Spanish Stew

I remember seeing the lovely Nigella making this stew on Nigel Slater’s Real Food program some years ago. Back then she was just a wisp of a woman, with long flat hair, larger eyebrows and a seemingly timid persona. Flash forward about half a decade, and how things have changed. She’s had four series of TV shows, four more books, and a fab homeware range. And she’s just such a stunning and confidant woman, with bouncy hair, nicely shaped eyebrows and a cool wardrobe. When she was a guest on Nigella’s ITV talk show, Jo Brand said that everything she does in the kitchen just oozes sex. I don’t know if I necessarily agree with that one, but I do know that she looks hot when she cooks. (I aspire to this ideal whilst I cook with greasy hair, Kylie Kwong-style glasses, feral floured Supré trackies and an old t-shirt).

Ok, the Nigella rant is out of the way. Now let’s talk about lunch!

118. Spanish Stew (Dinner)

This morning, I walked up to Rendinas butcher to get my chorizo, and nearly had a panic-attack when I couldn’t see any in the window. What else would we eat? Could I substitute other sausages? Should I give up and order a pizza? Luckily for me though, when I asked about it, they told me they had some chorizo out the back. Thank God.


Chorizo

You have to start the stew off on the stove, cooking some onions and garlic with a bay leaf, sherry, chorizo and some sliced potatoes. Then you cover it with boiled water and shunt it in the oven for forty minutes.

I bought this funky dish at The Essential Ingredient along with my stem ginger, violane nano rice, juniper berries and so on. I loved it because it looked well wicked, and has the advantage of being able to go from stove to oven! Because there were only three of us eating, and because the dimensions of the dish demanded it, I only used 3 (instead of 4) sausages, and a lot less potatoes. I wrapped and froze the extra sausage for a future dinner when I’m home alone.


Stew – before oven


Post-oven, Pre-coriander

It didn’t turn out quite as red as I had hoped (perhaps because the sausages weren’t super-red??), so I sprinkled some paprika over before adding chopped coriander.

We had it with a baguette, and some iceberg lettuce cut into wedges and sprinkled with oil, vinegar, salt and pepper. I stole this idea from The Brasserie, where we went for my Dad's birthday lunch this year.

Mum: It was a good idea to cut the lettuce like this. It makes me actually want to eat it.


Spanish lunch – finally the weather’s warm enough to eat lunch on our new outdoor furniture!

It's a fabulous combination. It's warm and spicy and sour all at the same time. I think, though, that my mum would have preferred more sausage in there. However, I thought that the sausage to potato ratio (3 sausages to 600grams potato) was just right.