Potato & Spicy Smoked Chorizo Stew
This dish is all about the smoke and the heat.
Too much of either will be too much, and not enough is just as bad.
With spice and smokiness coming from the chorizo, with more coming from the paprika, what start out as just pantry ingredients, turn into a dish to share with my family and friends.
I’ve eaten this as a side dish alongside chicken or steak, and I’ve also eaten it as a stand-alone dish, with tons of crusty bread so I don’t waste any of that sauce.
As they bathe and cook in the sauce, the potatoes soften, absorb the flavours of the sauce and become tiny discs of deliciousness.
If you don’t eat all on the day of cooking, the better. As the dish sits, it’s flavour intensifies and it becomes even more of a cohesive dish.
Eat it at room temperature or reheat until the meat is piping hot.
Go on, give it a go and enjoy your sweet life!
Serve from the pot or individual bowls
What You Need
1kg Baby Potatoes – See Tip Box
600ml Chicken Stock made from 2 Stock Cubes
500g Smoked Pancetta Pieces
500g Mushrooms, Including the stalks– Cleaned and chopped into medium sized pieces – See Tip Box
250g Spicy Smoked Chorizo – Cut into rough chunks – See Tip Box
70g Watercress – Washed, drained really well and roughly chopped – See Tip Box
10g Parsley – Finely Chopped
5 Large Garlic Cloves – Peeled and thinly sliced
3 Large Tomatoes – Roughly Chopped
2 Large Leeks – Cleaned, topped and tailed and chopped into small pieces
2 Celery Sticks – Cleaned and chopped into small pieces
2 tsp Smoked Paprika
2 tsp Tomato Puree
1 Bay Leaf
Vegetable Oil to Cook
New Maldon Salt and Fresh Ground Black Pepper to Taste – See Tip Box
Cut even discs of those baby potatos
How It’s Done
Find a really large non-stick frying pan, and add the chopped chorizo and pancetta to it.
Start to heat the pan up and let the pancetta and chorizo heat to a medium heat. Keep cooking it until all the fat has rendered out of the pancetta and there is a touch of colour on the chunks of chorizo.
Cook until there is a little colour
Give the pan a bit of an occasional mix, but don’t go mad as the more times the mix moves, the longer it will take to colour.
Once cooked, remove the everything to a bowl, making sure to scrape out all the oils and juices into the bowl.
Add a little oil to the same pan along with leeks and chopped celery.
Let this gently cook on a low heat until they both become soft – approximately 5 minutes
Add the smoked paprika to the pan along with the sliced garlic and let it cook for just one minute.
Add the potatoes and mushrooms to the pan and mix well so everything is coated in the paprika.
Add the tomato puree, the chopped tomatoes, bay leaf and stock.
Potatoes cut to the same thickness means they will take the same amount of time to cook
Give it a taste and add a little salt and pepper to taste.
Mix really well and cover with a lid – See Tip Box
Let it come to a gentle boil, and then reduce the heat to let it simmer and cook for around 15-25 minutes, until the potatoes are fork soft – make sure to keep checking on it and giving it a stir so it doesn’t catch on the bottom.
Once the potatoes are cooked, add the chopped watercress, give it a good stir and let it cook, uncovered for another 5 minutes.
Remove the bay leaf.
Let it cool for 5 minutes before eating.
Serve straight from the pan or spoon into individual bowls sprinkled with more chopped parsley.
Chunks of spicy and smokey chorizo make this dish fabulous
Tip Box
Potato Size – I use baby potatoes if I can get my hands on them, but if you only have larger ones in your pantry not to worry. Just adjust the size of them when cutting them, by cutting them in half etc first before slicing them to the size.
Clean the Mushrooms – Keep water far away from mushrooms, unless you want tiny sponges. They are so porous they will absorb any water they come into contact with, so the best and in my opinion, the only way to clean them, is to dampen a piece of kitchen paper and give them a decent wipe down. Don’t forget to slice off a small piece of the stalk.
Size of Chorizo Pieces – not too big and not too small, sounds like a bit of a cop out when trying to describe the size to chop the chorizo. I think the best way to describe the size the cut the chorizo is to use the pancetta as a guide, and make them just a little bit bigger than those.
Watercress – No matter how well this is washed, I find that there is usually still a little bit of grit or sand left in it, so, give it a rinse under cold running water and let it drain really well before using it.
No Lid? – Don’t worry of you don’t have a lid to fit the large pan your using, it’s an easy fix. Just use a couple of sheets of foil, making sure the entire top is covered.
To Taste – This all depends on your palette, and as you cook more of my recipes, I hope you begin to trust your palette more, and as you do, and as you taste your food, you will know how much salt and pepper to add. Remember, there’s no going back once the seasoning is added, so a little at a time, let it cook in before adding more.
Malden Salt – Malden salt is a seasoning rather than a salt. It’s as far away from traditional table salt as can get. Table salt is ionised, and I think, should only be used in pasta and potato water.
A pot of spicy and smokey goodness
