fried egg and spicy chorizo rice

When we're home on the weekend I will often make us a lazy, slightly indulgent brunch - the sort that you want when you're perhaps feeling a little worse for wear from the night before. I usually crave something a little spicy, there needs to a certain 'stodgy' quality to it and there must be eggs involved too. This is a very easy to make dish can have infinite variations depending on your level of creativity. I think it could be wonderful with some cheese melted on top or stirred through, maybe add in some chopped carrots, peppers, mushrooms, sweetcorn and/or peas along with the onion for a healthier option or use a different kind of sausage. Really do whatever takes your fancy but I do urge you to top it off with a crispy-edged but runny-yolked fried egg. It rocks.

Ingredients serves 2 greedy people
3 spicy chorizo-style sausages, raw
1 medium onion, diced
2 garlic cloves, chopped
1 green chilli, de-seeded and chopped (optional)
180g white rice
500ml chicken stock
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp vegetable oil
salt and pepper to taste
2 organic fried eggs, to serve

1. Heat up a wide frying pan or casserole that has a lid. Add the oil then remove the sausage meat from the casing and place bite-sized pieces in to the pan. Cook over a medium heat until it starts to develop browned edges.
2. Add the onion, garlic and chilli to the pan and stir scraping the bottom of the pan with your wooden spoon to pick up any of the stuck on tasty stuff from the sausages. Keep cooking, stirring the whole time until the onions start to turn translucent. 
3. Add the rice to the pan, stir through so that everything is well combined and the rice starts to pick up colour from the chorizo juices. Add the paprika to the stock, stir then add the whole lot to the pan. 
4. Once the stock in bubbling put the lid on the pan and leave to bubble away on a medium to high heat for 5 minutes. Do not stir or do anything else to the pan at this time. When 5 minutes is up leave the lid on the pan, turn of the heat then leave for 15 to 20 minutes or until the rice has absorbed all the liquid and is cooked through. 
5. In the mean time you can fry your eggs how you like them then serve the rice up with the egg on top. Yum.

chorizo, mascarpone and tomato pasta sauce

A tasty, kitchen cupboard meal. These ingredients are usually knocking around in my kitchen or there will be something that I can substitute. To make a vegetarian version of this dish at stage one, saute a finely diced onion in some olive oil, add a tablespoon of hot smoked paprika and a couple of cloves of crushed garlic then continue on with the rest of the recipe. You can either keep the sauce chunky or put it through a food processor before mixing with the pasta.

Serves 2-3
Ingredients
200g cooking chorizo
400g tinned tomatoes or passata
2 tbsp mascarpone cheese or creme fraiche or similar
1/2 tsp fennel seeds
sprinkle of dried chilli flakes (optional)
salt & pepper
200g dried pasta. I used pappardelle.

1. Heat a wide frying pan over a medium heat, squidge the sausage meat or of their casings directly into the pan so that you've got bite-sized pieces. Cook for around 3-4 minutes until crispy and golden and the spicy paprika oils have been released. Don't move around too much unless you want to it break down into much smaller pieces. You can drain the oil off if you wish but it seems a shame to loose so much of the flavour.
2. Add the fennel and chilli flakes and sizzle for a minute. 
3. Add the tomatoes to the pan and simmer the ingredients together for about 5 minutes before you put the pasta on, it should be starting to reduce by this stage. If the tomatoes are whole you will need to break them up a bit with the back of your spoon.
4. Cook your chosen pasta according to the packet instructions, mine took around 10 minutes.
5. The tomato sauce is ready once it is no longer watery and has thickened up and is glistening with little pools of oil. Season to taste.
6. When the pasta is nearly ready stir the mascarpone into the tomato sauce and mix thoroughly. 
7. Once cooked, add in the pasta. If the sauce is too thick for your taste, add a little of the cooking water to thin it out.  Serve and enjoy.

 

chorizo, potato and pumpkin stew with butter beans and spinach

I rarely have a particular plan when I visit the local farmers market, I just go looking for whatever looks tastiest and is the best deal. Today I came home with chorizo, potatoes and pumpkin and couldn't resist putting together a tasty stew. The nights are getting colder and there's nothing I like more than something warming and a little spicy on nights like this.

Ingredients
700g pumpkin/sweet potato/butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and cut into bite size chunks
1 medium sized onion, finely diced
1kg potatoes (any will work, I used 'exquisite' potatoes)
1 ring of chorizo picante (use the dulce type if you prefer, picante is my favourite though)
1 x 400g can of butter beans or chick peas drained
1 x 400g can of tomatoes in juice
2 chicken stock cubes
2 tbsp hot smoked paprika
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp dried oregano
2-3 bay leaves (I used fresh ones from my garden)
1/2 tsp ground all spice
1 cup decent red wine
water
120g spinach, washed and chopped
Sliced spring onions and feta cheese to garnish

1. Peel the thin skin off the chorizo and cut into bite sized chunks.
2. Heat a large saucepan/casserole dish over a high heat then add the chorizo and cook for around 5 minutes or until the oils and spices are released and the meat is crispy on the edges.
3. Add the onion and cook for a few minutes until translucent and soft.
4. Throw in the fennel seeds, oregano and all spice followed by the red wine and bubble away for 5 minutes or so until you can no longer smell the harshness of the alcohol.
5. Now you will need to add the bay leaves, paprika, chicken stock cubes and tinned tomatoes, stir throroughly.
6. Add the the potatoes and pumpkin, stir so that it is coated in the tomatoey spicey goodness then fill the tomato can with water and then pour into the pan.
7. Cover and allow to bubble away until the potatoes and pumpkin are cooked, around 20-30 minutes. The pumpkin may well disappear into the sauce and break down more than the potatoes. This is a good think as it will help to thicken the sauce. If you don't want this to happen cook the potatoes for 5 minutes or so on their own then add the pumpkin later, or cut it into bigger chunks.
8. Add the butter beans and cook for a further 5 minutes until everything is cooked through. 
9. Throw in the spinach, stir through until it has wilted completely.
10. Serve garnished with some finely sliced up spring onions, crumbled feta and some chopped parsley if you have it. Some good crusty bread and glass of dry sherry or a red wine would be pretty awesome too.