Porcine deliciousness with a kick, that is how to best describe fresh chorizo . This aromatic, spicy and unctuous sausage is simple and quick to prepare. A versatile culinary multi-tasker, once made is ready to be used in a variety of ways. Firstly, enjoy the sausage solo, for example garnish with salsa, cilantro, sour cream and a drizzle of lime. Secondly, use as a flavour enhancer, that secret ingredient which adds heat and depth of flavour to the old standards in your culinary lexicon, i.e. meat balls, meat loaf, chili, or sloppy joes. Last, but not least of all this piquant marvel can be used as part of a larger dish containing several elements; simply put chorizo plays well with others. I will explore the versatility of chorizo in future blog posts, but let’s start with making a batch.

Ingredients

1 lb/450 grams lean ground pork

3.5 oz/100 grams of pancetta cut up (substitute plain cured unsmoked bacon)

1 tbsp minced garlic

1/2 cup chopped yellow onion

2 chipotle peppers with 1 tbsp of the adobo sauce (add more if you dare)

zest of one lime

juice of one lime

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground black pepper

1/2 tsp cocoa powder (optional)

1/4 tsp salt

1/8 tsp ground nutmeg

2 tsp Mexican chili powder (add more for extra kick)

1/2 tsp cayenne (more if you like extra hot)

1 tsp smoked sweet paprika

1 tsp oregano

1 bay leaf ground

2 tsp ground cumin

2 tsp ground coriander

Start by gathering the spices and herbs, toast on med low heat until becomes fragrant. Heating the spices gently on low heat reactivates the essential oils, and if the spices haven’t been used in a long while they will need waking up. Stay with the spice mix while toasting as toasted can become scorched in a matter of moments, toast for a minute to a minute and a half on med low heat. Set aside.

Place chopped pancetta and spices into food processor and process with S-blade until coarsely chopped but not a paste. Pancetta will add bacon flavour and fat, lean ground pork is too lean, and for a good sausage fat is flavour. Add the meat mix from the food processor into a bowl with the lean ground pork and mix together until a uniformly coloured meat ball is produced.

Shape into patties. I like to use an old mayonnaise lid to make uniform 3 oz patties.

This recipe makes 8 3 oz patties, each patty is one serving. One serving is equivalent to Carbs 3 grams, Fat 13 grams, Protien 14 grams, Fiber 1 gram.

I hope that you will make a batch of this amazing sausage as my next post will utilize this chorizo in the re imagining of a popular restaurant brunch dish. Ole.

Happy Eating!

Irene, The Keto Gourmet.