IAN & SPAIN

Barbate, a small fishing town located in the province of Cádiz, Spain, is well-known for its high-quality seafood, particularly its red tuna – the "atún rojo." Caught in the age-old Almadraba traps dating back to the Phoenician times, the red tuna from Barbate is esteemed for its exquisite taste and tender texture. I thought I would share this very simple and very elegant recipe with you all, as it is a real stunner of a dish at any dinner party or just as a light lunch. It is so simple to make and so full of flavour.

Ingredients:
For the Tuna Tartare:

400 grams of fresh red tuna fillet from Barbate
2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoon of fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon of soy sauce
1 small ripe avocado
1/4 red onion, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh chives, finely chopped (for garnish)

Optional ingredients for added flavour and texture:

Capers, rinsed and finely chopped
Fresh ginger, grated
Sesame seeds, toasted
 

Instructions:
Preparation of Tuna:

• Begin by carefully inspecting the red tuna fillet. Make sure it is fresh and of high quality. Using a very sharp knife, cut the tuna into small, even, bite-sized cubes. The cubes must be as uniform as possible to ensure even marinating and a pleasant texture when eating.
• In a mixing bowl, combine the olive oil, lemon juice, and soy sauce. Whisk them together to create your marinade.
• Gently toss the tuna cubes in the marinade, coating them evenly. Add the finely chopped red onion and give the mixture a gradual mix.
• Season with salt and pepper to your liking, but be mindful of the soy sauce's natural salinity.

If you've chosen to use capers, ginger, or sesame seeds, now is the time to fold them into the mix. Each of these optional ingredients can add a unique depth and character to the tartare.

Avocado base:

• Peel and pit the avocado, then dice into small cubes.
• Add the olive oil, lemon juice, red onion, chives and a pinch of salt. Mix with a spoon.

Taste the avocado mix, adjusting the seasoning if needed.

On a clean plate, use a ring mould to shape the tuna tartare. Carefully spoon the avocado mix into the mould and press down lightly. Then add the tartare mixture into the mould, pressing down lightly to pack it in.
Slowly lift the mould upward, leaving the tartare nicely shaped on the plate. Sprinkle the top of the tuna tartare with some freshly chopped chives and serve,

The tartare can be enjoyed immediately, as it is best served fresh. Accompany it with crispy toasts or lightly salted crackers to add a pleasing crunch against the softness of the tartare.

Pair the dish with a glass of chilled Fino sherry or a crisp white wine to complement its flavours. Serve it during a summer gathering or as part of a tapas spread to truly impress your guests with the authentic taste of Andalusia's coastal cuisine.

Enjoy this delicate and flavourful delicacy that captures the essence of Barbate's red tuna, a true treasure of the sea.

Making paella can be a daunting challenge for many, getting the proportion of water to rice right so it doesn’t stick and go soggy, managing to get an intense flavour and so on, but for others it can be just an impossible task because they can’t find the Valencian round rice if they live abroad and you can’t make a paella with any other rice and achieve a good result. So here is the solution - Fideua
 
Fideuá is a very typical Valencian dish made with seafood and pasta, and pasta is so much easier than rice! Anyone can cook pasta. So our only real challenge here is getting an intense flavour, which is really quite simple if you follow a couple of my tricks - tricks I learned from experts, I may add. So how do we make it?
 
Like any paella dish, the key is in the stock, the secret is to make a good fish and seafood stock which isn't difficult but it can be a hassle and this post is titled "Easy Fideua" so we are going to cheat in this area by using a ready-made seafood stock, and with a little help we will make a really tasty fideua with as little effort as possible. Trust me, if you don't tell anyone, they will never know! It's also great as you can have all the ingredients at home in the freezer and the cupboard anytime, always a great meal up your sleeve in case of a surprise visit!

So this is what you'll need:

 
Here are the ingredients you will need to make a Fideuá for 4 adults:
 

Fideuá:

I'm using a Paella Pan measuring 55 cm in diameter (48cm base), you can do it with a  smaller one too, but I prefer to have the pasta spread out and not too thick. You get better results as you can evaporate the stock quicker due to the larger surface area, thus get a more intense flavour before the pasta is cooked.
 

• 500g of short pasta  - fideo medio here is an example :

• 2 litres of Seafood Fumet - ideally from Mercadona - It has the highest concentration of seafood in it - more than other brands - ANETO is also very good, but more expensive.

