Drisheen Fusion

Drisheen is a blood pudding made in Ireland, particularly in Cork. I'm just back from a weekend in Cork and by now the annual pilgrimage to The English Market.

I passed a stall just inside the door of the market selling drisheen and tripe. Now, I have not very pleasant memories of my grandmother cooking tripe in a big pot of milk with onions and tomatoes. The smell. Oh God, the smell. But the drisheen looked interesting. I had a chat with the lady and decided to give it a go. She made me promise to come back and tell her what I thought. Like I need an excuse to go back to Cork!

So today I followed her instructions and cut a small piece and fried it in butter. I tasted it and was surprised at how bland it was. Is it any wonder the Irish had such tame palates? Spicy food would have been a major shock back in the day if this is what they were used to. However, it reminded me of tofu. Tofu is also bland and it needs marinading and seasoning and cooking with lots of flavours. So I decided to have a go at pimping it up. Isn't that what fusion cuisine is all about?

I marinated the small piece in loads of olive oil, crushed garlic, a yellow chilli and lots of salt and pepper for a couple of hours.

Drisheen is like black pudding in that it is cooked. So you just need to colour it and warm it up.

A small piece of drisheen (enough for two)
2 cloves of garlic
1 yellow chilli
Sprig rosemary leaves
A good glug of olive oil

Marinade for a couple of hours. Then heat a pan and fry the drisheen in it's marinade until it starts to colour. Keep moving the garlic around the pan so it doesn't burn.

Add to the above:
A small piece of chorizo sliced
3 scallions
Some chesnut mushrooms

Toss all the ingredients around the pan until the mushrooms are softened and the chorizo has given up it's oils.

Meanwhile cook some spaghetti in a pot of salty water. Drain and toss the drisheen mix into it. Top with some rocket leaves and Parmesan or Pecorino shavings.

Drisheen fusion, surprisingly tasty.