Monday, January 26, 2015

Portuguese Kale Soup with hot Chouriço

I just had to go to Price Rite grocery and get jammed in with all of the pre-storm shoppers. I also had to glance at what they were buying. I saw two of my male neighbors frantically buying things for their wives who stayed home. I bought 4 heads of kale and hot chourico which I just made into a soup with the chic peas I simmered all morning. I have whole wheat oat and corn sourdough to bake tonight or tomorrow. I bought a fat chicken to dust with paprika and roast with a lemon inside its cavity in the spirit of Laurie Colwin. I also bought wide egg noodles which I've never bought but they remind me of my grandmother and pot roast. I'd probably bake a pot roast if my butcher was open today but I'll bake a chicken instead. We do strange things when we are set loose in a grocery store before an impending storm. I bought Goya brand pound bag of dried beans; 16 bean soup. I plan to bring my neighbors bread and soup if they lose power. The check out girl said I wish I was your neighbor. I said "Oh that would be so fun." There's an apartment across the street open! In my wildest dreams I'll be cooking and baking for the whole neighborhood.


Chorizo
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Chorizo (Spanish) or chouriço (Portuguese) is a term originating in the Iberian Peninsula encompassing several types of pork sausages. Traditionally, chorizo is encased in natural casings made from intestines, a method used since Roman times.

Chorizo can be a fresh sausage, in which case it must be cooked before eating. In Europe, it is more frequently a fermented, cured, smoked sausage, in which case it is often sliced and eaten without cooking, and can be added as an ingredient to add flavour to other dishes. Spanish chorizo and Portuguese chouriço get their distinctive smokiness and deep red color from dried smoked red peppers (pimentón/pimentão).

Due to culinary tradition and the high cost of imported Spanish smoked paprika, Mexican chorizo is usually made with native chili peppers of the same Capsicum annuum species, used abundantly in Mexican cuisine. In Latin America, vinegar also tends to be used instead of the white wine usually used in Spain.

Chorizo can be eaten sliced in a sandwich, grilled, fried, or simmered in liquid, including apple cider or other strong alcoholic beverage such as aguardiente. It also can be used as a partial replacement for ground (minced) beef or pork.

Spanish-style tapas bars that serve traditional Spanish-style chorizo have gained in popularity in recent years, and now appear in many large cities throughout North America and in parts of Europe.

1 Comment

Unknown said...

I love this kind of soup, perfect for a snow storm. Great with a smoked ham hock too, if you have one.