Spanish cooking chorizo

I bought a package of these from LaTienda last summer with the hopes of learning to make an authentic paella. Well, I never got around to doing it, but did use up all the products I bought for making it. This chorizo is the best I have ever had. It is a small chorizo, with a casing that removes easily. I cook it in a non-stick pan using only the fat rendering from the chorizo. I add some smoked paprika, while it is browning...wow...what flavors! Has anyone else discovered this chorizo?

I'm not sure. I've bought Spanish chorizo and Mexican chorizo and they're as different as different can be, the Spanish being a LOT milder and to my tongue, more flavorful. Maybe I get swamped by too much heat.

Mexican is what you want for huevos con chorizo; Spanish is what you want for paella, assuming you're going to put sausage in the paella.

John

I bought a package of these from LaTienda last summer with the hopes of learning to make an authentic paella. Well, I never got around to doing it, but did use up all the products I bought for making it. This chorizo is the best I have ever had. It is a small chorizo, with a casing that removes easily. I cook it in a non-stick pan using only the fat rendering from the chorizo. I add some smoked paprika, while it is browning...wow...what flavors! Has anyone else discovered this chorizo?

There are several different types of Spanish chorizo, all of which I find interesting (and many of which are sold by La Tienda). They make excellent tapas as well as an accent to various dishes. But you owe it to yourself to make a paella, too. Courtesy of an Iranian former student, I've ended up afloat in really high quality saffron, so I make paella whenever I can as there are only about 4 dishes I cook that use saffron.

Mark Lipton

I've cooked chorizo, but it was regular chorizo (Spanish) and I cut it in half-inch slices. My girlfriend and I like to make a dish called "Chorizo a la Sidra" -- chorizo cooked mostly with just shallots and maybe red pepper in a cider reduction. It's very rich, so it's not something to eat too often (we made it about 3 or 4 times in the space of 2 months about a year ago and haven't had it since). But it's a tasty thing to try!

[Jenise]

I'm not sure. I've bought Spanish chorizo and Mexican chorizo and they're as different as different can be, the Spanish being a LOT milder and to my tongue, more flavorful. Maybe I get swamped by too much heat.

John

Same name, but coincidentally two entirely different products. Night and day--shouldn't even be compared.

[Jenise]

I'm not sure. I've bought Spanish chorizo and Mexican chorizo and they're as different as different can be, the Spanish being a LOT milder and to my tongue, more flavorful. Maybe I get swamped by too much heat.

John

Same name, but coincidentally two entirely different products. Night and day--shouldn't even be compared becuase you would never use them in the same way or in the same dishes.

That said, an interesting product that's right down the middle is the Cuban style chorizo one can buy in Florida. It's cured so has the texture most Americans, anyway, would associate with Pepperoni (looks like it too, similar small diameter of the authentic Italian--NOT Hormel or any of that other industrial crap made for pizza toppings), but it is full of cumin-chile flavor like most Americans would associate with Mexican food. Not that what Americans think is important, it's just that most Europeans understand Chorizo to be one thing where most west/southwest Americans presume it to be another and are constantly confused where paella's concerned. That pepperoni from an Italian deli is the substitute you'd want, not Mexican chorizo, seems to be a hard point to get across--it's a frequent and understandable mistake made by non-foodie cooks.

I have some of that Cuban chorizo in my fridge and two quarts of lobster stock in the freezer that are destined for a big paella feed some day. Mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

[Jenise]

I've cooked chorizo, but it was regular chorizo (Spanish) and I cut it in half-inch slices. My girlfriend and I like to make a dish called "Chorizo a la Sidra" -- chorizo cooked mostly with just shallots and maybe red pepper in a cider reduction. It's very rich, so it's not something to eat too often (we made it about 3 or 4 times in the space of 2 months about a year ago and haven't had it since). But it's a tasty thing to try!

In a cider reduction? Sounds Andalusian--do you then just serve it over, say, rice?