Colcannon & Black Pudding Pasties

As I sat nursing a Stella in the, none-more-Irish, Royal Standard watching the second half of Ireland 82-8 Romania in the 2023 Rugby World Cup yesterday, my 98% Irish DNA sniffed the evening and was glad. Neuron spoke unto neuron and my fevered imagination conjured up another use for the blood sausage Pat Reilly recently brought me back from the Emerald Isle: Colcannon & Black Pudding Pasties.

Peel potatoes, cube them, boil in water with a pinch of salt for about 12 minutes and drain.

Prepare kale by trimming and discarding the tough stalks. Tear it into bite-size pieces. Wash it well and drain.

Heat the butter in a large pan or cast iron skillet and add the drained kale and a sprinkle of sea salt.

Stir and cook until wilted. This will take around 3 minutes - then add lemon juice and a generous amount of fresh ground pepper.

Set aside and slowly brown some onions in the same pan.

Cube your black pudding slightly smaller than the spuds.

Once cooled, combine all your filling ingredients.

Divide a block of store bought shortcrust pastry into 7″ discs and add filling to the centre of each before bringing up its sides to meet over the filling, pressing the edges firmly together to seal.

Knock up the edges with a sharp knife, turn the pasty at right angles to you and crimp the knocked up edge using your thumb and forefinger then brush with beaten egg and repeat with all remaining ingredients.

Bake for half an hour or so.

At the moment they are theoretical but I may try some out on folk at next Sunday's barbecue.