• Extra virgin olive oil
• 3 pressed garlic cloves
• 400g Flat green beans - Judias Planas - these are better fresh, but you can use the frozen ones too.

• 3 ripe plum tomatoes - grated with a cheese grater.
• 1 large brown onion finely diced
• 2 tsp of paprika powder - 'Pimenton dulce'
• A small pinch of Saffron - add this to the stock as it is heating up.
• 8 large uncooked king size prawns  - "Gambon" - you can buy them frozen in Mercadona. These will cost about €3,5 euros at the most - defrost before cooking. This is what they look like in Mercadona:

• 200 g Peeled King Prawn tails - Frozen -  in Mercadona - defrost before cooking

You can add more seafood if you want, but trust me, this is enough. 
 
• TIP: If you don’t like bits in your food remove the tentacles and the legs from the prawns before cooking them otherwise you will be picking them out of your Fideuá while you eat, as they fall off when you cook them.
 
     
 
Preparing the Fideuá:
 

• Heat the stock and keep it warm until you need it - add the saffron to the stock
• Add the olive oil to the paella pan - if it is level it will form a circle in the middle - keep adding until it is about a hands width from the edge of the pan about  11-12 cm
• Heat the pan - if you are using a paella burner, just use just the centre gas ring at this stage.
• When the oil is hot - not smoking - add all the prawns. Gently fry them on both sides for a few minutes. Remove the peeled prawns once they have changed colour and put to one side
• Squash the heads of all the king prawns so they release their juice. Make sure it has all come out - this is key to a getting a good result.
• Remove the king prawns and put to one side.
• Add the green beans (chopped into approx 1-2 inch pieces) and saute the beans in the oil until they are starting to go soft and browned slightly - then push them out the edge of the pan.
• Add the onions to the oil and gently fry them until they go transparent and slightly browned. Take your time, the slower they cook the more intense the flavour will be.
• Push the onions to the outer edge of the paella pan with the beans so they won't cook any further.
• Add the grated tomato to the centre of the pan and fry it. You can raise the heat a little - we want to evaporate the water from the tomato.
• TIP - Once the water has evaporated from the tomato and we just have pulp add a little water to the tomato pulp and repeat the process. Do this a minimum of three times. This will help get a really intense fried tomato. During the second evaporation add the crushed garlic to the tomato pulp and during the last evaporation add the paprika to the tomato and garlic pulp.
• Once the last evaporation is complete add all the pasta to the pan and fry the pasta in with the onions and the tomato. Do this for a minute or so and then add a couple of ladles of hot stock - make sure the stock is hot before you add it to the paella pan and the all the gas rings have been turned on and on medium heat.
• Spread the pasta out evenly across the pan and make sure you have enough stock in the pan to reach the edges and so that all the pasta is in stock - but not being totally covered by it. 
• We will be adding the stock little by little to ensure we don't overcook the pasta. Our aim is to use all the stock - 2 litres - so at the beginning, you will want a high heat to evaporate the stock quickly before it cooks all the pasta - this way the flavours will be more intense - the more stock evaporated, the stronger the flavour.
• Keep adding the stock and evaporating until you feel you can add all of what is left - make sure that the past is not sticking to the bottom of the pan yet - if it is, it is too hot. We want that to happen towards the end.
• If you notice the pasta is almost cooked, place the king prawns and the peeled prawns back into the paella pan in a decorative circle, crank up the heat to evaporate the remaining stock quickly - this will be a bit of trial and error until you work out your temperatures with the burner - but its not difficult.
• When all the stock has evaporated lower the heat and let it toast the bottom of the pasta be careful not to burn it. You can test this with a fork. Stick a fork in and touch the bottom of the pan push back and forth gently to see if the past moves - if it doesn't it is toasting and creating a delicious crust.
• Once a crust has been made across all of the pan turn off the gas. Make sure you don’t burn it - keep smelling it - you will smell the pasta burning if you have gone too far.

All that is left to now is let it sit for a few minutes and serve!

Hopefully, it will look something like this... Enjoy!

It's not the first time I have written about cooking paella, but I think, if you are really interested in making paella this might just be the most useful article I have written. Since my last article, I  have practised a fair bit and learned a significant amount through trial and error and testing other people’s recommendations.

I have learned one fundamental thing, always use the same size paella pan until you are consistently producing perfect paellas every time. That means understanding your pan-to-water-to-rice measurements, meat and vegetable quantities and heat control. All play a vital role in pulling off the perfect paella. 

