Wheat Free Chorizo!

Unbelievable find in the local Co-op. Gluten and Lactose free Chorizo! Tastes just the same. Excellent! So this is a wheat-free and lactose free tapas snack, lurking on a bottom shelf. Served with some diced leek and chopped green beans. Delicious!
 

Serrano Ham Salad

 Another easy salad, with thinly sliced Serrano ham, a baby leaf lettuce salad, and fresh coriander. Plus sliced white onion and garlic, boiled potato and sweet potato. Dressed in some freshly ground black pepper and a drizzle of olive oil on the greens. 

Chorizo Regio Sausage, with Potatoes

Chorizo Regio with boiled potatoes and fried mixed vegetables. Dressed in some freshly ground black pepper.  

Pamplona Sausage, Spring Onion, Red Pepper

An interesting selection of Spanish sausage from Aldi yesterday. An easy to prepare salad with Basmati rice, spring onion and diced red pepper. All done in five minutes (apart from the rice of course. That was pre-prepared). Served with a little horseradish sauce.

[Chorizo de Pamplona is a sausage that is typical in the cuisine of the Navarre region of Spain It is prepared with equal parts of finely-chopped beef and pork and significant amounts of a strong smoked paprika, and pork fat.]

 
 

Torun Sausage, with Brocolli, Yellow Pepper, and Tomato

Polish Copernicus sausage, as part of a tapas style dish (Aloha amigo!). The flavour of Torun sausage is of course different from Spanish Chorizo, but both are preserved pork sausage with paprika and garlic, so they can be interchanged without crashing the gears of your palate. 

Fried in a little olive oil (the diced sausage, the pepper strips, and the quartered cherry tomatoes) until the sausage pieces begin to brown. The chopped brocolli florets were cooked in boiling water for four to five minutes at a medium heat, before being drained. About ten to twelve minutes preparation time, and a delicious result!

Fried Rice, Yellow Pepper, and Chorizo Sausage

A simple tapas style dish, based on fried rice and yellow peppers, with diced chorizo sausage. Cooked for five minutes at a high heat, and then the heat was turned down.

The rice had been boiled the previous day, but was not used. It was added to a flat pan drizzled with olive oil, and cooked slowly for ten minutes, before a lid was added to the pan. The strips of pepper were added, along with the diced chorizo. Cooked for another twenty minutes at a low heat.

The rice should be crispy before serving,  and dressed in dried (or fresh!) coriander leaf.

Shredded Chorizo Sausage with Potato Rosti

Sliced chorizo sausage was stir-fried with julienned red onion (one half), five diced piccolo tomatoes, a sixth of a red pepper, cut into strips, two cloves of diced garlic, and five diced white mushrooms.

The onion was cooked first, in a little olive oil until it became transparent, then the other ingredients were added. Cook for a further seven minutes, and under glass for the final three minutes.

The potato rosti was prepared with a grater, which is quite labour intensive. The next day I experimented preparing the rosti with an electric mini chopper. I cut a potato into thin slices with a sharp knife, and further diced the pieces. Six short blasts with the chopper did the rest.

The rosti was mixed with a little salt and olive oil, and roasted under the oven grill in a roasting tin for around fifteen minutes. Check progress by eye.

Chorizo and Mushroom Tapas

The Spanish like to move around on an evening out, and not park themselves in one place for the evening. Hence the tradition of tapas in Spain: small dishes of tasty food which won't fill you up, leaving room for another dish in another bar or restaurant.

This is a simple dish made with only four ingredients: diced chorizo sausage from a chorizo ring, cherry tomatoes, each cut into three, four quartered white mushrooms, and some diced potato.

The chorizo was added to a flat pan first along with the potato, since the oil for cooking the dish comes from the sausage. From an initial high heat, the hob was turned down to the lowest. After about seven minutes, I added the tomato pieces and the mushroom quarters. The dish cooks under glass in around fifteen further minutes, with the ingredients moved around the pan occasionally.

Serve as is!

Chorizo and Mushroom Tapa

A simple dish of sliced chorizo sausage, with quartered mushrooms, halved cherry plum tomatoes, diced onion, and some chopped basil leaves.

The chorizo slices were put into into a non-stick omelette pan first, at a medium heat, and all the other ingredients were cooked in the fat which emerges from the sausage. Add the vegetables when there is sufficient fat in the pan. The diced onion was added first, followed a little later by the mushroom quarters, and then the cherry plum tomato halves.

The ingredients were regularly kept on the move. The basil leaves were added shortly before the dish was ready to serve. The dish should be ready within ten minutes at a medium heat, when the mushrooms begin to brown.

Served with a dusting of freshly ground black pepper. Great flavour from the paprika in the sausage!