal, which makes it more appropriate too. The black pudding that we used was Bury style black pudding, but I’m more of a fan of the texture of the Stornoway style, which might have worked better too.

    The rice is, I’m ashamed to admit, hastily purchased M&S risotto rice. I don’t know what variety it actually is, but it didn’t produce as creamy a finish as the vialone we’ve been using recently.

  3. Great idea – a combination of Italian and English food – love it. Always good when you instantly know how to improve a recipe as well.
    .-= gourmet chick´s last blog ..La Fontaine de Mars (Gourmet Chick in France) =-.

  4. Claire (VRB) said,

    It looks quite nice you know! Not as awful looking as you were making out Miss! I thought it was going to look like black tar with rice in!

  5. Karine said,

    OK maybe I am not familiar with English cuisine, but it is the first time I hear about black pudding.

    Cooking is always a learning process. Next time, this dish will be better 🙂

  6. Stephen said,

    Karine, black pudding is one of those things that sometimes makes people say “eeew” when they first hear about it. It is a type of blood sausage, like French boudin noir or Spanish morcilla. It is often eaten for breakfast and is particularly popular in Scotland.

  7. OJ said,

    You can leave it in the whole time and get a good result — the trick is to fry the black pudding off with butter (and a bit of oil) and then use a splash of red wine and balsamic vinegar where you would normally use white. then instead of looking grainy/muddy it sort of blossoms into a rich reddish-brown, sort of like the colour of a rich beef stew.

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