Binghamton Food Reviews and Recipes: Chorizo and Eggs

Leaving Binghamton really made me realize how lucky I had it and how expensive the world is. I had it all…. A great job (LDC), affordable restaurants to explore and a nice apartment that I could call my own. The hardest part about living at home is cooking in my parent’s kitchen. Don’t get me wrong, my folks are super cool and I love them (thanks mom!) but a kitchen is a very personal space. In my old kitchen, I knew where every pan, dish and spice tin was. I had them strategically arranged for optimal use… The curry cabinet on the right, the squeeze bottles of various oils above my stove and my dry goods to the left. I have fond memories in that space... Although, my parents have a dope stove and some nice cooking tools they don’t have many items that I have been accustom to using like an abundance of stainless steel mixing bowls and cast iron skillets. Regardless, I try to make it work.

I figured that I would post on something related to my trip to Europe given the fact that I can’t really review restaurants in Binghamton right now. When I was in la boqueria (Barcelona) I picked up about 150 grams of smoked Spanish paprika. This paprika is totally different from the stuff you buy at Wegmans or Whole Foods, it’s beautifully red in color and has an incredible strong aroma. It’s much smokier and aromatic then generic smoked paprika.

Paprika, especially Spanish paprika makes me think of chorizo. So I figured I’d make some chorizo and eggs for breakfast. I had made chorizo once before with a good friend of mine who cooks at a restaurant in Brooklyn called No7. We made a dish that I love from Bourdain’s, Les Halles cookbook called Moules a la Portugaise. It’s an easy dish that consists of mussels, herbs, chorizo, garlic and wine. It’s simple to prepare and usually a crowd pleaser.

Anyway, the Chorizo was pretty easy to make. I didn’t measure anything, but I’ll try to guestimate the proportions of ingredients in my chorizo…

1lb of ground pork
4tbls Smoked Paprika <-- By far the most important ingredient
1.5tsp cayenne
1tsp ancho chili powder
1tsp Turkish oregano
1tsp whole cumin seeds (ground)
1tsp whole green peppercorns (ground)
1tsp whole coriander seeds (ground)
1.5tsp red wine vinegar
Slash of white wine
And a little bit of the two saints (S & P)

Making the Chorizo is super easy. You just put all the ingredients into a mixing bowl. Wash your hands and mix and mix and mix. You should let the chorizo mixture set for at least an hour (in the fridge) so that the flavors marry together nicely. Then simply patty up and pan fry. As you can see, my patties are kind of crude and ugly but I was pretty hungry at the time and didn’t really care.

The verdict? They tasted like quality Chorizo! I was very pleased with myself. My pops liked them too. I served them with fried eggs and some bread that my mom made the night before. I was sure to slice the bread up and fry it in the chorizo juice. The bread was tasty and super unhealthy.