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My husband, Chris, has an obsession with good Mexican food. My Southern California boy craves Mexican food at regular intervals, which is not the most convenient craving to have when you live in Southern China (as many of you know, we live in Xiamen, a small city in southern Fujian province). Mexican food hasn’t exactly caught on here in China, unlike the Golden Arches or “ken-de-ji” (aka KFC), and you can’t buy premade salsa or Mexican spices, or chorizo, and although you can find frozen tortillas, the supply isn’t very reliable.
Which, of course, continues my ongoing theme of “Necessity is the mother of invention”. Living in China has made me SO much less dependant on prepackaged foods and fueled my love of cooking from scratch. How AWESOME and satisfying is it to make your own homemade chorizo in a tiny Chinese apartment kitchen and serve your husband chorizo con huevos with homemade salsa? Pretty awesome.
Just a quick note here. I grew up in Toronto, Canada, which is a mecca for food-lovers and a haven for authentic ethnic restaurants. However, I very rarely tasted authentic Mexican food growing up, and I don’t think Taco Bell counts. Therefore, if the chorizo I made isn’t completely authentic, please don’t string me up and beat me with a dry-cured ham. I’m doing my best with limited resources at my disposal :p.
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Chorizo con Huevos (Chorizo sausage with Eggs)
1/3 pound homemade chorizo (see recipe below)
5 eggs, beaten
½ onion, diced
oil
salt
In a skillet, sauté the onion over medium heat in 1 tablespoon of oil. When onion is just softened (2-3 minutes), add the chorizo. Break it up with a spatula and sauté until cooked through. Mmmm! Smell those spices!
Pour the eggs into the pan over the chorizo, and cook, stirring, until the eggs are set but not too dry. Taste to see if it needs salt (the chorizo is pretty salty, so you may not need any), and sprinkle salt on as needed. Serve with warm tortillas and salsa.
SOOOO good.
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Homemade Chorizo
This recipe was cobbled together from several recipes on the Internet and heavily influenced by what I had in the kitchen at the time.
1 pound lean ground pork (but not super lean; you need some fat for flavor and texture)
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp cayenne pepper or red chili powder
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tsp cumin powder
2 garlic cloves, finely minced
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1 tbsp water
1 tsp salt
Mix everything together well, then knead well with your hands to make sure all ingredients are evenly distributed (this was kind of fun, once you got over the “eww gross” bit).
Put the meat into a plastic freezer bag, squeeze out all the air, and allow the meat to cure in the refrigerator for about 3 days. After that it can be used (it will keep in the refrigerator for a week or two) or frozen for months.