Welcome to Al Dente! Let’s talk PIG!
Specifically, Pig Soup. Which is what Chorizo stew is referred to as in this house. The actual recipe I use is here. I don’t use fire roasted tomatoes because my local supermarket doesn’t carry them and I tend to swap the bean count around a little but otherwise that’s basically it.
So, Pig Soup! Here’s what’s in it. Victor!
So what you have there, going left to right is:
-Cumin. Use a teaspoon of this
-Chilli powder. Use a teaspoon of this.
-No paprika. You will think it could do with it. Your thinking will be good, but in this instance, incorrect. Hold fast on the spices. Because after all, he who controls the spice, controls the stew.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6YMPAH67f4o]
Oh that felt good.
Then you have:
-Four potatoes. Any kind works. These are baking potatoes but you can grab a bag of new potatoes, cut them in half lengthways and throw ‘em in there and it’s just as good.
-Cannellini Beans. Or White Beans. Or Vinnie Garbonzo beans. Or Tony ‘The Ankle’ Figueroa…beans. Basically any bean that is also a mobster of some sort.
-Two cloves of garlic
-One white onion.
-The chorizo.
-My ipad. Don’t…don’t put that in the stew…Trust me.
So those are your ingredients, now, here’s what you do with them.
-Quarter the potatoes and then quarter them again. Don’t go for weird, Dali-esque chips but go a little larger and rougher than roasties. Although let’s face it, Dali-esque chips really should be a thing.
-Next, open the cans of beans and drain them. Rinse them too.
-Put everything you’ve just done stuff to in a large bowl.
-Chop the two cloves of Garlic if you’re not me and throw them in there. If you’re me, put them in your Garlic Defenestrator, yell something about the Holy Roman Empire and defenestrate them.
-And now we get to do this.
Yeah.
This was uncomfortable. Especially…
Yeah.
Chop the sausage thin but not hugely so. Think a pound coin or the width of half a pencil. Basically turn it into slices instead of what looks suspiciously like the phallus of a red, angry, delightfully seasoned God and you’re fine.
-Put a teaspoon of Cumin and a teaspoon of Chilli powder in the bowl of things.
-Drop the sausage in there.
-Boil the kettle.
-For serious, boil the kettle, make a cup of tea and also two cups or so of chicken stock. DO NOT PUT THESE IN THE SAME MUG. TRUST ME. I DO THESE THINGS SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO.
-Throw, well, pour, the stock into your slow cooker. If you don’t have a slow cooker try a pressure cooker. Failing that, you could always pick the sausage out of the bowl of things, pan fry it a little and then throw it all in the over for a few hours in a baking dish. But trust me, if you can, slow cooker’s the way here.
-Set your slow cooker to 6 hours on low.
-Drink your tea.
-Come back in six hours
When you do, it’ll look like this:
You may notice this is not my usual ‘Oh hey, look, food can pose’ photo. That’s because this is so freaking great that we ate it all and I’m finishing this post two weeks after I started it with a photo of the soup we froze, then defrosted and ate and it still tasted amazing. Delicious, fun to make and there’s a ton of it. Pig Soup, I salute you. Or would if I was not so busy eating you.
What’s It Like?
Oh hi new section!
It’s not mush, which you always sort of expect with chilli. Instead the slow heat pushes the oil out of the chorizo and makes everything nice and thick. It also acts as a transmission vector for the spices so everything has a nice subtle back heat to it. Even better the chorizo and potato don’t break down. So you get texture and flavour and deliciousness that you don’t have to drink. Win!
What’s It Good With?
Another new section? Monsieur with these new sections you are spoiling us! Also with this joke so old you have to youtube it.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zs7gAxsfK5U
It was a dark time. A dark, massively shoulder padded time.
Anyway, you have two choices with this bad boy. The first is to froof it up. You can add sides, and as it’s technically a chilli. Toppings too. Red onion’s always good, uncooked for crunch. Likewise really good cheese. In fact there’s a brilliant Red Leicester called Red Storm that’s super intense, goes well with this and sounds like the Jaeger the Russians build to replace Cherno Alpha.
But honestly, the best way to serve this is by itself. The texture is great, the flavours are amazing and it’s stupidly filling. It’s also not calorifically horrifying with two servings adding up to about 500 calories.
So there you go, Pig Soup. Next time, Muffin cookies. See you then.
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