Le Lac (the lake) and Le Boudin (black pudding): where is the connection?
There isn’t any.
On a rather cold day in February we went to Lac de Montagnès in Southern France in La Montagne Noir, the most southern part of the Massif Central. The sky was blue, the sun was brilliant, only the temperature was rather low. We were at about 600-800 m & some snow had survived here and there – not only on far peaks.
We had a nice & lonely walk around the lake i. e. of course only part of the lake & enjoyed the fresh air. It was absolutely calm around us. Some shady parts of the lake still had a thin layer of ice. (Of course there are big parking areas & entertainment spots as well as restaurants … but at this time of the year all was closed.)
You may imagine that we were rather chilled when returning to our car & I thought about some substantial meal. We found a restaurant …
What suddenly crossed my mind was Le Boudin.
When shopping food I always stumbled across black pudding, obviously a delicacy of the region (if not in the whole of France). I thought about buying some black pudding & … but so far I had abstained (mainly because I’m not sure if my better half would be thrilled about it). Nevertheless you’ll find a large offer of Le Boudin, different types of the sausage, different sizes …
Years ago I had a recipe on this blog – so now I like to revive it as a basis what I may create in near future.
The recipe was about Himmel und Äd, the signature dish of the Rhineland.
(I managed to adapt the original recipe somewhat …)
So what do we need for the dish:
- black pudding (I prefer the smooth edition!)
- onions
- mashed potatoes (enriched w/ apples & bacon …).
Instead of potatoes I worked w/ sweet potatoes:
- Peel the sweet potatoes & cut into pieces. Boil for some minutes – 10-12 min. (Attention: sweet potatoes only need half of the time for cooking as potatoes!).
- Chop some bacon, some spring onions, some apples (peeled). Fry in some oil until well done.
- Mash the sweet potatoes after having drained them. Add some hot milk or cream (w/ freshly grated nutmeg) & whisk into a fine purée.
- Then add the bacon-spring onion-apple mess.
- Add salt & pepper to taste.
Set aside & keep warm.
Then there is the black pudding …
Start w/ …
- Peel the onion & cut into thin slices. Start frying …
- Peel the black pudding & cut into thick slices. Start frying together w/ the onion.
Ready.
Some remarks:
- Instead of sweet potatoes you can also work w/ plain potatoes.
- You may also use apple purée as a side dish instead of mixing the mashed (sweet) potatoes w/ the fried bacon-spring onion-apple mess.
I’m pretty sure I’ll try French black pudding à la Himmel und Äd soon!