A week ago, I was left with the best part of a pack of Brindisa cooking chorizo, having cooked only a couple of sausages for a Mark Hix avocado, chorizo and pork scratching thing.
Now this isn’t the most difficult of ingredients to use up. My default approach is to split in half, fry mostly on the cut side, and chuck on some toast with a poached egg or two. Either that or make a shakshuka. But I also often use it in paella style dishes too (someone will no doubt say it’s not called a paella if there’s chorizo in it), or pair with scallops or mussels if I’m feeling fancy.
However, having set myself a challenge of using weekend leftovers innovatively, none of the above approaches seemed quite right for these particular paprika seasoned, pork and fat filled beauties.
My first approach was to roast up some root vegetables and add the chorizo for the last thirty minutes or so. Peeled lumps of jerusalem artichokes and sweet potato, roasted for one hour at 180C (with discs of chorizo in there for much of that time), turned out to be a pretty strong side dish. You can do the same with roast potatoes – just chuck the chorizo in with thirty-odd minutes to go. Give the tray a shake a couple of times. Your Sunday spuds will never be the same again.
Yet, root veg and chorizo does not a good blog recipe make. So I turned again to eggs and brunch – and skinned and broke up the sausage meat in the remaining two chorizo, fried it up, chucked in coriander stalks, sweet corn and a liberal squeeze of lime. And then used that, with feta, as a filling for a killer, zingy, sweet and spicy brunch omelette.
As always with omelettes, ignore the classical French approach and get a bit of colour on the outside. Mix the loose egg up plenty when you’re cooking to give a bit of body, and make sure it still wobbles and oozes when you take it out the pan. Speaking of which, a good pan is important: mine sticks and is too big, really, for a three egg omelette, meaning the edges are more thin crepe like than I’d like.
Right, enough waffle. There’s a recipe below the picture, should you fancy it.
Chorizo, corn and feta brunch omelette
For 2
- 2 Chorizo cooking sausages (I recommend Brindisa’s dulce ones) (approx. 120g)
- 15-20g coriander (including stalk)
- 160g sweetcorn (drained weight of one small can)
- 60g feta
- 6 eggs
- 20g butter
- Teaspoon vegetable oil
- Juice from ½ lime
- Salt and pepper
Break 3 eggs into a bowl and mix well with a fork. Season with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Weigh out the feta. Remove the coriander leaves from their stalks. Set the leaves aside and finely chop the stalks.
Skin the chorizo by slicing lightly down one side and pulling the covering away. Slice into 1cm discs then pull apart with your fingers. Add the oil to a frying pan, put on a medium flame and drop in the chorizo. Cook for 4 minutes until the oils from the chorizo are rendering and the meat is starting to brown and crisp. Add the coriander stalks. Cook for forty seconds more, then add the drained sweetcorn and take off the heat. Squeeze in the lime and season with a good grind of black pepper.Pour the contents of the frying pan into a bowl.
Put the frying pan back on the highest heat and add half the butter. When it melts and starts to froth, move it round the pan then pour in the eggs. Mix about with a fork or silicon spatula for fifteen seconds or so – to give the omelette body – always ensuring liquid egg returns covers any holes.
After a minute, you’re pretty much done. You want the omelette to still ooze in the middle. Pour half the chorizo mix into the middle of the omelette, crumble in half the feta and top with half the coriander. Carefully fold one side over and slide onto a warm plate. Repeat for the second omelette. Eat. Goes well with slices of avocado and lime.
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