As I never managed to find any articles or anyone who ever really committed to the exact proportions or advice that was actually applicable in the home. You always needed to adjust for your situation ie. your pan was smaller or larger, your burner was less powerful, or you would never cook a paella that big ever and you would need to adjust everything! 

Some would say 1 part rice to 3 parts water others would say 1 part rice to 2.5 parts water, 1 part rice to 4 parts water! ...and then you would need to make sure you are using the right variety of rice as each one absorbs more or less water.  You see, so many things affect the result of a paella. What looks like is a simple dish is an absolute nightmare to get right! How much rice you put in the paella pan is key - the depth of the rice in the pan directly influences the amount of water (or stock if it is a seafood paella) and the cooking time so unless you have the same pan size and the same measurements etc your paella will never be the same. I have learnt a considerable amount over the years and I have come to the conclusion that the best-sized paella pan is 60 cm in diameter (unless you are consistently making paella for 9 -12 people at a time, in that case, it would be a 70cm pan.) But I think a 60 cm pan will serve the majority of households. 

On the sticker of the 60 cm pan, it will say it is good for 20 servings. What this really means is that you can feed 20 people if you fill the pan to the brim with rice. But that is never done and should never be done as the rice is never cooked evenly when so deep. I have always had a wide range of paella pans in size at home, meaning I have kept changing pan sizes depending on numbers and I had never really mastered any one of them in particular. So fi you are serious about learning how to cook paella and to do it properly I suggest sticking to one size until you master it and adjust the amounts of rice accordingly. The bigger the pan the less influence the extra rice has on the cooking time. But if you go too big, controlling the heat and the even depth of the rice throughout the paella becomes an issue, but this tends to be the case when the pan is bigger than 100cm. Any bigger though and the quality of the paella is very difficult, if not impossible to, maintain at a high standard.

So, why 60cm? let me explain why this is an ideal size. Firstly, this size is ideal for 5 to 8 servings, but if necessary you can also stretch it to 10 on the odd occasion without the paella getting too deep. Secondly, it enables you to include sufficient amounts of meat and vegetables to obtain a decent stock and leave enough space for the rice, as the base of the pan measures 52,5cm in diameter.  Most importantly, whether you make a paella for 5 or 8 people, your paella will never be more than 1 cm in depth. This is the key!

If you go to a restaurant your paella will always be thin, at most 1,5cm deep. This is fundamental if you want all the rice to be cooked evenly. The deeper the rice the more cooked it will at the bottom and possibly undercooked at the top As a maximum, you never really want to go any deeper than 2cm of rice. Ideally, aim for up to 1,5cm in the middle of the pan and up to 1 cm on the outer edge. Now you see why we need such a big pan for so few people. By doing this we will guarantee that the rice is cooked evenly and you will be able to control without too much trouble “el punto del arroz” - which is the equivalent of the “al dente” with pasta. If the rice is any deeper, this is realistically impossible, especially if you let the paella sit for a while before serving. As some varieties will continue to cook after being removed from the heat such as Senia - J Sendra, whereas other such as Bomba or Albufera will withstand the resting period before serving. If you don’t know the differences there are three main types of Valencian rice with the denomination of origin. They are as follows:
 

J.SENDRA ROUND RICE (from the Senia variety)

This rice originated in Valencia, cultivated in the Albufera under the seal of the Denomination of Origin Rice of Valencia. Its grains have a great capacity to absorb the flavours and aromas from all the ingredients. It is the rice that is most used to make Valencian paella due to its creamier texture and ability to maintain its humidity on the surface without sticking. This creamier texture makes for a more intense transfer of flavours from the rice grain to the mouth. However, this variety takes no prisoners, or you get it right or your paella turns to a mushy nasty mess. The grain is prone to splitting if you cook it too long and it will continue to cook for about 2 to 4 minutes after turning off the heat. Something that you need to take into consideration. This is my prefered variety for paella.

Cooking time 13 - 15 minutes.

BOMBA RICE

This rice has a much higher amylose (a starch polymer)  content than J Sendra. This means that the grain has a reduced surface humidity resulting in the grains not sticking during cooking. It also has a very high resistance to overcooking which is great for the novice and also restaurants that might have the paella waiting a short time before serving. The downside is that, although it does absorb a lot of stock, that transfer of flavour is not as high as with J Sendra due to the lack of surface humidity and the toughness of the grain. It lacks that creamier texture. It is a dryer paella compared to J Sendra. Personally, I prefer this variety for rice stews - “caldosos” as they are called here.

