Chorizo, Spinach, Mushroom and Red Pepper Rice.

Last night I came home from University and knew one thing. I wanted a glass of wine. I’d had a productive day finalizing what to write my dissertation on and was feeling smug.

When I got home though my dreams of a cooling beverage to celebrate my dissertation-awesomeness were dashed. There wasn’t any wine in the house. Disaster.

However… What’s the best excuse for getting a bottle in? Making risotto. Of course.

So, off to co-op my housemate and I went. A skip, hop and a purchase of white Chilean later, happily with wine in hand I threw this together for the both of us.

I feel like this would be created if a risotto got it on with a paella and had sweet, sweet, rice-y babies.  Here the smoky, heat of the sausage, marries with the hearty, irony spinach and the sweet red pepper beautifully.

As usual this was amalgamated out of what I had in the fridge, which unfortunately was missing some fresh herbs last night. I feel either some fresh thyme, or chives might have gone down a treat stirred in at the end. Nonetheless the final product was de-lish.

Serves 2.

A medium sized white onion, chopped finely.

2 cloves of garlic, chopped.

200g cooking chorizo, chopped. 

1 tsp paprika.

½ tsp dried thyme

Enough Arborio/risotto rice for two

A good slug of a dry white wine

1 pint good chicken stock

Half a red pepper, sliced

A large handful of good mushrooms, chopped

Large handful of freshly grated parmesan

To start with get your stock hot.

Secondly in another pan melt half the butter and then add the olive oil to raise the butters burning point. Over a low heat sweat the onions and as it goes translucent add the peppers, mushrooms and chorizo, when the sausage starts to leak it’s oils, add the garlic, paprika and thyme and sweat until fragrant, season.

Throw in the rice and increase the heat, fry for a minute then add the wine and simmer until the harsh alcohol smell burns off and the rice absorbs the liquid.

Now start to add the stock bit-by-bit adding more after the last has been completely absorbed, stirring frequently, massaging the starch out of the rice.

When the rice is nearly cooked, pour in a last slug of stock and cover. Leave the rice to stand for a couple of minutes with the heat off so it can relax. Stir in the parmesan and serve.