La Style Chorizo Recipes

L.A.-STYLE CHORIZO

Steps:

• If you are making sausage links, thoroughly rinse the casing of salt and soak it in a large pot of cold water overnight. Thoroughly rinse the casing again and place it in fresh, cold water until ready to use.
• Attach the knife and grinding-plate attachments to a stand mixer. Run the pork and beef through the grinder into a large bowl, followed by a slice of bread to push out any bits of meat stuck inside the works. Discard any ground bread. Add the remaining ingredients and mix together with your hands. Knead the meat until it seizes up and holds together, about 2 minutes. At this point you can shape the sausage mixture into patties.
• If you are making links, replace the grinding plate with a stuffer attachment with a ¾-inch opening. Select a length of casing and run water from the tap through it in order to clear out any excess salt and spot any holes, which you should trim out. Cut a length of casing at least 3 to 4 feet long; tie it off. Run the casing between your fingers to remove excess water. Stretch the open end of the casing around the attachment's nozzle and gradually slide the rest of the casing onto the nozzle, an inch or 2 at a time. Leave about 3 inches at the knotted end dangling free. Put the sausage in the hopper of the grinder and turn it on (Speed 4 tends to work best). Hold the dangling casing with one hand, and with the other, feed the sausage mixture into the hopper with a wooden pestle at an even pace. When 2 inches of casing are empty at both the knotted and free ends, stop stuffing and slowly pull on the casing to free it from the stuffer nozzle. Run your fingers over the casing to distribute the sausage evenly. Pinch the middle of the sausage and gently twist it to form two long links. Keep pinching and twisting to form links 4 or 5 inches long. Repeat this process until all of the sausage meat has been used, pushing out the last bits of meat with another slice or two of bread.
• Whether you've made patties or links, refrigerating the sausage overnight, wrapped in wax paper, will help it hold together as it cooks. To cook, snip off a single length containing as many individual sausages as you like. Don't separate the links until they have been cooked (in an oiled skillet, on the grill or under the broiler). Any uncooked remainders will freeze well.

MEXICAN CHORIZO

Steps:

• Place the pork, Aleppo pepper, chili powder, garlic, salt, black pepper, oregano, cumin, cloves, and coriander into a bowl, and lightly toss the pork with the seasonings until thoroughly blended. Cover the bowl, and refrigerate the meat, your meat grinder's head assembly, and grinder hopper for 1 hour.
• Fill a large mixing bowl with ice cubes, and place a smaller metal bowl in the ice cubes to catch the ground meat. Assemble the chilled meat grinder, and grind the pork and seasonings using a coarse cutting plate. Return ground meat to refrigerator for 30 minutes. Lightly stir the ground pork with the vinegar and water until thoroughly mixed, form into patties, and refrigerate overnight, covered, to let flavors develop.
• Heat vegetable oil in a heavy skillet over medium-low heat, and pan-fry the patties until browned and no longer pink in the middle, 5 to 8 minutes per side.

30 BEST WAYS TO COOK WITH CHORIZO

Steps:

• Select your favorite recipe.
• Organize all the required ingredients.
• Prep a chorizo recipe in 30 minutes or less!

CHORIZO - COLOMBIAN STYLE

Steps:

• The casings:.
• 1. Soak the hog casings in 4 cups tepid water (90 degrees to start) overnight in the fridge. Some sausage experts may disagree but I soak the casings overnight and then, prior to stuffing them, I add about 1 tablespoon of cider vinegar per cup of water (4 tbs. in this case) and let the casings soak for the final 15 minutes. I have found that the vinegar makes the casings more pliable and translucent.
• 2. Rinse the casings thoroughly inside and out (simply slide the end of the casing over your faucet and run water through). Begin stuffing right away since the casings may become tough or burst if you let them dry too much.
• The stuffing:.
• 1. Cut the pork meat and the pork belly into very small cubes (approximately ¼ inch). This is the longest and most tiring part but don't be lazy; the more uniform your cubes are, the better the mixture will blend and the more evenly your chorizo will cook. Please, do not grind the meat!
• 2. Put the cubed meat in a large bowl and mix it well.
• 3. Add the finely chopped cilantro and green onions and mix well.
• 4. Add the rest of the ingredients (minced garlic, oregano, salt and vinegar). Mix well with your hands.
• 5. Finally, start adding the water gradually and mixing it with your hands. I normally add two cups, mix it and then add more water until the mixture becomes sticky but not runny. Continue to hand-mix for approximately ten minutes to make sure that the water is fully incorporated into the mixture.
• 6. This is where some other experts may also disagree but I let the stuffing mixture sit in the fridge overnight, covered. I honestly think that this allows all of the flavors to really soak into the meats and bring out the unique Colombian flavor in the chorizos.
• 7. Tie one end of the casing in a knot. I don't like to use thread because it gets stuck between my teeth. Stuff the casings and tie the other end. To make the links, I simply twist the stuffed casing two or three times every six inches or so (up to you on the link length). Stuffing is one of those trial-and-error kinds of things. Too tight and you may burst the casing as you twist it into links; too loose and your chorizo will get all wrinkly and have air pockets all over the place. I usually stuff one end of the casing fairly full and then very lightly at the other end. This way, I can start twisting from the heavy end, twist and allow the mixture to move along the length of the casing and fill in the light end. (Boy, I hope that made sense!).
• 8. After the links are done, use a pin or needle to poke three or four holes on each side of the link. This prevents bursting while cooking.
• 9. The final step is yet one more with which the experts may disagree. However, I most assuredly remember that all of the restaurants I visited as a child that served chorizo, cured the links for approximately three days. My "curing" consists simply of hanging the chorizos as horizontally as possible from hooks around the bay window frame in my butler pantry. If you decide to cure them, make sure that you place paper towels or newspaper on the sill to catch the drippings. Allowing the chorizos to dangle vertically will probably result in the twisted links unraveling somewhat.
• 10. Storage: My family loves chorizos so I really do not have to worry too much about storage. However, on the couple of occasions where I had to store a few links, they will keep perfectly in the refrigerator for up to 20 days. I have also frozen some of them and have had no problems thawing them out and using them normally.
• Cooking:.
• 1. My favorite cooking method is to put the links in a frying pan with enough water to reach about half way up the prone link. Turn your burner to low and allow the chorizo to cook slowly until all the water has evaporated, turning occasionally so all sides cook evenly. After the water has evaporated, the chorizo will look kind of whitish and opaque. Continue to fry until dark brown. The fat from the chorizo mixture will escape through the pin holes and will provide enough of a frying medium so that you do not have to add oil or any other frying agent.
• 2. Other methods include cooking them over charcoal, on your gas grill, boiled, skewered over a wood fire and, of course, cut into chunks as part of lentil soup and other dishes. Whatever method you choose, remember that chorizo should be cooked slowly and gently to avoid bursting the casings. Please come back in the future as I plan to soon upload my recipe for "sancocho" which, of course, includes lots of chorizo.

SPANISH CHORIZO

Steps:

• Grind meat and fat separately through the coarse disk and mix together.
• Place in a LARGE bowl.
• Sprinkle remaining ingredients on meat mix thoroughly.
• Cover with plastic wrap and cure in the fridge for 24 hours.
• Remove from fridge and give meat mixture another good stir.
• Prepare casings and stuff with meat.
• Tie off in 4 inch links.
• Hang to dry for 8 weeks.