Optimum cooking: 16-18 min
 

ALBUFERA RICE

This rice is the result of crossing the Bomba and Senia/J Sendra varieties. It has an excellent capacity for absorbing flavours and aromas, close to J Sendra but with the resistance not so much to overcooking but to withstanding the resting time after cooking. So it does give some forgiveness with the cooking times.

Optimum cooking: 14-16 min

Now we have looked into the varieties, let’s continue...

Recently, I just invested in a completely new set up for my paella cooking, which I am going to share with you. I bought a 60cm professional thickness paella pan -  this means it will never warp and should become a family heirloom. Additionally, I bought a 46cm paella burner (alta gama) by Flames VLC with the gas attachment and adjustable legs. It all came to about €120 including postage, so pretty reasonable if you ask me. This setup will do you for life and will probably cover 95% of the paella requirements you will ever have.

I bought mine here - https://paellerosypaelleras.com/)

Allow me to share the measurements and instructions for this size pan, in case you decide to buy one.

For a 60cm pan, the minimum amount of rice would be 500g and I would say the maximum amount for a lovely thin paella would be 800g, but you could perfectly stretch it to 1kg if it was really necessary and it would still be fairly thin. I calculate 100g per person, which is a standard serving at any restaurant if you are serving starters. If you are not serving starters you might want to calculate 125g per person. So, even if you are two at home 500g is basically four healthy servings and it will keep in the fridge for a day without any problems.  Realistically cooking any less at home is a bit pointless as the meat and vegetable quantities will be so small you won’t get a good stock. Anything between 500 and 800g is very similar to cook, you just adjust the water, but the cooking times are similar and with such a  big pan it much easier to adjust accordingly. 

The water ratio to rice for this pan and these amounts will be 4 to 1 :  4 parts water to 1 part rice.  400ml of water for every 100g of rice.

Why so much water compared to other recipes? Well, basically because the surface area of the paella pan is much larger than normal and therefore the capacity for evaporation is much greater. So much more water will evaporate than if the pan were smaller and the rice deeper.

Let’s make it! - Valencian Paella

 The authentic “Paella Valenciana” has it’s Denominación de origin, which identifies the 10 basic ingredients that it must have :

Olive Oil, Chicken, Rabbit, Ferraura (wide green beans), Garrafon (local large white butter bean), Tomato, Water, Salt, Saffron and Rice (Valencian round rice).

These are the basic ingredients for the orthodox paella, nothing else. However, some local variations are admitted under the name “Paella Valenciana”, which have come from local areas within Valencia, such as Benicarló where they historically add artichokes. Duck is used as well as other ingredients in the L’Albufera, snail, paprika and rosemary are also admitted but nothing else.

So here we go, I’m going to include artichokes, paprika and rosemary to the base recipe. remember we are using a 60cm pan and a 46cm gas burner.

1. 500g rice variety - J Sendra  (but you can choose which one you prefer)

2. 800 g Chopped up chicken, including the liver.

3. 500g Chopped up Rabbit,

4. 400 g of  Ferraura (also known as bajoqueta) large thick flat green beans.

5. 200g of Garrofon – large white beans.  Try to buy all the veg fresh not frozen.

6. 200g Grated tomato (without the skin)

7. 4 Artichokes – once cut up into 4 parts each, keep them in water with a little lemon, that way they won’t turn the paella a dark colour. 

8. 150ml Extra virgin olive oil (more or less)

9. Saffron threads

10. Table Salt

11. 1 Dessert spoon of paprika (sweet)

12. Rosemary still on the branch if possible. I don’t recommend dried rosemary, it is easy to put too much in and ruin the paella. With the branch it is easy to remove it as soon as the right level of taste is acquired.

13. Water:  2 Litres + 1 Litre to create the stock - this will evaporate before we put the rice in.

Instructions

First make sure that the paella pan is perfectly horizontal, if it isn’t it won’t cook properly. You can test this by adding the olive oil to the pan and it should all stay in the centre. If it doesn’t adjust until it does. I also have a spirit level for this, a little quicker!

Turn on the gas to a medium heat.  

Sprinkle some  salt around the edge of the pan  

When the oil is hot, add the chicken and the rabbit. 

Fry the chicken and the rabbit for at least 20 minutes at medium to low heat. You don’t want it burnt but you do want it a deep rich golden brown colour on all sides. This is one of the main tricks behind a good paella. Most people do not cook the meat enough during the preparation stage. It will not end up tough, later with the water it will soften up the meat.  

