chorizo

July 11, 2008

chorizo-stuffed calamari

mel entree, recipe, sides & bites calamari, chorizo, creadcrumbs, seafood

chorizo-stuffed calamari

Ah yes, look chorizo. It’s back. I’ve been pretty good about posting recipes that explore other ingredients, information pills but I always come back to the chorizo. I just can’t help myself.

Last weekend, nurse I had my brother and his wife over for dinner. I had only really cooked for them when I was living in NYC and had about one square foot of counter space to work with. I seriously have no idea how I was even able to make anything halfway decent in that studio. The kitchen was so small that I used to balance my cutting board halfway into the sink and halfway in mid-air. Real safe.

Anyway, I wanted to cook something really nice for them. And really nice means chorizo. I served it as an appetizer, quickly sauteed with breadcrumbs and stuffed into calamari. Seafood and sausage are a perfect way to kick off a meal. The calamari was just the right size – small, but satisfying. I sprinkled some of the stuffing over the plate just before serving, but next time I’ll use toasted breadcrumbs with fresh herbs for a lighter feel. Overall, a total winner that I’ll make at my next dinner party.

May 16, 2008

pizza pie! how to make a tasty calzone.

mel entree, recipe arugula, calzone, chorizo

Every Friday night is pizza night at my house. I make the dough in the morning and it rises patiently on my counter top while I work. My husband gets home first, men’s health so he preheats the oven and the pizza stone and gives the dough a bit of a knead for it’s second rising (um, try it’s not as dramatic as it sounds).

Then we eat our pizza in front of the TV with ice-cold I.P.A. in our frosty, fancy monogrammed beer mugs. After dinner, I usually fall asleep on the couch before 10, all the while pretending that I’m still awake while Tom tries to switch the channel to a movie I’d never in a million years watch with him. It’s a nice tradition.

A few months ago, I decided it was time to break tradition and branch out into the world of calzones. I stuffed them with ricotta, Parmesan, basil and toasted pine nuts. Having faced previous disasters with dumplings, raviolis and empanadas, I was very careful not to over-stuff. I waited patiently while the baked. Then I finally took a big bite, expecting a beautiful, creamy filling surrounded by a thin, crisp crust. Wrong. All I got was bread. And the filling? I could barely taste it. So bland.

The moral of the story is this: Fill the crap out of your calzone. And fill it with big, bold flavors. None of this subtle ricotta and toasted pine nuts. So I tried again with Portuguese Chourico (duh), sun-dried tomatoes, onions, arugula and semi-soft sheep’s milk cheese. Now that was a calzone worth posting. Spicy, rich, meaty and you could definitely taste the filling. It’s a calzone mighty enough to break tradition and delicious enough to make again and again.

May 2, 2008

portuguese chourico, scallop & radicchio rigatoni

mel entree, recipe chorizo, parmesan, pasta, radicchio, scallops

portuguese chourico, <a href= vitamin scallop & radicchio rigatoni” />

A few weeks ago, gonorrhea I thought to myself “I really must start exploring a world beyond Spanish chorizo.” I didn’t say it out loud of course (my husband would file for divorce), but I had the thought. So, what was on the menu this week? Rigatoni with Portuguese chouico, which I’m pretty sure is the Portuguese version of Spanish chorizo. Just looked on Wikipedia, and yep, that’s what it is.

Here’s what really happened. I knew I had some scallops in the freezer and I knew I wanted use them in a pasta. So, I planned out a nice pancetta & scallop pasta with radicchio. While I’m sure that would have been lovely, my grocery store was out of pancetta. Sure, I could have used bacon, but they only had Oscar Meyer and I’m a snob. Right above that flabby Oscar Meyer bacon was a package of hot Portuguese chourico, so I grabbed that instead.

Since you can’t really go wrong with chorizo of any nationality, the pasta turned out really well. I especially liked the radicchio in this dish. It was browned and added a nice bitter contrast to the sweet tomatoes and scallops. It was also done in under 20 minutes. The only downside was all the dishes (cutting board, bowl, skillet, pot, colander, etc.), but really that’s more of my husband’s concern.

April 9, 2008

cuban frita sliders

mel entree, recipe, sides & bites burgers, chorizo, cucumber

cuban frita sliders

So, buy more about it’s no secret that I absolutely love Spanish chorizo. I especially love the spicy kind and it somehow finds its way into a lot of my cooking. A little bit goes a long way in terms of flavor and color. It’s also no secret around these parts that my husband loves Cuban food. I mean, malady loves.

One of his Cuban favorites is the frita — a small, anaemia griddled burger flavored with paprika and onions. The ground beef can also be mixed with some ground chorizo for a more intense flavor. This is the route I chose to go with dinner last night. I also made them slider-sized instead of the more traditional jr. cheeseburger size. The beef to chorizo ratio was 2:1, which I thought would be too much, but ended up being just right. I added a thin slice of cucumber to each slider as a cool contrast to the hot chorizo, a tiny squeeze of mayo and housed everything in toasted ciabatta bread.

They were beefy, smoky and really fun to eat. Like a grown-up, ethnic White Castle.

