"United we bargain, divided we beg."

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Homemade Mexican Chorizo

1. Raise a pig.

2. (skipping  a few steps here) Take one pound of unseasoned pork sausage (aka ground pork, preferably chilli grind) and fry it with a tablespoon or so of canola oil in a large cast iron skillet( if possible inherited from one of your direct ancestors) over medium high heat. As it is browning, add 
   a) 1 chopped yellow onion
   b)  2 or 3 chopped jalapenos and/or serranos, seeds removed or not as your preference dictates
   c) 3 cloves minced garlic
   d)  a few tbsp mixed spices, ground in a coffee grinder or pounded in a mortar and pestle, consisting of:
        i   1 tsp cuminseed
        ii  3 or 4 whole allspice berries
        iii 3 or 4 whole cloves
        iv  1/2 tsp cinnamon
        v   1/2 tsp salt
        vi 1/2 tsp black peppercorns
        vii 1 tbspn spanish smoked paprika
   e)  1 tbspn tomato paste

use a spatula to mix, break up, and scrape thoroughly whilst the mixture browns. When it is browned and fragrant enough to wake the recently deceased, add

    f) a handful of finely chopped cilantro. 
    
   At this point, many people of Mexican heritage would scramble in a couple or three of 

   g) freshly laid free-range eggs gathered by one's own children in the dew of a summer's            morning

but personally I prefer to eat the chorizo without eggs, simply folded into fresh hot corn tortillas (if made from nixtamal grown on one's own land and formed by the hands of one's own Oaxacan mother-in-law, so much the better)  and topped with sour cream.

It may seem like a rich meal, and so it is. 

Rich indeed.



4 comments:

Dr24Hours said...

You know, Step 2 has 7 parts and takes hours, but Step 1 is WAY more complicated.

Aimee said...

Actually, step two took me about twenty-five minutes. You are right though: look out for that first step: it's a doozy!

Tonia said...

We do butcher or own goats and its like butchering deer if any of you hunt. But we have found we tend to get more meat if we take it somewhere to be processed. They are much more talented with a knife then we are!! Lol Large animals definitely go to a meat processors. We dont have the room or the tools for it. So even though it cost to have it processed we have found its not real expensive. One place we really like is about 40cents a pound. Not bad when you consider the cost of your time and packing materials.

Aimee said...

The place I use has a $0.55/lb cut and wrap fee, but that doesn't include the kill fee - what they charge for coming out to the farm, killing and dressing out the animal. For a hog, that's $70. Don't know for a goat. If I deliver the animal live to the facility, they give me a $5 discount per head. That doesn't seem worth it to me, counting the annoyance of packing and hauling them, not to mention the stress to the animal. I'd rather they just suddenly get shot in the head one fine day as they are peacefully grazing.