Once you have achieved the colour of the meat, spread out the meat to the edge of the pan to make room in the centre for the vegetables  

Add the green beans first and fry them for about 5 minutes.

Then add the white beans and fry for a couple of minutes.

Spread the vegetables out to the edge of the meat and make room in the centre for the tomato.  

Add the tomato and fry for about 3-4 minutes. Once all the water from the tomatoes has evaporated, add a little water back into the tomato (this is just a couple of tablespoons or so) and fry it again until it evaporates again completely. Do this three times and you will have a fantastic fried tomato. The little water you have added just to the tomato will evaporate completely so it is not contemplated in the water for the rice.

Leaving the tomato in the centre, we now add the paprika. Now, this is a critical point. We must have the water ready and at hand when we do this and move to a low heat. For about 30-45 seconds max. we cook the paprika with the tomato. If you cook it for too long it will make the paella bitter. The water will stop the paprika from cooking any further.

Now we add the water. Add ONLY the first measurement of 2 litres of water and take note where the water level has reached in the pan – I use a metallic ruler and simply place it in the middle of the pan and take a reading to the mm. Remember it and then add the extra litre of water.

Raise the heat to medium-to-high and start boiling the stock for at least 25 minutes.

If the water level reaches the first measurement of the 2 litres before time just add more water until the stock has a strong, rich and very slightly salty taste. The rice will absorb the salt. After about 20 minutes of boiling test for salt 

Once we have a good stock flavour and have reached the first water level mark we add the rice. Just spread it out around the pan, as you have measured it is not necessary to do a cross or a line as many people do, these techniques come from judgement and practise and are basically pot luck and have to real sense to them. Just make sure all the rice is evenly distributed and all the grains are covered by the stock.

Add the saffron until we achieve a nice rich golden colour. Be careful not to put too much in, you don’t want an orange paella.  What I do is take out two or three spoons of stock and pour them into a pestle and mortar with the saffron and then grind it all together and pour it back in.

After this point, we will not touch the rice or move it around. 

Cook on high heat for 7 minutes, until the rice starts to appear through the stock. 

Then drop to a low heat and cook for 5 minutes. It is important to drop the heat because we then avoid the burning of the starch that has come out of the rice and thickened the stock.

At this point add the rosemary branch. After about 3-4 minutes you can remove it, this is done by taste and smell. If it is becoming overpowering remove it straight away. 

During the 5 minutes keep tasting the rice grains. By the end of the 5 minutes it should be slightly “al dente” but not hard. The last stage of the cooking will be done without the heat. The last minute or so, when there is now no stock left, you can raise the heat quickly to caramelize the bottom of the rice to the pan, but not burn it. It will go crispy with an intense flavour. This is called Socarrat. Use the back of a spoon to check that the rice is sticking to the pan, but smell it also to make sure you are not burning it. After a little practice, this will be easy, trust me.

We will not cook the rice for more than 12/13 minutes (Senia variety) unless we are not at sea level, as is Valencia. Altitude affects the cooking of rice; the higher up you are the longer it will take. So if you are up in the hills say 700m above sea level you will need a couple more minutes to cook the rice! 

Remove from heat and let it sit for at least 5 minutes. The stock should have evaporated completely and this will complete the cooking process of the rice. 

If the rice is still a little tough  (you evaporated it too quickly) you can cover it with a damp kitchen cloth or tin foil while it is sitting for 5 minutes.

The rice should be roundish, in one piece, not broken or too sticky. You should be able to separate the grains easily, but they should also have a creamy texture.

Paella is often decorated with lemon quarters but honestly, it should just be decoration, the Valencians say "lemon is only used on a bad paella" ....to give it some flavour. So, NO lemon! and remember a traditional paella is best savoured using a wooden spoon, don't ask me why, but it is true. It just tastes better!

Get practising!

