I do a soup I call “lava” for its appearance … although this might not be the right time of year for you to make it!
I chop the chorizo into small half-moon shapes and brown them a bit, then remove them. In the rendered chorizo fat I fry a chopped onion, then add paprika, hot chilli powder, and cilantro (if you are anti-cilantro you can skip that) and toast the spices for about 30sec before adding 4 cups or so of chicken stock. Once the stock is warm I add a bag of frozen corn kernels (baby sweet if you can get it) and 2-3 roasted red bell peppers (chopped into small strips or bite-sized pieces) and stick the chorizo back in. At this point it’s a good idea to skim any remaining chorizo oil off the top.
Once the corn is cooked through and the chorizo is warm, I take it off the heat and stir in a quarter-cup of cream. The result is a spicy and slightly sweet soup that looks a little bit like lava. This is amazing in the winter but I don’t know how well it would go down in the summer
peel and cut potatoes, breaking each piece off (you’re not supposed to cut them cleanly for some reason),
brown some cayenne pepper, some pieces of chorizo (either slices or chunks the size of your thumb) and one sliced garlic I-never-remember-what-they’re-called, the pieces which form one head, on the bottom of a pot; add water, add the potatoes, add a slurp of oil, cook (it’s best to add the salt relatively late so you can taste it and see how much you need).
Proceed to eat.
Chorizo is one of the pieces of meat that go in the different varieties of “beans with potatoes and meat” cooked in Spain (fabada, cocido…). I’m sure beans with rice and chorizo would be a good option too.
Chorizo a la sidra is usually done with chorizos that aren’t dried, but it works with dried ones too. Use small dishes (earthenware is traditional but not strictly necessary); put some sliced, chopped or cut-alongside chorizo in each dish along with a slurp of fermented cider (not apple juice, but the fermented bubbly drink), cook in the oven for a short time at the usual meat setting.
Shellfish paella isn’t the only kind there is; the chicken and pork mentioned by amanset is a perfectly fine version. I suggest adding one big green pepper but not eating it, it’s just for flavoring.
A lunch I made myself a few times over summer was a stirfry of chopped onion, chili and chorizo. I then mixed it and a few spoonfuls of spicy salsa into a store bought creamy pasta salad.
Ah, Nava’s recipe reminds me of an old Hungarian favorite that used to keep me warm and full through the winter years ago during thriftier times: paprikás krumpli (potato paprikash.) Chorizo will work perfectly for the smoked kolbász. The version I make is closer to this one, just with sausage added to it. Don’t use bell peppers for this recipe. Try to find Hungarian wax peppers, mild banana peppers, Italian frying peppers, or cubanelles. Bell peppers are too thick and don’t quite taste right in Hungarian dishes.
It’s eaten as a main dish and, believe it or not, quite often accompanied with bread. Not for the Atkins crowd, I tell ya. The dish should look something like this or this when done. Since this dish is very much based on paprika, make sure you use either a good Hungarian paprika (Pride of Szeged sweet paprika is most commonly available) or a Spanish one (which is usually smoky and imparts a different, but still good, flavor to the food.)
edit: And an important note: Add the paprika after frying up the onions, but before adding the liquid ingredients. Take the cooking vessel off the heat, add the paprika to the oil, stir for one minute, return to heat and add the rest of the ingredients. You want the paprika in the oil because its flavor compounds are oil-soluble and this is what is going to be flavoring your dish. (Adding paprika directly to liquid diminishes its flavor dramatically). And you take it off the heat to avoid burning it (as paprika has a lot of sugars that are easily scorched. Once you burn any amount of paprika, your dish is ruined.)
I’m glad to see that someone else celebrated with Spanish food! I still have chorizo in the frig. The sausage that I have is the kind that you can just slice and have with cheese and crackers.
But I love the kind that is chopped and fried with potatoes. Sometimes Zeldar will bring me some from a fabulous local restaurant.
