Freezer disaster has a silver lining
2004-07-30 @ 11:42 a.m.
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Half of the food in the big freezer thawed out last week. Something had fallen down and wedged between the door and a shelf so it was partially open all day. So I unloaded the thawed stuff and divided it between Jake and Sara (most of the stuff on their bottom shelves was okay, it was our top two shelves that got the biggest hit), Ricky and Lucy, and us. One of the things that thawed was a pack of chorizo (Mexican sausage). I get it at the Mexican markets in the area and use it as a flavor enhancer. It is too spicy and too high in fat to use by itself.
So in the past week I've made two entr�es with chorizo. The first was chicken breasts with chorizo and cream of mushroom soup on rice. Very simple. I cook the chorizo first. It usually comes with each link in a plastic sleeve. So cut it out of the sleeve and break it up into a ground meat consistency in a skillet. When you cook it you will see lots of oil gather in the bottom on the skillet (one link). That's why I cook it separately, then spoon it into the rest of the dish. You can saut� the chicken breasts (4) at the same time until they are done, or almost done. Then put them in a baking pan. Mix the chorizo and a can of chicken mushroom soup and dump it on the chicken breasts. Heat it all in a 350 degree oven until the sauce starts to bubble, about 30 minutes. Serve it over, or with, rice. A nice degree of spicy without burning your mouth, throat and belly. You can serve it with a slightly sweet wine - Riesling or Gewurtztraminer - or a rich, spicy dry ros� or a good beer (or sweet iced tea!).
Last night I made a spicy sausage pasta for Badsnake and myself. Again, cook the chorizo separately. Cut smoked sausage (kielbasa-type) into thin slices and boil it ( cooking it this way takes out some of the fat that then gets dumped out with the water). In a saut� pan with a little olive oil, combine chorizo, smoked sausage, a little minced garlic, and two or three chopped tomatoes. Cook on medium heat until the tomatoes start to wilt. Add some black olives and chick peas and reduce to simmer until you are ready to eat. Oh yeah, you should start the pasta first since it will take longer to cook. Yummy. I had it with a good Malbec that suited it very well. I guess you could call this fusion cooking since it puts together several ethic ingredients and styles of cooking, but I've always thought "fusion" was just a fancy way of saying "fucking up good ethic ingredients" since it's usually about over-complicating food to the point that it doesn't make sense any more. And try pairing wine with most fusion cooking - yikes, and yuck!
Bad thinks we should thaw out the freezer more often. It certainly encourages creativity.
P.S. If you're interested you can see examples of my pottery at www.dirtygirlpottery.com. Bad made me a website!
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