Wednesday, November 09, 2011

Things to do with (Estonian) black pudding aka verikäkk

Someone left a comment on my blog this morning:

Just brought back home from Estonia some Verikäkk and still wondering what to do exactly with it :D Aitäh also from Spain for your blog ;)

I thought I'll help Enlil out and share some of the recipe ideas and photos with him :)

Verikäkk is basically a dense black pudding (also known as blood pudding or blood dumpling). It's a mixture of (usually pig's) blood, flour (rye, barley or wheat), fried onions, lard/bacon and seasonings. Here in Estonia it's sold widely, and it comes in large dumplings, weighing about 450 grams. Traditionally it was made in late Autumn/for Christmas, but is now available throughout the year. I personally don't think of verikäkk as a Christmas product at all (as opposed to verivorst or black sausages), and happily buy it all year round.

Here are some of the ways of consuming black pudding.

Fried black pudding with sour cream:

Fried black pudding / Praetud verikäkk hapukoorega

1 black pudding
lard, butter or oil for frying
250 g sour cream

Cut into thick (about 1 cm) slices, fry in butter until browned and crisp on both sides. Pour the sour cream on top at the end and heat gently. Serve at once.
Pickled pumpkin salad and lingonberry or cranberry jam/sauce work well as condiments.

Fried black pudding:


Fried black pudding / Praetud verikäkk

1 black pudding
lard, butter or oil for frying

Cut into thick (about 1 cm) slices, fry in butter until browned and crisp on both sides. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and/or lingonberry jam. (If you forgot to buy that in Estonia, then head to your nearest IKEA food isle).

Fried black pudding crisps:

Black pudding chips / Veritsipsid

I've already blogged about this, see recipe here.

MÕNED EESTIKEELSED VIITED:
Ülle tore ood verikäkile
UMA MEKK video verikäki tegemisest

9 comments:

Mann said...

Lingonberry jam has never been served with black pudding in our house but pickled pumpkin is a must :)

enlil said...

Suur aitäh Pille, I will try with jam tonight! ;D
One friend also told me with cowberry jam or kõrvitsasalat but the problem is that in Spain we dont have these things or they are very difficult to find :S ...but now I got some new ideas ;)
Kallid!
Diego.

Nisrine said...

Totally new to me and I am loving it. The jam on the side must go reaaly well with the sausage.

Andrew said...

I'm a great fan of black pudding; never considered serving with sour cream before though. Next time...

Jeff @ Cheese-Burger.net said...

All of these looks delicious. I can't wait to try them out.

Birdlandcindy said...

My mother used to fry slices of it, then poured milk in the pan and let it soak for a minute or so.

Verikäkk with milk definitely brings back childhood memories :)

Pille said...

Mann - never had pickled pumpkin, and cannot imagine not having black pudding :D

Diego - so glad I managed to provide some ideas :) You could get lingonberry/cowberry jam at IKEA and make pickled pumpkin :)

Nisrine - it does indeed!

Andrew - nice to see you here :) I just hope that black pudding/sour cream combo isn't too weird to a British palate :D

Birdlandcindy - I'm pleased to have brought back good memories ;)

Rubine said...

Enlil, you might be able to find dried barberries in Spain. They come from Morocco and are usually sold in Arabian delicatessens. They are the same as lingonberries and you can make your own relish/jam.

Pille said...

Rubine, lingonberries and barberries are definitely NOT the same thing!!! Lingonberries are also known as cowberries, and if not found, you could try a cranberry jam (or any other sour) jam instead.