Saturday, August 7, 2010

Estofado de Lentejas Con Chorizo (Lentil and Sausage Stew)

Surfing the web I recently discovered a blog named "Las Hambres" (translates to "The Hungers") by Maria as soon as I saw this lentil stew in her blog I knew it was something I had to try, looked real comforting, simple and familiar. I grew up eating Spanish and Cuban bean stews and still do to this day so this diffidently hit home.

So anyways, yesterday I finally had the opportunity to cook this lentil stew, because there was nothing in the fridge I wanted to eat for lunch, so while the lentil stew cooked I multi-tasked, prepared some white rice, and made a salad I wrapped up everything in under 45 minutes and had a wonderful lunch & was able to also prepare a meat stew which I left simmering to be ready for dinner time so my family could eat it with the leftover white rice and salad I made for lunch (I'll blog about the meat stew sometime this month =)

So I'm blogging about it because well duh I wanna share the love with all of you and also because I prepared it somewhat differently, but it was inspired by her recipe and is very very similar. From now on when I want a simple Spaniard lentil stew with just chorizo this will be my go to way of preparing it :)


Ingredients to boil lentils with:

-2 cups (1 lbs.) dried lentils (rinsed and drained)
-water (enough to submerge lentils 2 inches in water)
-2 medium carrots, peeled cut into rounds
-1/2 onion left intact
-1/2 a small green or red bell pepper or 1/4 of a large one left intact uncut
-3 cloves garlic unpeeled and whole
-2 bay leaves
-1 teaspoon black peppercons
-2 Spanish Chorizos (I used "Chorizo de Bilbao)

Ingredients for the sofrito:
-1/4- 1/2 cup olive oil
-1/2 onion finely chopped/ minced
-3 cloves of garlic finely minced
-1 large ripe tomato grated
-1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
-1 tablespoon sweet smoked Spanish paprika
-salt to taste (I used about 2 teaspoons but it really is to taste)

Directions:
(1) Throw lentils in a pot, add carrot, onion, bell pepper, garlic, bay leaves, and black peppercorns and spanish chorizo. Bring to a boil on high heat and cover, lower heat to medium and cook until lentils are tender (about 35- 40 minutes)

(2) While lentils are simmering heat a large pan with a generous amount of olive oil on medium high heat to start your "sofrito", add the onion and cook until translucent and caramelized about 7- 10 minutes, add garlic and cook down until fragrant about 3 minutes, add grated tomato and cook until the tomato has no liquid left about an additional 10 minutes, finally add balsamic vinegar give it a good stir, and then the sweet smoked paprika stir for about 1 minute constantly so it doesn't burn and get's fragrant. Turn off and set aside.
and then the sweet smoked paprika stir for about 1 minute constantly so it doesn't burn and get's fragrant. Turn off and set aside.

(3) When lentils are tender add about 30- 35 minutes, add the sofrito mixture, stir, taste for salt and adjust it to taste and let it simmer an additional 5 minutes, turn off heat,
remove the chorizo's, take the casing off if necessary and slice it into 1/4- 1/2 inch rounds, stir it back into the stew.
(4) Serve on it's own with over white rice or in a deep bowl with bread. A salad would go nicely with it too.

6 comments:

aandara said...

Nathan, this lentil stew looks awesome its remembers me the one my grandmother use to make, i have to try it
thanks for the recipe
Amalia

Ivonne said...

Looks great Nathan. I've never made lentil stew (can you believe it?), now I know how.

GlorV1 said...

I love lentil soup. Your looks great. Thanks for sharing your recipe. I have lentils in my pantry waiting to be cooked. Great cooking Nathan. Have a great week.

Nathan said...

Aandara,
Try it you won't regret it, I assure you :)

I.M.
LOL. I have like 5 lentil stew recipes on my blog, I'll share a more "Cuban style" one this month that's even easier since I have a lot of Calabaza sitting in the fridge that I need to use up (well I can always steam it and eat it with Mojo but yeah)

Gloria,
Aaaawww Gloria thanks for stopping by it makes me happy when people drop by to visit me on my blog :) I know the sweet smoked Spanish paprika is a little hard to come by, but you can get it in Costco wholesale in the spice section under the McCormick brand. It taste the same as the "Pimenton Dulce de la Vera" I'm just lucky enough to have a friend send over large bags of it to me, I go through it real quick he "hot variety" i am yet to be able to find at stores here so i have to have it sent by friends from Spain or shop online. Also if you can't get Spanish chorizo use "Louisiana hotlinks" which u can get in most latino n white stores here or substitute it for a Keilbasa. But the sweet smoked spanish paprika is essential in this dish.

GM said...

My mom and I (useless in the kitchen), just tried this and it came out awesome! With many thanks from Madrid.

Anonymous said...

Yumm! So good!! I make this often always comes out delish, thankyou for this :)