My freezer is full of chorizo. Of all shapes and sizes and with differing amounts of chilli. Why. Well, because it’s such a great ingredient. Versatile. Flavoursome. Quick and easy to use. I made a chorizo pilgrimage to Rodriguez brothers, a Spanish small goods shop about an hour and a half drive from home you see. And after such a long trip, decided to make the time taken to get there worth it. I selected enough chorizo to fill a grocery bag and in turn my freezer. Now at least one a week I challenge myself to put together a coherent creation with the paprika infused sausage as the star. This week it was egg fried brown rice with chorizo.

It’s funny that I should think up with such a dish as egg fried brown rice with chorizo seeing as I’m a total purist when it comes to things like pizza toppings, salads and cheese. There is no room in my world for the cross pollination of dishes from different cultures. Indian ingredients on pizza. Balsamic vinegar to dress a Greek salad. Wasabi flavoured cheese. Who dreams up such combinations. Yet I still saw fit to blend Spanish, Chinese and some quintessentially English sauce to make dinner. My capricious streak I suppose. Besides it was delicious. Nutty, meaty and wholesome, slightly spicy and with a little piquancy from the worcestershire sauce.

Other chorizo combinations have been less controversial, like using the sausage thinly sliced in place of pancetta in carbonara. Shedding the chorizo of its skin and whizzing it up in a food processor and then frying the meaty crumbs to serve over hummus a la Donna Hay. Thickly slicing it, tossing it with potatoes, cherry tomatoes and black olives and roasting the whole lot in the oven and the serving it tossed through with fresh rocket leaves. Once again, putting it in the processor, sans skin, with butter, combining the two then pushing the resulting mixture under chicken skin before roasting the chook. Mashing it up with chicken mince to make chicken and chorizo meatballs to cook in a rich tomato sauce.

I will admit that reading through that list just shared, there’s world food combining galore. What would the Spanish make of chorizo crumbs used to make a Lebanese dip taste fantastic. I guess that’s just what we do as cooks. We are bower birds of the kitchen, collecting beautiful ingredients and moulding them together to make great dishes. So maybe I’m not such a purist after all. Maybe I just prefer my pizzas Margarita style and my cheese plain. But there’s still no reason to use balsamic vinegar on a Greek salad. Some lines just shouldn’t be crossed.

 

Egg fried brown rice with chorizo

Makes enough for 6 generous portions.

• your choice of oil to fry with. I used a good quality lard
• 2 cups cooked and cooled brown rice
• 2 carrots, cut into semi circles
• 2 chorizo, skins removed and meat chopped
• 1 red oion, chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
• 4 eggs lightly beaten
• 1 cup frozen peas
• worcestershire sauce
• sea salt and black pepper

Begin by frying the carrots, chorizo and onion over a moderate heat in a pan big enough to take the rice when it comes to adding it.

When the vegetables have softened and the chorizo is starting to release its oil, add the garlic and fry for a minute or two until fragrant.

Now add the rice and peas and stir so that they are combined with the other ingredients.

Next make a well in the centre of the rice and pour in the eggs. Stir the eggs so that they start to scramble, slowly incorporating the rice as the egg cooks.

Season to taste with worcestershire sauce, salt and pepper, maybe garnish with some coriander and parsley and tuck in.

Enjoy this recipe. Then you might like easy chicken pasta recipe.