Farfalle with chicken and cherry tomatoes

Ingredients
12 oz. boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
4 Tbs. Italian dry vermouth
2 tsp. chopped fresh rosemary
1 Tbs. olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1-2 cloves garlic, minced
3 1/2 oz. diced salami (optional)
2 1/2 C. dried farfalle (bow tie) pasta or pasta of your choice
1 Tbs. balsamic vinegar
1 14-oz. can cherry tomatoes
pinch of dried red chilies
salt and pepper to taste

Place the chicken pieces in a large bowl, pour in the vermouth, and sprinkle with half the chopped rosemary and salt and pepper to taste. Stir well and set aside.

Heat the oil in a large pan, add the onion, garlic and salami, cooking over medium heat for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently so garlic does not burn.

Cook the pasta according to the package instructions.

Add the chicken and vermouth to the onion and salami, increase the heat to high, and cook for 3 minutes, or until the chicken is white on all sides.

Sprinkle the vinegar over the chicken. Add the cherry tomatoes and dried chilies. Stir well and simmer for a few minutes more until the chicken is cooked. Taste often and adjust seasoning.

Drain the pasta and combine it in the pan with the chicken and tomatoes. add remaining rosemary toss the pasta and sauce together.

My fridge isn’t working and so I am trying to clear my fridge of food. Had half a chorizo sausage left and so decided to make this pasta dish with chorizo as a substitute for salami (I prefer chorizo anyway).

Sausage and chorizo goulash

From BBC – Something for the Weekend
Serves 6

Ingredients
1 tbsp vegetable oil
knob of butter
700g/1½lb good quality beef sausages, chopped
300g/10½oz spicy chorizo sausage, chopped
2 onions, finely sliced
1 garlic clove, chopped.
2 tbsp plain flour
1 tbsp smoked paprika
2 red chillies, finely chopped
1 red pepper, finely sliced
200ml/7fl oz beef stock
175ml/6fl oz soured cream
1 tbsp chopped fresh parsley
cooked long-grain rice, to serve

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F/Gas 2.

Heat the oil and butter in a large ovenproof frying pan and fry the beef sausages and chorizo for 5-7 minutes, or until browned all over.

Remove the sausages from the pan using a slotted spoon and set aside. Fry the onions and garlic in the same pan for 3-4 minutes, or until softened. Stir in the flour and cook for a further 2-3 minutes.

Add the paprika, chillies and pepper and stir until well combined. Pour in the beef stock, return the beef sausage and chorizo to the pan and cook in the oven for 30-35 minutes.
Remove the frying pan from the oven and skim off any fat that’s risen to the surface with a slotted spoon. Stir in the soured cream and parsley until well combined.

Serve the goulash with long-grain rice.

I love goulash, that combination of soured cream and meat is always quite amazing. Didn’t use beef sausages as I couldn’t find it at Marks and Spencer. Instead I used venison sausage which I think works quite well.

Chicken with chorizo

Ingredients

4 chicken legs jointed
2 tbsp paprika
2 small onions, sliced
6 garlic cloves, thinly sliced
150g chorizo sausage sliced
400g can of chopped tomatoes
2 bay leaves
5 tbsp sherry

Preheat the oven to 190 degrees. Coat the chicken in paprika, making sure that they are evenly covered, then season with salt. Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and fry the chicken until brown.

Transfer to an ovenproof dish. Add the onions to the pan and fry quickly. Add the garlic and sliced chorizo, and fry for about 2 minutes.

Add the tomatoes, the bay leaves and the sherry, and bring to the boil. Pour over the chicken and cover with a lid. Bake for 45 minutes.

Remove the lid and season to taste. Cook for a further 20 minutes until the chicken is tender and golden.

I know I can be really repetitive with my food but I just can’t go without my chicken tomato casseroles!

Leek, butter beans and chorizo gratin

From BBC GoodFood 101 More on-pot dishes
Serves 4

Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
75g pack chorizo , roughly chopped
4 large leeks , thinly sliced
3 garlic cloves , sliced
100ml dry sherry
2 x 400g cans butter beans , drained
500ml vegetable stock
85g bread , torn into pieces

Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6. Heat the oil, fry the chorizo for a few mins until slightly crisp, then scoop out, leaving the oil behind. Add the leeks and half the garlic; cook for 5 mins until soft. Pour in the sherry, beans and stock. Season, then bubble for 5 mins.
Meanwhile, blitz the bread to coarse crumbs with the remaining garlic. Tip the leek mixture into an ovenproof dish, stir in the chorizo and scatter over the crumbs. Bake for 10 mins until golden, then serve with crusty bread.

