This time around, we visit Peru, land of llamas, potatoes, and our obsession of the moment, sangrecita; a humble, yet tasty dish composed of chicken blood sautéed with fragrant aromatics. Traditionally, this sanguine melange is served with regional staples such as rice, corn, yuca, or potatoes, but it pairs well with many starchy foods, so feel free to get creative, or just use what you have on hand.
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Blood and curry – it doesn’t sound like an obvious union, does it? South East Asia, land of creative, improbable, unapologetic food opportunities, begs to differ. This area of the world is notorious for putting every usable part of a food source, whether it be animal or not, to very good use.. And, trust us, blood itself has many useful attributes when it comes to food preparation.
From a culinary standpoint, using blood in this situation isn’t terribly strange. When exposed to gentle heat and treated with care, it can add wonderful body to a dish. If taken a bit further, it acts as a natural, minimally processed thickening agent. This age old technique, though falling out of fashion, can still be seen the world over, especially in areas still holding fast to culinary culture.
What is soondae? The word looks an awful lot like sundae (it’s even commonly transliterated this way), but I can guarantee that most people would be fairly shocked to receive a plate full of plump sausages filled with blood and pig’s snout, rather than the sweet, frozen treat of their dreams. Soondae is a traditional Korean blood sausage similar to black pudding, though the starchy filler used is glutinous (sweet) rice. It’s a true sausage in that it is stuffed inside a casing much like morcilla or boudin noir. The texture is amazing, folks. It’s light, chewy, bouncy – quite reminiscent of mochi due to the sticky rice and pork snouts. It’s something you can become addicted to far too easily..
THE RED CELLAR 