Spanish Chorizo -- What to make?

[Adam Balic]

No it wasn't Morcilla*. I'm not sure if there was blood in this sausage that is a guess. It was ~50% fat, the edge of the fat being red, but the lean quickly blended to a dark mahogany colour. It was a dried sausage and was labeled as "Chorizo de X" Unfortunately, I have forgotton what the "X" was.

* also delicious, had several types that contained either rice of chunks of fat.

[Richard Kilgore]

I picked up a ring of the hot (Palacious) Spanish Chorizo and tried the Chorizo, onion and garbanzo bean combination. Very tasty. I also experimented a little with vinegars. A Spanish Sherry vinegar just did not work, but a relatviely inexpensive Giuseppe Giusti Balsamic drizzled along with a little EVOO and a sprinkle of salt worked very well.

[kangarool]

I love a fresh chorizo, and often use them in a bastardised rice dish that's sort of a jambalya meets risotto that sits in a peppery garlicky stew underneath ... it's hard to describe but not hard to eat.

The very first chorizo I encountered was nothing like a "real" one (a fresh, plump spanish one i mean). I found it in a Cuban deli that used to be on 2nd Ave and 9th St. in the E. Village, and I needed a chorizo for a black bean dish I was making.

What I came home with and used was a vacuum-packed, roughly 6 inch long, extremely dense and (when cooked) quite oily thing. The flavour was good, and because that was my first encounter with "chorizo", I was puzzled later on when I asked a butcher for a chorizo and he gave me a fresh, proper sausage... I thought maybe he hadn't understood me!

Maybe that first one was akin to the Mexican ones others have described upthread?

[Adam Balic]

Used the two different types* of semi-dried Spanish Chorizo for dinner on saturday.

Cooked off some onion/garlic in a paella, browned some chicken, added stock (made with chicken bits, pigs trotter, onion, bay leaf, tomato, saffron, paprika, dried orange peel). Simmered chicken, added chorizo, added toasted fideos. Five minutes before serving added clams and salted haddock, peas and preseved peppers.

One dark, one light, the former being ~60% fat.

[lovebenton0]

I love a fresh chorizo, and often use them in a bastardised rice dish that's sort of a jambalya meets risotto that sits in a peppery garlicky stew underneath ... it's hard to describe but not hard to eat.

The very first chorizo I encountered was nothing like a "real" one (a fresh, plump spanish one i mean).  I found it in a Cuban deli that used to be on 2nd Ave and 9th St. in the E. Village, and I needed a chorizo for a black bean dish I was making.

What I came home with and used was a vacuum-packed, roughly 6 inch long, extremely dense and (when cooked) quite oily thing. The flavour was good, and because that was my first encounter with "chorizo", I was puzzled later on when I asked a butcher for a chorizo and he gave me a fresh, proper sausage... I thought maybe he hadn't understood me!

Maybe that first one was akin to the Mexican ones others have described upthread?

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While a typical Mexican chorizo will be quite oily it is not dense but a tube-packed (gut) sausage easily crumbled. I think you had another of the various Spanish chorizos. I likes 'em all!

[phaelon56]

Chorizo is tasty but awfully greasy and stain'y (with the red...what is that?).

Someone mentioend paprika as the likely culprit but it might also be annatto (sp?).

Paella is always the obvious suspect for me when I have chorizo on hand but I"ve also been known to slice it thin, saute til a bit drisp, blot off the oil and then use it on thin crust pizza in place of pepperoni. Yum.

The Mexican chorizo I run across is of the fresh crumbly variety but the Portuguese style I used to buy in the Ironbound section of Jersey City was offered as both fresh and cured. Now that I'm out of NJ I can only get the cured style and it's available in only one market at that. There's a brand made In Rhode Island (which has a large Portuguese population) that's available in some grocery stores and it's very good. The same people also make a linguica sausage. Avoid the Goya brand cured chorizo - unlike some of their other products it really sucks.

[lmarshal1]

Chorizo is tasty but awfully greasy and stain'y (with the red...what is that?).

Someone mentioend paprika as the likely culprit but it might also be annatto (sp?).

Paella is always the obvious suspect for me when I have chorizo on hand but I"ve also been known to slice it thin, saute til a bit drisp, blot off the oil and then use it on thin crust pizza in place of pepperoni. Yum.

The Mexican chorizo I run across is of the fresh crumbly variety but the Portuguese style I used to buy in the Ironbound section of Jersey City was offered as both fresh and cured. Now that I'm out of NJ I can only get the cured style and it's available in only one market at that. There's a brand made In Rhode Island (which has a large Portuguese population) that's available in some grocery stores and it's very good. The same people also make a linguica sausage. Avoid the Goya brand cured chorizo - unlike some of their other products it really sucks.

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Never thought about using it in place of pepperoni. Good idea. Will try it. lkm

[lambfries]

I recently made some chorizo croquettas and a roasted red pepper sour cream dipping sauce. They were pretty yummy. What's nice is you can make a bunch and just freeze em. When you want a spicy snack just drop some in the fry daddy.

[joiei]

I do an Lentil and chorizo soup that is wonderful. I forget who gave me the recipe, but it has become a favorite. And I have done chorizo in Migas. A friend who is the Chef Instrustor at the Tri Counties Tech Center in Bartlesville makes a rockn' homemade chorizo.

[Richard Kilgore]

Lambfries -- do tell more about your chorizo croquettas and the roasted red pepper sour cream dipping sauce.

joiei -- Willing to share your Choirzo and Lentil soup recipe? Sounds good.