Been away for the last two weekends. New York and Dublin and haven’t done any photo cooking for ages. I did cook but more simple stuff for the parents when they were around. Am glad to get back into the mix and get my hands dirty so to speak

I like this recipe for his simplicity and complexity. Simple because it’s easy to execute. Complex because there’s a lot going on in this dish. The strong tastes of the sherry and chorizo, balanced by the starchiness of the butter beans and the crispness of the leeks. The bread crumbs help to soak up the sherry and in the end a wonderful combination of flavours emerges.

Sweet potato, butternut squash and chorizo soup

From Jamie’s Ministry of Food
Serves 4
Ingredients

2 carrots, roughly sliced
2 celery stalks, sliced
2 onions, peeled & roughly chopped
800g sweet potatoes, peeled & roughly chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and sliced
200g chorizo sausage, peeled & sliced
Small bunch fresh parsley, finely chopped
Olive oil
1 heaped teaspoon curry powder
2 chicken or vegetable cubes (with 1.8L of boiling water)
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 fresh red chilli, finely diced (as garnish)

Chop carrots, celery, onions and sweet potatoes. Peel and slice garlic and chorizo. Finely chop parsley leaves and stalks.

Bring a large pot to medium-high heat. Pour in the olive oil and add all the chopped and sliced ingredients (including the chorizo) into to pot. Add curry powder and mix with a wooden spoon.

Cook for about 10 minutes or until the carrots have softened but are not falling apart and the onions are translucent in colour.

Pour 1.8L boiling water into a large jug over the two stock cubes. Stir to dissolve the cubes and add to the vegetables. Give soup a good stir and bring to a boil. Reduce heat, cover pot with a lid and simmer for 15-20 minutes or until the sweet potato is cooked through. Season with salt and pepper. Stir and allow soup to cool slightly. Using a food processor or hand blender, blend soup in batches until smooth.

Divide into bowls and top with finely diced chilli, salt and pepper.

Ultimate combination of sweet and savoury! And it’s so easy to make. As you can see I choose not to blend it till it’s smooth because: (i) i like rustic soups; and (ii) I think it’s a waste of chorizo to blend it! I want to taste the chorizo in its full glory!

Chorizo, new potatoes, haddock (cod) one-pot

From BBC More One-pot Recipes
Serves 2
Ingredients

1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil , plus extra to serve
50g chorizo , peeled and thinly sliced
450g salad or new potatoes , sliced
4 tbsp dry sherry , or more if you need it (or use white wine)
2 skinless thick fillets white fish
good handful cherry tomatoes , halved
20g bunch parsley , chopped
crusty bread , to serve

Heat a large lidded frying pan, then add the oil. Tip in the chorizo, fry for 2 mins until it starts to release its oils, then tip in the potatoes and some seasoning. Splash over 3 tbsp Sherry, cover the pan tightly, then leave to cook for 10-15 mins until the potatoes are just tender. Move them around the pan a bit halfway through.

Season the fish well. Give the potatoes another stir, add the cherry tomatoes and most of the chopped parsley to the pan, then lay the fish on top. Splash over 1 tbsp Sherry, put the lid on again, then leave to cook for 5 mins, or until the fish has turned white and is flaky when prodded in the middle. Scatter the whole dish with a little more parsley and drizzle with more extra virgin oil. Serve straight away with crusty bread.

For some reason, when I was in Waitrose, I thought that this recipe required savoy cabbage. So with a whole savoy cabbage at home and with no idea what to do with it, I added it to the potato and chorizo. I thought it worked well, and it’s certainly a more balanced meal after adding all that cabbage to the dish.

Prawn, chorizo and chickpea stew

From Ramsay’s Best Menus
Ingredients

3 tbsp olive oil
4 fresh piquillo peppers, cored, deseeded and cut into 2cm squares
1 small red onion, peeled and finely chopped
150g good-quality cooking chorizo sausage, sliced
2 garlic cloves, peeled and finely chopped
1 ½ tbsp sherry vinegar
3 tbsp dry sherry
600g drained cooked chickpeas (freshly cooked or tinned)
100ml chicken stock
70g baby spinach leaves, washed
20 good-quality raw tiger prawns, peeled, deveined and heads removed
Large handful of basil, leaves only, torn
Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

1. Heat 2 tbsp olive oil in a large, wide pan and add the peppers, red onion and chorizo. Cook for a few minutes, then add the garlic. Cook for a couple of minutes again, then add the sherry and vinegar and reduce down.

