Ingredients

6 cooking chorizo

500g pork belly

4 cloves of garlic

1 large onion

1 large red chili

2 bell peppers – one red, one yellow

1 tin of tomatoes

1 tablespoon tomato puree

1 heaped teaspoon of smoked paprika

2 tins of beans, drained – you can use butter, cannellini or borlotti beans

1 heaped teaspoon each of chopped rosemary and thyme

2 bay leaves

Small glass of medium dry sherry

500ml chicken stock

400ml water

Chopped flat leaf parsley to serve

Method

Get a big thick bottomed pan or casserole dish and put it on a high heat with a bit of olive oil. Take the skins off the chorizo and then colour them in the pan. Whilst the  chorizo are browning, take the thick rind off the pork belly and cut into bite sized chunks. Once the sausages are done, take them out, set to one side, and then brown off the pork belly in the pan. Some of the lovely spicy paprika oil will have leeched from the chorizo which will add exra flavour to the pork. Once this has browned, remove from the pan and put with the chorizo.

Now fry off the onion, garlic and chili (which you have finely chopped) in the same oil. Once the onion has sweated off and has become translucent, stir in the tomato puree and smoked paprika, and cook through for a minute or so. Next, de-glaze the pan with the sherry. If you don’t have any sherry to hand, use white wine.

Now return the meat to the pan, but before you do, chop each of the chorizo sausages into about 5 pieces. Once the meat is in, add the tinned tomatoes, beans, stock, water and herbs (bay, rosemary and thyme), and then bring to the boil.

Turn the heat down, and simmer the stew with a lid on for about an hour. Whilst the stew is cooking, remove the stalk and seeds from the peppers, and chop into strips. After an hour take the lid off and add the strips of pepper. By now the stew should be a deep red / orange colour. Cook for a further half hour with the lid off to cook the peppers, reduce some of the liquid, and intensify the flavour. After thirty minutes it’s done, and you’re ready to eat.

Garnish with some flat leaf parsley, and serve with some brown rice or a good hunk of granary bread. If this stew doesn’t warm your cockles, you’re dead on the inside. FACT.

As mentioned in the last post, I’ve just returned from a holiday in the States. From a food perspective, one of the things that I noticed about a lot of the stuff we tasted in California was the Mexican influence. Plenty of lime, avocado, coriander, chilli and corn. Fresh, tasty flavours.

We also ate quite a bit of of straight up Mexican food. Great Burritos in the Mission in San Francisco, Huevos Rancheros for breakfast, torta Mexicanas in LA, but the pick of the bunch was a a tiny little place called La Super-Rica in Santa Barbra.

Reputedly Julia Child’s favourite Mexican restaurant and tucked away in the Mexican area of town, La Super-Rica is basically a little shack with a tent attached to the back. Always busy, the tiny kitchen knocks out fantastic traditional Mexican street food. There are daily specials, firm favourites and apparently the best horchata you’ll taste outside of Mexico.

We tried the daily special, a vegetarian tamale, which came served in the corn husk it had been steamed in with a side of pork and beans. The corn meal was really tasty and kind of creamy, enriched with a bit of cheese and with vegetables through it. We also had a portion of the most delicious buttery guacamole, and a couple of servings of chorizo tacos. Amazing.

It was also a really charming place. No frills and not in any way poncy, it’s location also means that you have to make a real effort to get there, so people really go for the food. And there was a proper cross section of them. From the WASPy Santa Barbra set to students, Mexican locals and hipsters. I’d go back at the drop of a hat.

Super-Rica? As Omar Little would say, indeed.