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Posts Tagged ‘chorizo’

  1. Steak, Chicken & Chorizo Fajitas

    October 9, 2011 by ismepete

    steak chicken and chorizo fajitas

    I’ve made many different types of Fajitas and tried out all sorts of methods. I’m sure that this isn’t an “authentic” recipe by any stretch of the imagination, but it includes most of the classic flavours in a way that works well for me!

    When I first used to make them when I was a teenager, I tended to marinade the meat that I was using for a really long time, soaking in beer and spices, plus of course an obscene amount of chilli.
    Times have changed since being in education full time however, and my cooking now is much more about cooking quickly, so I’ve changed the recipe to maintain the flavours from my former approach, but now only marinade whilst I chopping the rest of the ingredients.

    This makes it much faster – you prepare the meat whilst chopping everything to go alongside it, and by the time that chopping is done, the meat is ready to be cooked. This recipe is for 2, but can be easily scaled up and down as required:

    Steak, Chicken & Chorizo Fajitas

    A quick and easy Steak, Chicken & Chorizo Fajitas recipe

    Ingredients

    1. 1 Small Rump Steak, cut into strips
    2. 1 Large Chicken Breast, cut into strips
    3. 60g of Chorizo sausage, cut into pound coin like chunks
    4. 1 large onion, cut into semi-circle strips
    5. 1 large red pepper (or a few smaller mixed colour ones), cut into strips
    6. 2 teaspoons of Ground Cumin
    7. 1 teaspoon of Smoked Paprika
    8. 1 teaspoon of Sweet Paprika
    9. 1 teaspoon of Cayenne Pepper
    10. 1 to 8 teaspoons of Hot Chilli Flakes (I’m usually not far off 8, and am happy to add any fresh chilli too)
    11. 4 cloves of Garlic (crushed)
    12. Tortilla Wraps
    13. Grated Cheese

     

    Instructions

    • Get your steak and chicken into a mixing bowl (if you like your beef a little rarer, you may wish to keep them separate), and add the cumin, both types of paprika, the cayenne pepper, chilli flakes (and fresh if using them) and the crushed garlic, giving everything a good stir. I often use scissors for cutting my meat into strips this way.
    • Add about a tablespoon of Olive Oil, perhaps 2, the same amount of beer and the juice of half a lime. Give a good stir and set aside.
    • Chop your onions, pepper and chorizo (it gives the meat enough time to infuse and we’re then ready to cook).
    • Start heating frying pan on full heat – I have stopped adding oil at this stage now due to the chorizo. Once the frying pan starts to heat up, get all your chorizo coins into the frying pan and wait for the oils to start oozing from the sausage.
    • If you want the steak to be rarer, make sure you separate the chicken from the beef and add the chicken to the pan at this stage. If you skip the chicken, I’d cook the veg before the steak, but I like it a bit pink. Drain any excess liquid away from the marinade before adding to the pan, as you want it to fry and not steam.
    • Add the onions and peppers to the pan once you have sealed all the chicken meat.
    • Fry for about 5 minutes, and if wanting the steak rare, add this in now.
    • Cook for another 5 minutes until everything is cooked through
    • Serve in a nice dish, put a side salad on the plates, grab your wraps and get stuck in! Garnish with coriander if its available and something you like

     

    Preparation time: 15 minute(s)

    Cooking time: 20 minute(s)

    Number of servings (yield): 2

    5 :  ★★★★★ 1 review(s)

     

    Put enough different types of chilli in (I like to mix them up where I can) to try out different amounts of flavour. Whilst the recipe I used today *only* uses chilli flakes, I often use scotch bonnets, jalapenos and whatever else I can get my hands on to mix it up. I also find that if I don’t have one of two of the spices that it is just as excellent, so I wouldn’t panic if you only have 1 type of paprika for example (I think the smoked one is best personally).

    If you are not fond of spicy food, I’ve made really tasty versions of these for friends with no chilli at all, and it still retains a great flavour. Just be careful with the amount of cayenne pepper as well, as it’s hotter than you might imagine and has killed the taste buds of a few of my friends that I had tried to cook mild food for. It was mild to me, but it still burned!

    I like to serve this dinner with a small side salad, a tin of sweetcorn, an avocado or pea guacamole, a mountain of cheese, some crème fraiche or sour cream and of course some tasty tortilla wraps!

    sweetcorn, cheese & pea guacamole

    This is without doubt one of the most popular dishes I ever cook for friends, and when I haven’t completely scorched them with chilli, they nearly always want more.

    Top down look at steak, chicken and chorizo fajitas

    You don’t need to use Steak, Chicken & Chorizo – this just happens to be my most decadent version. Leaving out any 1 of the 3, or replacing the steak and chicken with Prawns will also work excellently.

