Basques in Boise

Hundreds of members of the Basque community and Basque food lovers gathered together in the Basque center Euzkaldunak on Saturday in downtown Boise for the annual "Mortzilla Dinner".

The "Mortzilla dinner", one of the most remarkable events in the Euzkaldunak calendar, is also one of its annual main fundraisers.

Besides plenty or "mortzillas", the menu included Basque baked chicken, roast beef with mushroom gravy, garlic mashed potatoes, green salad with Basque vinaigrette, freshly baked rolls, pumpkin pie and wine and coffee.

The dinner was followed by a bazaar that included sale of "chorizos" and "mortzillas", the Oinkari cake wheel, the money tree raffle and a bingo with lots of prizes.

Mortzillas: the making-of

"Mortzilla", black pudding or blood pudding, is a sausage made by cooking blood with a filler until it is thick enough to congeal when cooled.

About three thousand "mortzillas" were eaten or sold in packages in the Basque center on Saturday. Making all those “mortzillas” is probably one of the most unique volunteer efforts among Euzkaldunak members.

The process started on election day at Ben and Tomasa Goitiandia''s house to help prepare the onions and leeks. Two days later, Euzkaldunak volunteers met in the Basque center to make the "mortzillas". The process ended the following day when some of the "mortzillas" were packaged to be sold on Saturday.