Linguiça for Caldo Verde

I got kale at the farmer's market to make the Portuguese soup Caldo Verde, which requires Linguiça sausage. Irene used this recipe to make the linguiça, cut in half.

After smoking

• 5 pounds (2.25kg) pork butt, untrimmed
• 10 cloves garlic, minced
• 3 tablespoons (55g) paprika
• 1 tablespoon (15g) salt
• 1 tablespoon (15g) ground coriander seeds
• 1 teaspoon (5g) ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon (5g) allspice
• 1 teaspoon (5g) black pepper
• 2 teaspoons (10g) cayenne pepper (optional)
• ¼ cup (60ml)white wine vinegar
• ½ cup (120ml) cold water

Grind the meat, whiz garlic, coriander, cinnamon, and allspice together, add to meat with remaining ingredients, mixing well.

Stuff into pork casings, rest in fridge overnight.

Cold smoke for 4 hours.

We made Caldo Verde, loosely following the technique from Serious Eats, with a Spanish onion, and using good Spanish olive oil instead of butter. Irene thought the dish was a little bit too sweet (next time use a yellow onion) and could benefit from a splash of vinegary hot sauce.

The finished Caldo Verde

Spanish Chorizo Fresco

We wanted to make Spanish (rather than Mexican) Chorizo for a dinner we're planning. Since we don't have a curing chamber required to maintain the temperature and humidity for the authentic dry-cured sausage, we made a Chorizo Fresco with the same spices. Hard core recipes at Our Daily Brine and Meats and Sausages talk about the required molds and starter culture, but we just adapted their proportions of seasonings. We did use some pink salt to retain the porky color.

Chorizo after smoking 4 hours

100.00%  1800g  Pork shoulder butt
  1.10%    20g  Paprika, smoked, sweet
  1.10%    20g  Paprika, spicy
  0.22%     4g  Garlic powder
  2.70%    50g  Salt
  0.17%     3g  Sugar
  0.61%    11g  Pepper, black, ground
  0.17%     3g  Marjoram
  0.50%     9g  Pink salt (aka Prague Powder #1)
  5.00%    90g  White Wine

Grind the Pork coarsely. 
Mix spices together then sprinkle through Pork.
Add Wine and thoroughly combine.
Cook a sample of the seasoned meat and adjust spices: our spicy Paprika was tired so we bumped up the heat with some hot chile and more black pepper, and added a touch more salt.
Stuff pork intestine casings, twisting about every 10cm to create links.
Let sausages air-dry uncovered in the fridge overnight to allow flavors to meld and casings dry somewhat.

Chorizo drying before smoking

 The next day, cold smoke for 4 hours.

Chorizo on the smoker

These, unlike dry-cured sausages, need to be cooked before eating.

Cremat: Catalan flaming coffee with brandy

Brandy and spices burning

We first had cremat by the beach at Can Gelphi in Calella de Palafrugell, Catalonia, Spain;
it's wonderful on a cool evening.  Credible recipes on USENET and the
web cite Colman Andrew's Catalan Cuisine and the "new edition" of
Joy of Cooking; the only difference is 2 versus 3 sticks cinnamon.

Serves 4-6

8 ounces Spanish Brandy, warmed (I use Cardenal Mendoza)
12 ounces Dark Rum, warmed (I use Myers)
3 tbs Sugar, superfine (grind in coffee/spice grinder)
  Peel of 1 Lemon
3 sticks Cinnamon
4 cups Coffee, black, strong, hot

Warm the Brandy and Rum to make the alcohol volatile.
Combine with Cinnamon and Lemon Peel in a flame-proof dish,
preferably a large glazed ceramic dish; stir.
Carefully ignite the mixture; it will flare up and burn.
Let the mixture burn, stirring occasionally, until the alcohol has burned off
sufficiently for the flame to die out (or don't wait);
you can use a metal spoon to stir the coffee, lifting some and
drizzling it back into the dish for a spectacular pyrotechnic display.
Very slowly add the coffee, stirring well;
this should extinguish the remaining flames, but if not, blow it out.
Serve at once in individual cups.
After dousing flames with coffee

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