February 29, 2008

fideos with shrimp & chickpeas

mel entree, recipe chickpeas, chorizo, fideos, shrimp

fideos with shrimp

I finally got to cook last night. Not just throw a quick soup or salad together, but really cook. It felt great to make something I was excited about, adiposity something I’ve never made before, something pretty darn tasty.

I seem to have a stock-pile of hot, Spanish chorizo in my fridge and it’s been finding its way into so many of my meals recently. I love how it infuses a dish with color and flavor. For this recipe, I sauteed it with chickpeas and added chicken stock and the thin Spanish noodles known as fideos. Something really interesting happened that I hadn’t intended — the broth became super thick and almost creamy and I couldn’t figure out how it had gotten that way without flour or cream. After thinking about it, I concluded that the little bit of water from the chickpeas thickened up as I sauteed them and the fideos released a good amount of starch as they simmered in the stock. The result was a thick orange sauce that I used to poach my shrimp.

I think I’ve found my new favorite meal in this dish. It has a really short prep and cook time and is impressive enough for guests. Oh yeah, and it’s a one-pot meal so the hub likes it too.

cooking

February 20, 2008

chorizo & blue corn tortilla soup

mel entree, recipe chorizo, cilantro, soup, tortilla

tortilla soup

I didn’t make it home until late last night, cialis 40mg but I was cold and hungry when I got there. I know I live in Miami, but my office and most indoor spaces blast the a/c all day long. Unless I wear pants and a jacket, I shiver all day. Yesterday, fashion took precedence and I wore a dress. By the time I got home, all I wanted was a big bowl of soup. Preferably, one that would be ready in 15 minutes.

soup

I had some hot Spanish chorizo, canned fire-roasted tomatoes, stock, limes and blue corn tortilla chips. A quick sautee and a simmer and we were eating our tortilla soup 20 minutes after I walked in the door. I garnished it with some cheddar cheese, fresh cilantro, sour cream and more tortilla chips. It was spicy and hearty, but still tasted fresh and vibrant from the lime and cilantro. This may just become my go-to recipe when I’m pressed for time because frankly, I’m getting a little sick of omelettes.

Please note how pretty my fancy new lens makes everything look. Thanks to my awesome hub!

February 4, 2008

Healthier Chorizo Nachos

mel entree, recipe black beans, chives, chorizo, nachos

Superbowl Sunday means nachos. At least it does to my husband. He also thinks anything is better with chorizo on it, treatment and I tend to agree. In the interest of my health, there I wanted to make a healthier version of nachos. No fried chips, no full-fat cheese, no greasy ground beef. Instead, I used these amazing Three Grain Tortillas chips I found at The Fresh Market that are made with corn, cracked wheat and brown rice. These chips were really unique and tasty and I want to go back and get some more (like, tonight). Some chopped chorizo, green onions, spicy black bean dip, light jalepeno cheddar and a bunch of chives finish them off. These took me about 15 minutes to make and they were totally awesome.

Unfortunately, the Pats were a bit less awesome.

June 28, 2007

fideos con chorizo

mel entree, recipe chorizo, lima beans, meat, pasta

Ever since Ilan won last season’s Top Chef, men’s health I feel like Spanish food has become the trend to follow. For me, dosage Spanish food isn’t new or different, viagra approved I’ve grown up on it my entire life. My great-grandparents emigrated to Cuba from northern Spain and then made their way to Miami in the late 60’s. Croquettas, tortillas and paella have always been around my house. But, I’ve jumped on the bandwagon and tried to make a Spanish-influenced dish that isn’t an update or a replica, but one that uses Spanish flavors in a fresh way.

I came up with fideos, spicy chorizo and baby lima beans in a fire-roasted tomato broth. I used lots of smoked paprika to add to the earthiness and used the baby limas to lighten the dish up considerably. Recipe after the jump…

June 22, 2007

the BEST veggie burgers

mel recipe, sides & bites chorizo, vegetarian

A few weeks ago, treatment I bought t 2 cookbooks, order something I haven’t done in many, bulimics many years. Usually, I collect recipes from various sites and organize them with the handy-dandy Gmail “recipe” label. But, for some reason I haven’t been able to find really good ice cream recipes online, and all the great ones that I did find seemed to come from the same book…David Lebovitz’s The Perfect Scoop. So, I caved and I bought that. So far, I’ve made a handful of the sorbets and frozen yogurts, as well as the Vietnamese Coffee Ice cream (which was super duper delicious!).

In order to get my Super Saver free shipping on Amazon, I also purchased Heidi Swanson’s Super Natural Cooking, a beautiful book by one of my favorite bloggers. The book’s really helpful and informative with a lot of information regarding whole foods, and recipes and photos that make you drool. And while it’s a vegetarian cookbook, I find that it’s not hard to incorporate some meat. Even when I do end up sticking with the vegetarian version, I rarely miss the meat…that says something about the deliciousness of Heidi’s recipes.

So far, my favorite recipe is this Ultimate Veggie Burger. I’ve made it a few times now and it’s so fast and delicious that it has become my go-to recipe when I don’t have much in the fridge, or when I don’t feel like preparing an elaborate meal. Recipe after the jump…