Chorizo in Spain is not like the chorizo you used to be able to buy in England – it was the hard, dry variety, rather like a little salami. In Spain chorizo is sold fresh – it looks like a bright red sausage and if you buy it at the butchers it’s sold in strings. You will be asked if you want it “fresco o seco” “fresh or dry”. The fresh variety is like a recently made sausage and is for cooking on the “plancha” or in a pan. The drier will have been made a few days or weeks previously and can be sliced and eaten as it is, in the same way as a salami.
It’s typical to buy a good supply and then hang some up for eating later and cook the fresh chorizo. I’ve noticed that in England, in some butchers at least, they are coming up with some wonderful and authentic tasting varieties of fresh chorizo, but if you can’t get hold of any, use your favourite sausage and add a little spicy pimentón to give it a warm Spanish taste.
This is a very typical dish served as tapas, with or without the addition of the onions. As we were still working our way through the onion glut, I did it with onions!
Ingredients (to serve as many as you like)
- For every chorizo you cook, you’ll need about half a medium onion finely chopped and a splash of medium dry Spanish sherry
Slice each chorizo into 4-6 pieces and fry in a little olive oil until the outside is slightly charred. If you are lucky enough to have a terracotta cooking pot, use this as it really does add something special to the flavour.
Remove the chorizo and put to one side. Add the onions to the olive oil (and the chorizo will also have released some oil) and if you are using it, add a little pimentón. Fry the onions until they start to soften, but not caramelize and then add the wine. Cook until the liquid has almost completely disappeared and the onions are soft and coloured from the juices. Add the chorizo back into the dish and cook for a couple of minutes more until warmed through. Normally you won’t need any seasoning as the chorizo is highly spiced and salted, but check to taste and adjust if necessary. Serve with a glass of ice cold fino and plenty of delicious bread.
Chica Andaluza 
I’m just going out to buy bread – now I’ve got a good excuse to go and see the butcher too! Like I needed one and he does have soft Spanish chorizo 😉
Hope you had a successful shopping trip!
Yes very and I had a nice chat with Fergus, who’s going to cook a pig’s head at the Food Feast!
Sounds wonderful!
Wonderful flavours…great. Ironically I’m about to cook onion gravy, to go with sausage and mash as an accompaniment to the rugby tomorrow…we have English guests and sausage and mash was demanded:)
ROFL 🙂
Sausage and mash is always a winner in my book!
I like the look of this, I’m going to give it a go!
It’s so easy and so good!
We have a long weekend here Tanya and after seeing this beautiful dish I’ve just decided that one of these nights needs to be a Tapas Night! I’ll be back tomorrow morning to spend some time perusing your Tapas category. Thanks for the inspiration!
When we have visitors from England to Spain my “welcome” meal is usually a big selection of tapas that I can prepare ahead and eat cold or heat up…it’s an easy way to entertain!
Sounds perfect! I’ll let you know how we go. 🙂
Perfection!
🙂
I love fresh chorizo and today I learnt the Spanish word for onions 🙂
It’s quite a hard one to say – pronounced “se-boy-ah”!
I love the accuracy of your list of ingredients – it makes me want to start cooking right now
1
I’m a bit rubbish at measuring and weighing 😉
Sometimes you need it, but often proportions make much more sense
This sounds like a great tapas or supper dish, Tanya 🙂
Love these chorizos!
A perfect early evening nibble with a glass of wine. I was just wondering, do you eat you dinner very late or is that just done in the big cities of Spain? I could never get used to that when I visited there.
Yes, we do eat dinner late. At first I foundit really hard but especially in summer it’s too hot to eat before about 10pm. In England we eat abou 9 or 9.30 but I have to say, we are not hugely early risers so going to bed late works for us!
SO glad you translated that…I have been back and forwards to Google Translate today as Chrome Translate has been very remiss and has gone on strike (for whatever reason… not enough euro’s?) and I have been having to go translate all of my own articles. That will teach me for smugly following so many foreign blogs now won’t it? 😉
We have an amazing butcher in one of the little towns that litter the countryside around here. His fine establishment is called (strangely enough) “Nigel’s Gourmet on Tamar” which should tell you something about the quality of his produce, the clientele and most importantly the cost of said gourmet meaty produce. Nige makes fresh chorizo. Just needed to name drop there…hope you were suitably impressed. I might have to hock the son-and-heir (again…) to purchase some of Nige’s fresh sausagey goodness to make this for Stevie-boy
Well Stevie-boy is a fan of the old hot sausage and so he would be most happy to slurp up this wonderful meal. Me…I would have to settle (again) for the fino and lots of delicious bread…just going to have to find something to scoop up with that delicious bread as it’s a bit dry on its own. Lucky its soup weather here and I just went shopping yesterday so my pantry is full to the brim with weird and wonderful ingredients…might muck around with that black rice and shiitakes but then again, I might just make something humble and highly comforting. Either way, the vino and the bread are a given 😉
Super!
We’ve only just managed to find the most delicious chorizos ever – they’re the ones we put on the flaming pig, and the flavour absolutely blew us away. Thanks for this recipe – I only now feel like we have the right ingredients to make it. The texture of the chorizos we bought resembles the one in your photo rather than a hard salami. Am I making any sense? 🙂 Also, I’ve had my pronunciation corrected – there’s no “t” sound in chorizo (unlike pizza) 🙂
You are making complete sense Celia and you’re right too with the pronunciation – cho-ree-tho – and definitely no “tz” sound like pizza!!
Tanya, just made this for Sunday lunch! It’s FANTASTIC! Thanks for the simple recipe – I used my cazuela dish and it worked a treat!
Ah, how wonderful – still breakfast here but how lovely to think of you guys enjoying a little taste of Spain so far away!
We are blessed with several local sources for fresh sausages including chorizo, and my husband adores it. This simple dish looks like a terrific way to enjoy it and I love the addition of the sherry…perfect. Next time I see some chorizo, I’m making this for him, thanks!
A good camping dish too!
Yes indeed!
Perfection! your posts make me feel like I wanna eat them all!haha