What to do with Chorizos

[Bob]

If you are going to go to the trouble of making your own chorizos, you may wish to keep in mind that they can be used in many different ways. Some of the ways that I use them are:

• (1) fried, with eggs and bread;
  (2) in fabada;
  (3) in garbanzos;
  (4) in kale soup (sort of like caldo gallego);
  (5) in making stuffed squid in their own ink;
  (6) wrapped in bread dough and baked;
  (7) in making callos (tripe);
  (8) in omelettes;
  (9) cooked over a charcoal fire and served on crusty bread;
  (10) cooked with with lentils; and
  (11) as the meat course with almost anything.

The cured chorizo from La Tienda are good:

• (1) sliced as a snack or tapa, with cheese too (usually Manchego or Cabrales);
  (2) thinly sliced, in a sandwich on crusty bread (I had this in the Madrid airport for the first time, and it totally changed my view of airport food);
  (3) in omelettes; and
  (4) julienned in salads.

[Art]

To fry chorizo, do I just add a little olive oil to a sarten and heat up the chorizo?

[Bob]

It depends on how much fat is in them. If they are quite fatty, I just prick holes in them with a toothpick to be sure the fat can be rendered out and start them in a little water (maybe 1/4 inch) on low heat. If they are not very fatty, I fry them in a little olive oil, bit still prick them to let out whatever rendered fat there is so it can mix with the olive oil.

The fat lends a wonderful flavor to any eggs fried in it. If you have a lot of rendered fat, you can store it in the refrigerator or freezer for a while and use it another time

[Art]

This week I tried a chorizo-enhanced vegetable dish that was fantastic.

I had some radish greens from the garden, as I poked around the kitchen for an idea, I came upon some chorizo I had picked up in Spelter thanks to Suronda's parents. I sliced the chorizo, heated it in a sarten/fry pan, which provided a minimal amount of oil. Then I threw in the greens and stirred them until tender. I think this could also be done with other greens such as: spinach, turnip greens (very similar to radish greens), chard, cabbage, kale, berza, or collards.

Delish!

They were even good the next day served cold.

[Art]

I have now tried this simple recipe with Swiss chard (acelgas), turnip greens, and radish greens. Later in the summer I hope to try it with kale, too. It's interesting that there is enough liquid for cooking the dish just from the little bit of oil from the chorizos, the drops of water from rinsing the leaves, and the moisture the heat brings out from inside the leaves.

[Carlos]

Aquí se comen mucho en las sidrerías los "chorizos a la sidra". Se trata de cocer en ella los chorizos, metidos enteros dentro de una cacerola. Se suelen servir en cazuelas de barro, con abundante salsa, que es una mezcla de la sidra con que fueron cocidos más la sustancia que sueltan los chorizos. Se trocean los chorizos en porciones pequeñas y se toman con pan. El pan se va comiendo a la vez que los chorizos, para acompañar, pero mucha gente también moja la miga en la salsa. ¡Y no se considera de malos modales!

Here the "chorizos to the cider" eat much in sidrerías. The matter is to cook in her the chorizos, put whole within a casserole. Usually they are served in flat mud casseroles, with abundant sauce, that is a mixture of the cider whereupon they were cooked plus the substance which they loosen chorizos. The chorizos are cut in "rodajas" (sheets) and they are taken with bread. The bread is eaten simultaneously that the chorizos, to accompany, but much people also wet miga (the inner spongy part) in the sauce. And it is not considered inadequate!