Easy Chorizo Hash

Sometimes the simplest things are best. Slice up some baby potatoes and put in a pot with cold salted water. Light a flame under it. Meanwhile, chop up a few onions and some peppers and peel some cloves of garlic.

Squeeze a few links of Mexican chorizo onto a pan and cook over medium heat, breaking it up. When it's browned, add the chopped onions and peppers, and squeeze the garlic in through a press. Add olive oil if needed - but you shouldn't need much, because chorizo is oily stuff. Your potato water should be boiling by now. Let the potatoes boil a minute or two, until they're just barely or maybe even not quite cooked through. Drain. Your onions and peppers should be somewhat softened. Add the potatoes into the mix, stirring well so that everything is coated with chorizo grease. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, but carefully - you don't want to turn your potatoes into mush. Grab your favorite hot sauce and drizzle it generously over everything. I used Co-op Mole Hot Sauce, which I love. It added a nice earthiness and a note of bitter chocolate. But I think regular old Frank's would be pretty awesome too. Or whatever else you like. Anyhow, stir, then turn the heat to high and let everything crisp up some. As a finale, sprinkle some grated cheddar over the top.





Pretty awesome.

Chorizo and fish?

Whoulda thunk it.

I have some Mexican chorizo that I smuggled in from the States, and was cruising the internet looking for some new ideas with what to do with it. I stumbled across this recipe and decided to give it a whirl, despite finding it kind of odd. As usual, some slight modifications:

*It doesn't really specify, but I'm pretty confident that the recipe was thinking of Spanish chorizo, not Mexican. Pretty different, but hey. Also, if i had Spanish chorizo right now I would just eat it plain, not cook with it. Oh man do I love Spanish chorizo.

*Not having dry sherry, I used white wine (which I think gave it a rather fruitier flavor, not entirely unpleasant but I definitely want to try the sherry version.

*Not knowing the Turkish word for haddock, or what any of the Turkish names for fish translate to, I ended up with a fillet of panga. The internet suggests that this is neither a tasty nor a healthy fish. I can't comment on the second, but as to the first, the internet has a point. It's pretty blah. A meatier white fish would have been much better.

*I didn't have crusty bread, I just ate it as it was. Which was fine.

*It said to season the fish, but didn't say with what. I just did salt and pepper.


Overall - wow! I will definitely make this again. A really interesting combination of flavors, and really, really simple to make. There's a slight risk of it being a bit on the sweet side, which probably has a lot to do with what alcohol you end up using. Also, I'm not big into parsley, but I think it was actually pretty crucial to this, for a bit of freshness. But it's a delicious meal, and I know it seems like a weird assortment of ingredients, but it's definitely worth trying.

Prosciutto, Arugula and Parmesan

My dear friend Daniel Leonard was in Italy in January and brought me back a souvenir:




I am naturally a hoarder, but I suddenly got worried that it would spoil, so why not, today was the day. Although prosciutto is completely delicious on its own, to be totally honest, I have a preferred method of consuming it. Tear it into pieces and add it to a hefty bunch of arugula. Squeeze a lemon half over it, drizzle with some high quality olive oil, and top with parmesan shavings (Daniel brought me some of that too!) and freshly grated black pepper. Toss and eat (do it fast-ish, because the acid of the lemon starts to act on the prosciutto pretty quickly). This might actually be on my top ten list of all-time favorite foods. It's so good that I didn't even really miss a glass of a good wine to go with it.