[polack]

The fresh chorizo mentioned above that's removed from the casing and crumbled sounds as if it's Mexican chorizo and not Spanish chorizo. I only know about the Mexican variety from reading about it, but I gather it's quite different from the Spanish chorizo in general although they can vary in type quite a bit and some are cured to be eaten sliced while others are meant to be used in cooking. Here's a quote from La Tienda, a commercial site in the US. "Every household in Spain has at least one or two of the hundreds of varieties of delicious chorizo sausages. Spanish chorizo-type products, often referred to as embutidos, come in many varieties, thick and thin, plain or smoked, some containing lean meat to be served for tapas, or with more fat to flavor stews and grilled dishes. In general, Spanish chorizo always has less fat and is more finely ground than a Mexican one." Both types are made in the US, and as we often find Chouriço, the Portuguese sausage which is similar to the Spanish, that's made in New Jersey. Chouriço and the Spanish chorizo are probably interchangeable, whereas I don't think the Mexican chorizo would be a good substitute for the Spanish in an authentic recipe. Spanish chorizo is very common in Puerto Rican cooking, especially in a good pot of beans. Thinly sliced and fried, it's a great addition to a Spanish tortilla de patatas.

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I agree that several people are mixing up spanish chorizo with mexican chorizo. Both are good; however, they are completely different. The spanish chorizo has almost no grease when cooked and the mexican chorizo swims in grease when cooked. I absolutely love the spanish chorizo. The mexican chorizo has its place also; however, it can be overbearing with all of the grease. Other than the fact that both contain paprika and meat, they are completely different.

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I made some Spanish Chorizo that I smoked and Added it to chicken, that I fried first, sliced potatoes, green peppers, onoins, garlic, tomatoes, olives, wine, and baked in the oven, at the end I put some shrimp in, results were very good.Being a Polack that makes smoked and fresh kielbasi, this was a very good change to our sausage recipes. When I make sausage I try to keep it as lean as possible without going overboard. I generally use whole pork butt that I trim and grind and then add my seasonings. I look at it this way, even though Mexican chorizo is fat laden, you can make it your way if you make it yourself, the seasonings do the trick.

Polack

[Redsugar]

Presumably, most cooks would promptly think of paella when considering uses for chorizo. But other Spanish dishes present an admirable environment for these sausages, such as: Huevos a la Flamenca (Eggs Flamenco) and Fabada Asturiana (Asturian beans – a solidly sustaining dish, in which morcilla de Asturias, a smoked black blood sausage, is also included). Every winter, I prepare a large platter of charcroute garni; I would not dispute the practicality of substituting chorizo for the kielbasa.

My primary recommendations would be either to make those thick fried patties known as Gorditas (consult the recipe in Real Beer and Good Eats by B. Aidells & D. Kelly), Caldo Gallego (a warming bean-&-sausage soup, worth considering as an alternative to Caldo Verde), or prepare fortifying stuffed squash:

Brown the *sausage meat; add onions & garlic, cook until softened; then add plum tomatoes (concassé) and short-grained rice; cook, stirring, for about 5 minutes, then stir in thyme and Dijon mustard; season with salt. Stuff hollowed-out medium winter squash with the mixture, place the filled squash in a baking dish with a little water, and bake, covered with foil, in a 375° oven 45-60 minutes.

Precede the squash with an authentic Spanish soup: e.g., sopa Crema de Sémola (semolina) or Sopa de Ajo (thick egg-&-garlic soup).

*Decide whether you are going to buy mild, medium, or hot.

[Lisa1349]

MMmm chorizo.

A recent creation of mine in the days of low carb - saute some handmade chorizo (about 2" in diameter), remove from pan. Saute seasoned pork sirlion chops in the fat. Add thick slices of aged mahon cheese to the top, add chorizo back to the pan and broil until bubbly. Onions in the pan with the chorizo if you have time is a nice addition.

[Jon Tseng]

- Take some cooking chorizo out of skins and sautee in its own fat til browned.

- Mix the hash with with cubes of bread, olive oil, freshly chopped parsley, maybe a touch of garlic (might want to sautee/blanch the garlic first).

- Stuff into baby squids. Pin with a cocktail stick. Grill or sautee til just browned on the outside. Serve as an hors-de'oeuvre

J

[TheFoodTutor]

Lambfries -- do tell more about your chorizo croquettas and the roasted red pepper sour cream dipping sauce.

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I made these with him, so I can answer this one.

We started with a large log of bulk chorizo that I bought at the farmer's market, cooked and crumbled it in a pan and then drained the grease, which was a lot of grease. We added flour, enough to pull everthing together, and rolled the chorizo into the size and shape of a cocktail wiener.

Then breaded through 3 bowls of flour, then egg, then cracker meal. Fry in the deep fryer until crisp. The hot croquetas are then served with a very simple cream sauce made by whirring roasted red peppers with sour cream in a blender.

Very simple, but very tasty, and they make a nicely neat passed appetizer.

[lambfries]

Lambfries -- do tell more about your chorizo croquettas and the roasted red pepper sour cream dipping sauce.

Pretty simple.

Edited November 4, 2004 by lambfries (log)

[oliveDC]

My favorite chorizo dish combines the sausage with clams and couldn't be easier: Heat some olive oil in a pot, toss in some garlic, and cook chorizo. Add stewed tomatoes, simmer for 15 minutes, then toss clams on top, cover and cook for 9-10 minutes until clams start popping open. Serve in a big bowl with crusty bread to sop up the deliciously spicy/salty juices, or serve over pasta or another starch in you want more substance.

It tastes like ocean meets country farm.

Proportions can be adjusted for more clams:chorizo, or vice versa, whatever you want more of.

This came from Gourmet's "Five Ingredients" book, thus it only has five ingredients.