Here is one for all the meat lovers out there! From time immemorial the people of Spain have used salt, spices and fresh air to preserve sausages. Over the centuries these skills have been honed to an art, creating a myriad of unique chorizos, salchichones, morcillas and more. Smoked paprika, garlic, cayenne pepper and salt - simple ingredients that, when mixed with pork, create the spectacular Spanish sausages and there is no sausage that is more Spanish than the Chorizo. Although they may seem complicated they are in fact very simple to make yourself at home. Chorizo has always been one of my favourites, especially the hot spicy ones that combine perfectly with a slice of cured manchego cheese and a glass of red wine, an authentic Spanish titbit. Cured meats throughout the Mediterranean were being produced ever since the discovery of salt approximately 3000 years before Christ. However, Chorizo was probably one of the latest in arriving. Chorizo is chorizo thanks to the smoked Paprika, and this ingredient didn’t reach Spain until the XVI century after the Spanish discovered America, up until that time all cured meats were pale in colour or black if they had blood in them. So successful was this spice that it quickly spread all over Europe and Chorizo became one of the most popular cured sausages of the time and still is today.

Chorizo is a typical Spanish sausage cured either by smoke or air, obviously, smoking is more complicated at home unless you happen to have a smoking house in your back yard, but fresh air is more than sufficient. They made with minced meat marinated in spices, of which the most popular is paprika, which gives it a red colour.  The traditional season for homemade chorizo has arrived as the cold weather helps the drying of the sausages.

Homemade Spanish chorizo is normally made with the same ingredients in all provinces with the only difference being in the blend of spices used, which can vary from region to region, the main ingredients for chorizo are determined by the amount of lean pork used. These are guidelines as there must be hundreds of recipes for chorizo around the country and proportions can vary and so can your tastes and preferences.

So as a guide, for each kilo of lean pork we will need to add:

300g of pancetta / uncured bacon

20g of salt

1 clove of garlic – crushed

20g of Paprika

8g Cayenne Pepper (if you want it spicier increase the cayenne pepper and reduce the paprika proportionally to reach 28 grams combined or vice versa)

Pig intestine (available from butchers or some supermarkets)

Cotton string to tie the ends

Optional:

200ml dry white wine

1 tsp. dried Oregano

Other additions can be parsley, cumin, bay leaf and thyme.

During the chorizo elaboration process at an industrial level, other ingredients are added: ascorbic acid is added to accelerate colouration and to prevent the fat from oxidizing and maturation regulators are added as sweeteners to promote the maturation of the chorizo and speed up the whole process. So if you make it at home at least you know it is completely natural with no additives or preservatives. All you need is patience.

Chorizo can be encased in a wide intestine or in a narrow intestine. Its form can vary being straight, “chorizo de vela” or like a horseshoe – “chorizo sarta”, the latter being the most popular form used traditionally.

To prepare chorizo at home you need lean pork such as pork shoulder or a “Boston butt” cut which is the high part of the shoulder of the pig. The first thing you need to do when making chorizo is to mix the meat thoroughly together with the fatty pancetta/uncured bacon. So this needs to cut up and coarsely minced. You can either get your butcher to do this or you can do it at home with a manual meat mincer or an electric one with a coarse cutting plate. You must bear in mind that the meat to make chorizo needs to be below 4ºC so the consistency is firm and you are able to cut it with a knife; it should also be checked that the temperature of the pancetta/bacon fat is between -2ºC and 2ºC to avoid melting during the mincing, leave the fat in the freezer for approximately 2 hours should be sufficient.

Secondly, when making the sausage at home, add the garlic, previously crushed in a mortar or a garlic crusher, add the salt and paprika/cayenne pepper; you can also incorporate a glass of dry white wine to help to mix and bind everything in together and make sure the mixture is as even as possible, so use your hands to do this. The chorizo mix must be left to stand for 24 hours in a cool place, which is why it's advisable to cover the mixing bowl with cling film or cotton cloths and put it in the fridge until the following day; then, with the help of a sausage filler or just a funnel, fill the intestines with the marinated mixture, trying not to leave air pockets and then tie them off at both ends with thick cotton string.

Finally, the chorizos must be pricked all over with a needle or a similar to remove possible air pockets that could have formed and then they are hung in a cool, dry and airy place leaving enough space between them that the air can reach the whole surface area and they will dry out properly in about three months; after this curing time the weight of the chorizo will have dropped by about 20% of its original weight. An ideal place would be an airy garage where you can hang them from a beam.

It is important to have in mind that the chorizos that are made at home do not contain preservatives, therefore it is important to control the curing of these sausages; the ideal drying conditions are areas with low humidity and cold temperatures, conditions that are perfect for curing meats. If the temperature and the humidity are too high they will not cure. In which case if you do live in a climate that is not very appropriate, you can just cure them for a week in a cool dry place and cook them on the barbecue or grill them. So as you can see its no more difficult than preparing a homemade beef burger.

Give it a go!