Broad Bean and Black Pudding: True BFFs

Thursday, April 21st, 2011

Time for another McCarthy’s of Kanturk delight. This chocolate and pistachio black pudding was the first thing I tasted from Jack McCarthy’s family butchers’ repertoire. Talk about a sweet introduction.

I mean, what is it? A cake? A black pudding? What?!

I don’t care what it is. It tastes amazing. It’s not available in shops yet, as Jack is testing out different variations on the chocolate black pudding theme. It made an appearance at Inishfood, which led to a few of us experimenting with it at home. I popped it on top of some broad bean purée while Tara over at the Tasty Tart road tested it by wrapping it around some delicious looking monkfish. Holy wow!

I’ve tried it just on plain toasted bread with a bit of olive oil. I’ve tried it with some Irish blue cheese and a bit of Ballymaloe relish. I also tried it with the broad bean purée. It’s so incredibly rich that it’s probably best enjoyed on its own. The broad bean purée however works amazingly well with less complex black pudding.

Have a look after the jump for the broad bean purée recipe to sit under your black pudding of choice. This is a great little snack, perfect for a dinner party. It takes very little time to make, and as the only cooking involved is the frying of the black pudding, it makes a great rustic dinner party canapé or starter.

What you need for broad bean purée and black pudding toasts to feed 2-3 as a starter or 5-6 as canapé nibbles

Hee hee! Canapés. How posh!

Two large handfuls of de-podded broad beans

I used fresh broad beans for this but frozen broad beans would be totally fine. Just grab two handfuls of frozen and let them defrost in a bit of room temperature water. The fresh beans come in lovely long pods and you need about twenty of them to get two good handfuls of broad beans. Pop them out of their pod shells and give them a nice wash before taking the next step.

About two tablespoons of olive oil

One large handful of fresh and finely grated Parmesan

A squeeze or two of squeeze of lemon juice

Salt and pepper

A good bit of the black pudding of your choice, cut into nice neat circles with a scone or pastry cutter or whatever circular cutter you have to hand

A few slices of lovely fresh bread – a lovely fresh white baguette would be perfect

In your food processor, blitz your two handfuls of broad beans. Now add your tablespoon or two of olive oil. This will help moisten the mixture and it will blitz better.

Now add your handful of Parmesan and blitz again.

Squeeze in about a tablespoon of lemon juice, add a few generous pinches of salt and pepper. Now taste. You might need more Parmesan, you could probably do with more lemon, and you may need more salt and pepper. You decide!
Go easy on the salt and pepper but don’t be afraid to add more Parmesan and another squeeze of lemon juice.

If you don’t have a food processor, don’t worry! You can make this just as well in a pestle and mortar. Albeit a rather large one.

Once your broad bean mix is ready, put your bread in the toaster or under the grill. The black pudding will only take a few minutes.

Put a frying pan on a medium to high heat and add a little bit of olive oil.
Fry your black pudding rounds in the hot pan, until they’re black all over. You’ll know when they’re done, they’ll be bubbling on either side.

I made this recipe a few weeks back using the (only inferior by comparison to McCarthy’s black pudding) Clonakilty black pudding, and I served it up as a little make-it-yourself starter for everyone to grab at. I liked having the broad bean served in my granny’s china cup. Their prettiness distracted my guests from the fact that I didn’t have very much to go around