SpanishCassoulet

Passport & Plate - Chicken and Chorizo Cassoulet

Spain | Friday, March 6, 2015 | 4 photos

Ingredients to feed four people:

3 Chicken Breast or Thighs, in chunks
100g Chorizo Sausage, skinned and chopped into small chunks
300g Tin of Butter Beans
2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
2x400g Tinned Tomatoes
1/2 Teaspoon dried Thyme
1 Onion, finely chopped
2 Carrots, finely chopped
1 Leek, finely chopped
1 Tablespoon Smoked Paprika
2 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
1/2 Pint Chicken stock
Quantities are changeable! If you want more chorizo, add more! If you like less garlic, use less! The flavours are what matter.

How to prepare this recipe:

1. On the hob, heat a tablespoon of olive oil in a large pan or casserole dish. Once hot, cook the chicken chunks until brown then set aside on a plate for later.

2. Add the other tablespoon of oil to the now empty pan and cook the onions, leeks and carrots on a low heat for 10-15 minutes. Cover with a lid to let them sweat in their own juices.

3. Add the chorizo and smoked paprika to the pan. Turn up the heat and stir regularly for a couple of minutes.

4. Now add everything else! The tomatoes, butter beans, cooked chicken, garlic, thyme, stock and seasoning are all added to the pan and stirred well. Bring the cassoulet to simmering point then reduce the heat and allow it to simmer, covered, for at least half an hour.

Serve with whatever you fancy! Chunky bread, salad or cous cous all go well.

The story behind this recipe:

My thirteen-year-old self was ravenous. I was in the back seat of a hire car, meandering round the hairpin bends of the Spanish hills.

Our destination was the beautiful village, Ronda. Think white buildings and red flowers. Old men in checked shirts chuckled outside bars, watched curiously by stray cats. I would have spent all evening exploring had it not been for my whining stomach. Chorizo hung in the windows of shops, the spicy sausage taunting my taste buds. We soon found a restaurant, where red and white tablecloths covered wooden tables and we sat in wicker chairs. In day-to-day life I am assertive and surefooted but on receiving any menu I am hit with indecision. How can I choose?! But I was very happy with my eventual choice that night.

The portions were far from child sized but I finished it all - the luxurious butter beans and tender chicken the salvation my stomach had sought. The thick sauce, specked with smoked paprika, meaty nibbles of chorizo and fresh Spanish tomatoes vanished from the bowl. Once I had conquered the meal I reclined in my wicker chair very content, my tongue still tingling from the spice. I will be eternally grateful to my mum for recreating the dish on our return to England. A life without cassoulet is too bleak to imagine!

When I make it now my student kitchen is transformed – the usual smells of browning bananas and disinfectant masked with the scents of paprika, garlic and thyme. Living with six other students gets messy and busy. After a long day on campus I return in seek of comfort. The magic begins as the vegetables sweat in the smoked paprika. From the floor above my housemates are teased by its aroma and when my back is turned I know they sneak spoonfuls from the pan. I may sit down to eat at a sticky table from a chipped china bowl but it doesn’t matter. As soon as the spoon touches my lips and the hot cassoulet my tongue I feel instant gratification - as I did that evening in Spain.