Ken Natton
Veteran
When Delia Smith puts together a recipe, there is a considerable amount of science goes into getting all of the quantities exactly right. Needless to say, I’m not Delia Smith. Furthermore, as I have mentioned elsewhere, I did not get this recipe from a book or online. I ate a starter that I absolutely loved in a restaurant, and this represents my best attempt to recreate that dish. It was many years ago when I had this in a restaurant, and at the time, I would not have had the faintest idea how to make it. Many other dishes that I have learned to make since are influences on how I have figured out how to make this. All I can say is, if anyone is actually going to try to make this themselves, they are more likely to be successful if they take the idea that this recipe gives and use their own abilities and experience in actually preparing and cooking it.
And I am afraid there are some inconsistencies in the quantities given below. Asda did used to offer a 250g pack of pork mince, but when I went in on Thursday, they had only 500g packs. I would suggest that the important proportion is about 2/3rds pork mince for about 1/3 black pudding. If anything, that might be a little too high on the black pudding. Anyway, the pack of black pudding I bought was 250g, which worked well, but the point is, the mix that I made probably had enough to make six patties. Unfortunately, I only needed two.
So I then got out four mediumish potatoes and was astonished to weigh those at around 500g. As the photograph shows, the potato cakes I made were perhaps a little too large, I probably could have got 3 better sized potato cakes out of the mix I made. So perhaps the right quantity of potato to match the quantity of meat mix given here would be 1 kg.
The sage leaves I used came from my garden and are not that big at the moment. I counted maybe 24 leaves, and if anything, when chopped they were not really enough. If you buy a packet of fresh sage from the supermarket, I would suggest you use the lot. The chives I did buy in a packet from the supermarket and used maybe a third of the packet. That, I’m afraid is as accurate as I can be with that.
My final note would be about the breadcrumbs. You don’t want panko breadcrumbs for this, you are not coating anything with them, they go in the mix for the purposes of binding. So ordinary white sliced bread is fine. Personally, I like to tear it up and not use any of the crust before blitzing in the blender to create a pile of nice soft fluffy breadcrumbs. I used two slices to get the 50g.
Okay, enough already, here’s the recipe, as best I can write it:
Ingredients
Patties:
500g Pork mince
250g Black pudding chopped into 5mm cubes
1 medium onion chopped finely
Couple of dozen small sage leaves chopped finely
50g bread crumbs
1 egg yolk
Potato cakes:
500g mashing potatoes
2 tablespoons plain flour
Splash of milk
Fresh Chives
Mustard Sauce:
1/2 pint of beef stock
1 teaspoon English mustard
Splash of fresh double cream
Garnish:
Fresh rocket
Method
And I am afraid there are some inconsistencies in the quantities given below. Asda did used to offer a 250g pack of pork mince, but when I went in on Thursday, they had only 500g packs. I would suggest that the important proportion is about 2/3rds pork mince for about 1/3 black pudding. If anything, that might be a little too high on the black pudding. Anyway, the pack of black pudding I bought was 250g, which worked well, but the point is, the mix that I made probably had enough to make six patties. Unfortunately, I only needed two.
So I then got out four mediumish potatoes and was astonished to weigh those at around 500g. As the photograph shows, the potato cakes I made were perhaps a little too large, I probably could have got 3 better sized potato cakes out of the mix I made. So perhaps the right quantity of potato to match the quantity of meat mix given here would be 1 kg.
The sage leaves I used came from my garden and are not that big at the moment. I counted maybe 24 leaves, and if anything, when chopped they were not really enough. If you buy a packet of fresh sage from the supermarket, I would suggest you use the lot. The chives I did buy in a packet from the supermarket and used maybe a third of the packet. That, I’m afraid is as accurate as I can be with that.
My final note would be about the breadcrumbs. You don’t want panko breadcrumbs for this, you are not coating anything with them, they go in the mix for the purposes of binding. So ordinary white sliced bread is fine. Personally, I like to tear it up and not use any of the crust before blitzing in the blender to create a pile of nice soft fluffy breadcrumbs. I used two slices to get the 50g.
Okay, enough already, here’s the recipe, as best I can write it:
Ingredients
Patties:
500g Pork mince
250g Black pudding chopped into 5mm cubes
1 medium onion chopped finely
Couple of dozen small sage leaves chopped finely
50g bread crumbs
1 egg yolk
Potato cakes:
500g mashing potatoes
2 tablespoons plain flour
Splash of milk
Fresh Chives
Mustard Sauce:
1/2 pint of beef stock
1 teaspoon English mustard
Splash of fresh double cream
Garnish:
Fresh rocket
Method
- Fry the chopped onion and the black pudding together in a little oil for a few minutes to soften the onion. The black pudding should cook sufficiently quite quickly
- Add the chopped herbs and the breadcrumbs to the pan and mix thoroughly, frying for just another minute or so.
- Put the mixture in a food processor and blitz.
- Add this mixture to the pork mince in a bowl and add the egg yolk. Season and homogenise the whole mixture with your hands. Cover with cling film and put in the fridge for at least half-an hour. If you can do this part much earlier and leave it in the fridge for even longer, so much the better.
- When you are ready to make the dish, make small patties from the mixture. Fry the patties for about 4 minutes each side over a medium heat. Remove from the pan and put into a warm oven while you make the sauce and the potato cakes.
- Put a good teaspoonful of English mustard into the pan you used to fry the patties, allow it a few moments to cook as you mix it in the meat juices, then add the stock. Season the sauce. Leave it reducing on a lowish heat.
- Boil the potatoes and mash them when ready. Add the flour, milk and chives and mix well. You should then be able to form patties from the mixture in much the same way as you did with the meat.
- Fry the potato cakes in a little oil, they need only a few minutes each side to brown the surface.
- Just before serving add maybe a table spoon of fresh double cream to the sauce and bring back to just below boiling.
- Place each potato cake in the middle of a plate. Place a meat patty on top of each potato cake. Spoon a little sauce around the outside of each potato cake. Garnish with some fresh rocket, and serve.
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