    I hope you try out this recipe and let me know how you get on with it!

    Category Quick Easy Dinner Recipes | Tags: ,,,,,,,,,,, | No Comments

  2. Spanish Tortilla Omelette with Chorizo & Smokey Lardons @ismepete style

    February 19, 2011 by ismepete

    I used to hate anything with egg in it as a main ingredient. I could just about handle egg fried rice, but eggs on their own, or as the main substance of the dish, na-ah!

    I went to Tenerife last summer with my best mate, and his lovely Tenerifian wife, and got a chance to explore the local cuisine out there, dining on some fantastic seafood in places that tourists would never was a restaurant walking past it outside with this one ending up being 7 courses, followed by 4 of us sharing a free bottle of Jagermeister as an apertif! That was the start of an absolutely cracking evening, resulting in very little sleep and a very early trip on a sub holiday to Gran Canaria for a few days!

    Prior to my trip, I’d been a little nervous about eggs playing a heavy part in foods out there – I knew that they were going to be involved at some point and I was apprehensive about it. More fool me, first taste that I trepidatiously placed in my mouth, and I was hooked on these Spanish Tortillas, or Omelettes as we might know them better in the UK.

    I tried all sorts of variations, although my favourite ones were the ones that had Chorizo in them (as I get more of my recipes on here, you may come to realise that I am somewhat addicted to Chorizo, it makes just about everything taste even better). So, on returning, I decided to have a go at making them myself.

    I’ve tried a few recipes, and didn’t really like any of them, so have mostly fudged myself this recipe together. Most elements of this are interchangeable – the basic ingredients of potato, egg and onion I would suggest are the only things that have to appear in them. If I were cooking this for a vegetarian, I would probably swap out the Chorizo and Smokey Bacon Lardons with some Sundried Tomatos, or jarred Spanish Peppers (to be honest, I add these to the basic recipe below anyway!

    This recipe should make enough for 4 with a side salad, but if you are really hungry, perhaps just 2! I also love this cold the next day for lunch, and have had some admiring glances cast across at them in the office at times :)

    What you need to make this great Spanish Tortilla Omelette with Chorizo & Smokey Lardons

    2 Large Potatoes (or a similar amount of  smaller ones, waxy spuds seem best)

    6 Large Eggs (I usually get these from my mum who keeps chickens, but Free Range from shops are usually ok)

    1/2 Chorizo Ring, chopped into chunky “coins”

    200g Smokey Lardons

    Large Onion (white is best, red onions can discolour a little if you are saving it for lunch the next day)

    2 cloves of garlic

    Handful of Chives

    Chilli Flakes (to taste, and optional really!)

    Salt & Pepper

    How to make this great Spanish Tortilla Omelette with Chorizo & Smokey Lardons

    Chop up the potatoes into small cubes, and boil until soft (most recipes suggested frying the potatoes, but I find it easier to par-boil)

    Chop up the onion to a fine dice, the Chorizo into fairly chunky coin shapes, and fry for a few minutes to soften the onions and release the tasty Chorizo oil

    Crush the garlic into pan, and when the potatoes are soft, drain the water off, and add to the frying mix.

    Meanwhile, crack the 4 eggs into a mixing bowl, add the salt, pepper and chilli flakes and give it a quick little whisk – you don’t want or need to overdo this

    Add the mixture that has been frying to the mixing bowl, chop in the chives and stir your mixture together

    Give your frying pan a quick wipe down (the tortilla will stick to the pan in a horrible scrambled egg style mess if you don’t) and get it back on full whack to get the temperature up.

    Pour in your mixture from the bowl and spread out across the frying pan to even out the top surface – you can use a spatula, but I find that giving the frying pan a shake is just as effective.

    Cook for about 5 minutes, or a bit longer so that the whole thing starts to firm up a little, and then comes the tricky bit – turning it! I typically get a flat baking try and turn it out onto that (over the sink, as this has been messy a few times) and then carefully slide it back into the pan to finish up cooking the bottom.

    It usually only takes a couple of minutes to finish the bottom, although I do like to leave it 10 minutes to set.

    Slide it out of the frying pan, and you should be greeted with something like this:

    Don’t be put off by the colour here – this is exactly what it is supposed to look like, and it’s damned tasty.

    Slice into quarters and serve with a side salad and it’ll be a wonderful tasty quick easy dinner!

    To be honest, this recipe would probably not be used in Spain – I think they typically use parsley, which I am not overly fond of, but as I said before, most of the ingredients here are really interchangeable, and I think this would work with all sorts of ingredients that I am yet to try out!

    Let me know how you get on with this recipe!

    Category Quick Easy Dinner Recipes | Tags: ,,,,,, | 3 Comments