Butter bean and chorizo stew recipe

THIS week, it’s another lesson in comfort food. And just in time, too.

As I write this piece today, it is absolutely, inarguably filthy outside. The air hangs as still as a shroud, the usually tuneful birds appear to have gone elsewhere for the day, and a thick, depressingly grey fog has descended upon the Colne Valley. It is a truly miserable scene.

Luckily, I have a remedy. Cooking. There is nothing, on a dismal day such as this, to beat the blues, quite so well as rolling up the sleeves and cooking something good to eat.

A warm kitchen, filled with sizzles and steam, is the perfect place to forget the nastiness outside and nourish the soul.

This week, I thought we’d have a go at a simple, yet terribly effective store-cupboard classic, Spanish in origin; a light stew of butter beans and chorizo.

The combination of the big creamy-textured beans, slippery onions, aromatic pepper and garlic and the intensely meaty chorizo sausage is hard to beat.

It can be enjoyed as is, or spooned over a big baked potato for a formidable cold-weather supper. It is a joyful, warming, cheering dish, and is a cinch to make from ingredients which should be ready to hand in any well-stocked cupboard.

What ties all the elements of the dish together is the unique pepper we use. Pimentòn, or smoked paprika, is the crucial element in this dish. It’s already there in the chorizo, but some fresh, extra ground smoky paprika elevates the dish skyward.

It is a quintessentially Spanish flavour, all smoke and seduction, both sweet and savoury, earthy and ethereal, and adds a terrific depth to any dish it finds its way into.

The very best Pimentòn, Pimentòn De La Vera, comes from Cáceres, in Extremadura, just south-west of Madrid, where the small red peppers are sun-dried and slowly smoked over oak for up to two weeks. They are then carefully stone-milled and packed in their distinctive tins.

There are usually two versions available, sweet and hot, and either will do for this dish. What we must do is buy the proper, authentic Pimentòn, which will add its unique smokiness to the beans.

You can find the tins in most supermarkets these days, and many online stores such as Brindisa, also stock many varieties. It’s incredible with any number of ingredients: try a little sprinkled over a bowl of hot, rustling chips, or stirred into a bowl of mash.

It’s great rubbed into lamb steaks before grilling, and also, if used sparingly, with firm white fish such as cod, or big grilled prawns. This recipe, as many of mine are, is endlessly modifiable. You might want to change the elements to suit your mood or palate, so feel free to do so.

The butter beans could easily be swapped for haricot or cannellini beans, the latter offering a lovely, deep nutty flavour that would work really well.

You could add some heat with the judicious use of habanero chilis or just a pinch of cayenne pepper or chili flakes.

If you like peppers, then I can’t see that the addition of a few slices of roasted red capsicum wouldn’t be anything other than delicious. If you want to make this dish something altogether different, a kind of Iberian cassoulet I suppose, then why not try slipping some garlic-y Toulouse-style sausages in there too?

Instantly you’ve got a big meaty all-in-one stew to warm the heart and soul. I like to serve mine with a crisp salad and big hunks of sourdough bread with ice-cold salted butter. Feel free to move things around a bit. But do try to keep the Pimentòn, which is really the heart of this dish.

Its smoky warmth is essential to cheer the soul, especially on grey days like these. Aprons on!

Ingredients

2 x 400g tins butter beans, rinsed and drained

2 x 400g tins chopped, peeled tomatoes

2 large white onions, finely sliced

2 cloves garlic, minced

400g chorizo, peeled and diced

Vegetable stock

Extra-virgin olive oil

2 tsp smoked paprika (Pimentòn)

Maldon salt

Method:

Heat a good splash of olive oil in a large, deep saucepan, and slowly sweat the onions under cover, stirring occasionally, until they become soft and translucent. This should take at least half an hour.

Add the garlic and cook for a further few minutes. Add the Pimentòn, and stir well into the onions, releasing all the sweet, smoky oils.

Tip in the chorizo and the beans, and then add the tinned tomatoes, and bring the pan to the boil.

Turn down the heat to the gentlest bubbling simmer, and cook for about half an hour, until all the flavours have mingled.

If the stew becomes too thick, add a little vegetable stock to let the mixture out a little.

Check for seasoning, adding salt if necessary, and serve whilst still bubbling and hot.

A glass of good Spanish red would be a wise choice here, something with the tempranillo grape; a Rioja or a big, juicy Ribera Del Duero.