2. Add the chickpeas, stir and cook for a couple of minutes, then add the chicken stock and cook for 10 minutes on a medium heat.

3. In a separate pan, fry the tiger prawns in the remaining olive oil for about 30-45 seconds each side. Once cooked, add to the chickpea stew with the spinach. Let wilt slightly, then scatter over the basil, season and serve.

Couldn’t find any tiger prawns at Marks and Sparks and so I settled for Honduran raw prawns. This is one GR’s recipes from his Channel 4 show, Ramsay’s Best Restaurants, and this is the main course for his Spanish Summer menu. The starter for this is Chunky Gazpacho and his dessert is Lime Mousse… Ok just by writing all this, it’s tempting me to actually do this whole menu. May do it for the next lunch / dinner party I do or back home in Singapore.

Roasted sea trout with onions, tomatoes and chorizo

James Martin – Saturday Kitchen

For the chorizo
2 tbsp olive oil
1 red onion, roughly chopped
1 garlic clove, roughly chopped
100g/3½oz chorizo, cut into chunks
2-3 sprigs thyme
50g/1¾oz black olives, stones removed
8 cherry tomatoes
salt and freshly ground black pepper
For the sea bass
1 large sea bass, head removed, scaled and gutted
small bunch fresh thyme
2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
Preparation method
Preheat the oven to 190C/375F/Gas 5.
Heat the olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and chorizo.
Fry for 4-5 minutes until the oil runs out of the chorizo and the onions soften.
Add the thyme, olives and tomatoes and stir to combine.
Season well with salt and freshly ground black pepper, before transferring the mixture to an ovenproof dish.
Using a sharp knife, slash skin of the sea bass diagonally along each side so that the flesh is exposed and place sprigs of thyme into the slashes.
Season the sea bass with salt and freshly ground black pepper and place on top of the chorizo mixture.
Drizzle over the olive oil and cook in the oven for 20-25 minutes, until the fish is tender and cooked all the way through.
To serve,take the cooking dish to the table.

Ah chorizo, one of the best things the spaniards have ever made. I probably mentioned this before somewhere in the multitude of posts in this blog that I first tasted chorizo at Borough Market when I had the chorizo, rocket and red pepper bab. Well, another one of the things I brought back from Barcelona is a nice fat chorizo sausage which I have just used in this dish.

Chorizo goes well with fish, and thats why this recipe works. I couldn’t find any sea bass at Tesco last night and so I used sea trout instead.

Chorizo rice

From the BBC website
Ingredients
Serves 4

100g/3½oz chorizo
1 onion, sliced
1 garlic clove, sliced
200g/7oz short-grain rice such as arborio rice
4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
50g/2oz butter
1 tbsp parsley
600ml/20fl oz chicken stock
salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 180C/350F/Gas 4.

Heat a heavy-based frying pan over a medium heat and fry the chorizo for 3-4 minutes, or until crisp. Remove the chorizo from the pan with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Fry the onion and garlic in the remaining oil for 3-4 minutes, or until soft.

Place the chorizo, onion, garlic, rice, tomatoes, butter and parsley into a well-buttered casserole dish. Season with salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Pour over the chicken stock, cover with a tight-fitting lid and bake in the oven for about 25-30 minutes, or until the rice is cooked.

Smoked mackerel and chorizo

From Channel4.com
Serves 4
Ingredients
200g piece chorizo, roughly chopped
2 small onions, chopped
900g potatoes, cut into small cubes
250g cherry tomatoes, halved
4 peppered smoked mackerel fillets, skinned
Large handful of fresh parsley leaves, chopped

1. Heat a large, non-stick frying pan over a high heat. Add the chorizo and cook, stirring, for 2 minutes, until most of the oil has been released. Remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

2. Reduce the heat to medium and add the onions and potatoes to the pan. Coat in the oil from the chorizo and cook for 12-15 minutes, stirring occasionally, or until the potatoes are just tender and the onions golden.

3. Stir the tomatoes and chorizo into the pan. Flake the mackerel fillets with a fork and add them to the pan. Gently mix and cook for 2 minutes, until piping hot. Stir in the parsley. Divide between 4 plates and serve with a mixed leaf salad.