Hello! And welcome to the 40th post of Pizza Rat's Paradise.
In the spirit of Halloween and the theme of women's health, and to continue to realize my dream of providing nutritious food for people, I present to you: Blood Sausage!
Blood sausage is one of my absolute FAVORITE things to enjoy -- its texture can range from that of pâté to crumbly to chewy. Blood sausage is enjoyed by numerous cultures around the world -- I still remember when a friend of mine (originally from Chile) and I once made blood sausage together, it was so fun and surprisingly really good! We used the ingredients we had on hand, one of which was brown rice. We both never cooked with blood before, it was an interesting experience - he ended up baking the cake in an oven - almost like that of brownie style.
Today on one of my YouTube Channel Community Posts I shared some resources on what to do about an emergency live birth out in public -- speaking from experience, giving birth can result in a high-volume loss of blood - so freshly, healthily made blood sausage is an option for post-partum diet that can help replenish readily available (or bio-available) iron that has been lost. Spinach is one of those vegetarian options that is rich in iron, but this kind of iron is not as bio-available, so one might need to eat vitamin C along with it to help increase the amount of iron -- something I learned from one of my former PIs at a national laboratory, and another source found here: https://www.nutritics.com/en/blog/why-most-of-the-iron-in-spinach-is-surprisingly-useless/. Apparently, the cooked form of spinach is higher in folate.
Blood sausage could also be incorporated into the diet of those who've been diagnosed with iron-deficiency anemia, which makes sense. Or anyone who has lost a ton of blood - from periods to accidents.
When I used to live near Harvard Ave in the Allston neighborhood of Boston, I loved eating at Seoul Topokki, which served tteokbokki and Korean blood sausage. Also loved eating at Clear Flour Bakery -- easily one of the best bakeries I've tried in all of the United States -- there always used to be a long line of people standing outside of their bakery!
Blood sausage is one of those things that I want to serve one day -- like those ajummas / halmeoni on the street -- but hopefully not out on the street, but in a proper restaurant/café.
I've been studying how to make it, and I've done one trial so far (with a past friend), but I'd need more materials and time to get into the craft of making Korean blood sausage -- its best served fresh and steamed -- and I'd also love to get into making other cultures' blood sausages as well. I've loved the kind I've tried with English/Irish breakfasts.
If you have made it this far, thank you for reading! 💚
Appreciate any suggestions on what I should do next, and your readership! If you would like to collaborate or support, feel free to comment, share, like below, or head to the home page to give donations/tips/gifts to help support one of my goals to make nutritious, delicious, fresh, healthy meals readily available for a variety of needs, diets, conditions, sensitivities and preferences.
Accompanying Song: In the Room Where You Sleep by Dead Man's Bones