2015 Cooking Club Week 6: Roasted Red Pepper, chorizo and Bean stew

This is a recipe for soup I found on the truly excellent allrecipes.com submitted by a user.

I have tweaked the ingredients and changed enough things that I hope I will be forgiven for calling it my own recipe.

This is a warming hearty stew that works really well in the cold months and because of the Mediterranean flavours will hopefully have you dreaming of holidays in a few months so in many ways it’s medicine for the psyche (d’ye know what, I don’t know why I’m trying to sell this thing so much. Just shut up and make the damn stew! Pyschological medicine indeed!)

You can use bell peppers but once I discovered Ramiro sweet peppers I never went back.

All the ingredients can be found quite cheaply in Aldi (God bless ‘em) so presumably you can get them in Lidl too.
____________________________________________________


Ingredients
4 Ramiro sweet peppers or 6 red bell peppers.
1 or 2 chilli peppers (medium peppers as you don’t want the spiciness to overpower the sweet peppers)
4/5 cloves of garlic
A paper bag!! (you'll see)
170g chorizo. Sliced about the thickness of 3 euro coins.
1 large red onion
2 beef stock cubes
50 mls balsamic vinegar
50 mls red wine
A good glug (I hope this is a standard measurement) of maggi sauce
A good glug of Worcestershire sauce
A good shake of Aromat seasoning
A good shake of black pepper
A good shake of sage
A good shake of smoked paprika
1 can of red kidney beans - drained.
Cream for garnishing.

Method
1) Rub olive oil onto the peppers, chilli and garlic.

2) Place under the grill for approximately 10 minutes, turning halfway.

3) When the skin of the peppers is blackened and blistered place into a paper bag for at least 10 minutes.
This is to cool the peppers so that the skin should separate easily

4) Meanwhile fry the chorizo in a deep pot for about 3 minutes until there’s a lovely red oily residue at the bottom of the pot.

5) Remove the chorizo and put it aside for later.

6) Sweat the onions in the same pot on a medium heat until soft.
When they are ready put the heat up high and fry them for a minute or two until the start to crisp and brown.

7) Peel away the skin and stem of the peppers so you are left with the fleshy part, you should also remove the stem of the chilli.

8) Place peppers, chilli and garlic in the pot.

9) Add all other ingredients (but NOT the chorizo, beans or cream) and enough water to cover the mixture by about 3 centimetres (or an inch in old money).

10) Bring to the boil then lower heat, cover and simmer.
As in any soup, stew or curry the longer the flavours have to mix the nicer it will be but after a half an hour you should have a fairly robust flavour going.

11) Have a taste and if it seems bland then add a pinch of salt until it really pops.

12) Blend to a nice smooth consistency
Add the beans and chorizo and simmer for about 10 minutes. Until the sausage is soft.

13) Serve and garnish with cream and a sprinkle of sage.
I like to eat this with warm buttered soda bread.