Chorizo in Spanish and chouriço in Portuguese can be a fresh sausage and more frequently a fermented, cured, smoked sausage.
Fresh chorizo must be cooked before eating. This is exactly like a fresh sausage and can be cooked in a pot or baked in the oven, fried, whole or sliced. It can be grilled or on the BBQ and served with hot spicy potatoes Batatas Bravas. Another popular way to have chorizo is simmered in alcohol – a quick and easy Tapa to make at home, just fried and add alcohol.
Fried chorizo is the beginning of many a delicious meal and adds flavour to the pan when making special dishes like Paella.
On a platter with cheese and olives for starters it is simply enjoyed with fresh bread.
More common is the fermented, cured, smoked sausage which is sliced and eaten in sandwiches or rolls and it is the one used in the recipe of Pão Com Chouriço or Chorizo Bread.
Spanish chorizo and Portuguese chouriço get their distinctive smokiness and deep red colour from dried smoked red peppers (pimentón/pimentão).
Traditionally, chorizo is encased in natural casings made from intestines, a method used since Roman times.
Chorizo can be grilled, fried or simmered in alcohol and is a quick and easy Tapa to make at home.
Tapas bars serve traditional chorizo and have become popular throughout the world in recent years.
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