Chicken chorizo and potato stew: Lazy afternoon lunch

Sometimes weekends are just meant to be spent having good food with a novel. Last weekend was exactly; at least Saturday was. Sunday was more or less spent cycling, running and boxing.

I tried my hand at a traditional spanish dish 'Chorizo and Potato Stew'. It will warm your soul and fill your tummy with some amazingly tasty food. As I prefer not to use pork in my preparations so replaced pork chorizo with chicken ones but the taste was still good. Pork has a lot of fat and imparts a nice richness to any preparation but chicken was also not that bad. Let's start cooking!!

Chorizo and Potato Stew: It is a traditional spanish dish and taste heavenly with some red wine. Normally eaten in fall, it helps people soak into the endearing weather that fall brings with it. It is a one pot dish but takes a bit of time as the stew needs to be cooked over low flame.

Ingredients: Chicken Chorizo ( defrosted and sliced diagonally) - 350 gms; Potatoes ( peeled) - 4 medium; Red chilli ( dried) - 2; Bay leaves - 2; Garlic cloves ( finely chopped) - 5; Onions ( finely sliced) - 2 medium; Red bell pepper ( roughly chopped) - 1 large; Tomatoes ( roughly chopped) - 2 medium; Red chilli powder - 2 tsp; Kashmiri red chilli powder - 2 tsp; Thyme - 1/2 tsp; Olive oil - 1 tbsp; Vinegar - few drops; Salt as per taste; Water - 600 ml

Steps:

i. Heat olive oil in a broad pan. You can use a clay pot as well.

ii. Add bay leaves, chopped garlic and sliced onions and saute well. To aid in the process add some salt.

iii. After 7-8 minutes ( onions will start turning translucent) add the chorizo and red bell pepper.

iv. Saute them well and now add the potatoes. Don't cut them with knife. Just pluck them with a knife to have rough edges.

v. Add them to the mixture and mix well.

vi. Now add the red chilli powder, kashmiri red chilli powder and thyme. Also add the tomatoes and mix well.

vii. Saute the whole mixture for 10 minutes at low flame.

viii. Add the water and mix well. Let the mixture simmer at low flame for 30 minutes so that the water is reduced to half. Ensure to stir every 5 minutes so that it doesn't burn at the bottom. In a clay pot or a thick bottom pan it might not be an issue.

Enjoy with some toasted baguette and red wine!! I did mine with some fresh lemonade.