Plump and Spicy Fresh Chorizos

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I wasn’t totally happy with our chorizos at Zubuchon and had been tinkering with them over the last couple of weeks. These are the results of the last approved recipe, and they are better than our old ones. What I wanted was a freshly made chorizo, using the finest ingredients but WITHOUT any nitrites or other preservatives or food coloring. I realize nitrites provide an added measure of safety (although we never dry our chorizos outside of a fridge) but they come with all the associated baggage health wise.

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These chorizos are the new spicy variant, made with lots and lots of good pork, less fat than your typical filipino chorizo (but enough to make them succulent and sinful still), freshly minced garlic, red wine vinegar (yes, i like it better than local vinegar in these sausages), lots of paprika, natural sea salt (no iodine), three kinds of chili, etc. We use natural hog casings as well, and it’s all hand-made with the aid of heavy duty meat grinder.

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The chorizos are placed in a fridge for a couple of days to shrink a bit and meld/concentrate the flavors. We didn’t do this as well before, and I found the chorizos to be less intense than they should have been. Then they are vacuum packed and sold frozen. After a few days, I took a package out of the freezer in Manila, defrosted the chorizos, stuck them in a cast iron pan with some water and once that evaporated, the fat from the chorizos themselves fried up the sausages.

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I happen to like the chorizos to be still moist, but the crew, love theirs nearly bone dry and ruptured. Adjust cooking times to your liking. Have plenty of steamed rice (and fried eggs) at the ready and a nice dipping sauce of vinegar to complement the fatty and spicy chorizos. Yum.

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25 Responses

  1. I have tried different chorizos at the Centris Market and I prefer the vinegared ones to the garlicky sweet ones. I like them on the drier or slightly toasted side myself. I halve the chorizos once they have browned ( to prevent sausage meat from spilling out of the casing) then fry the inner halves some more.

    Sounds like a yummy formula, and I see you omitted sugar, but not even a touch of sugar MM for the Pinoy’s extra love for sugar?

  2. MM, kalamansi jam was on the obama state dinner menu. was the jam yours, by any chance? couldn’t help but notice the faux pas at the toast, though…PNoy didn’t have his own champagne glass, and had to toast with water! aarrrghhh!

  3. millet, to my knowledge, it wasn’t our jam, or I didn’t know about it. I wonder if any MM readers were there, as I am curious how they used that in the kinilaw, as a sauce with some vinegar or kalamansi perhaps?!

    Connie, there is a touch of muscovado to round out the flavors, but not much, the chorizos are more savory than sweet.

  4. I like too that they are not artificially coloured.

    When I see plump shiny sausages like these I think of Miss Piggy being laboriously fitted into shoes and one of the muppets saying “you need a sausage stuffer to put those on, Miss Piggy.”

  5. At Footloose — my imagination is vivid on your Ms.Piggy description…and grinning non-stop at the thought :)

  6. Jay-p, yes they are offered at the airport snack bar, frozen. But better yet, you can order them at that same snack bar to taste them first and see if they are to your liking before you buy them frozen. The meal has 3 links, while the frozen version has 12 links.

  7. Hi MM. I’ve always wondered when to use longganisa and not chorizo? By the way, noticed that the links look perfectly gauged, are the casings imported and if so, where do you get them?

  8. Footloose: To be endowed with wit and humor is a great gift! Between raising and lowering a hospital bed, ( taking care of an ill husband ) your Miss Piggy comment made my day! And I thank you.

    Hubby also enjoyed all the episodes of the BBC reading of the Book of the Week. Listening to the delicious British accent, it was sheer pleasure.

  9. You’re making me self-conscious, Connie C but since they say laughter is the best medicine, I hope it quickens your partner’s recovery.

    Not exactly about sausages, but a link nevertheless. It’s related to another variation of British accent: httpss://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r48KA2X2Rb4

  10. Thanks again, Footloose :) :)

    And thank you MM for allowing these exchanges. I had more than my fill of virtual dalish sausages for the day.

  11. No champagne glass for Pres. Aquino at the Obama state dinner? Where was Mrs. Aquino at 3 pm? Queen Elizabeth inspects each and every place setting (see BBC documentary on state dinner at Windsor castle). Or maybe Ninoy didn’t know any better than to toast with his water glass. Obama is just as clueless when it comes to etiquette, upon arriving at Buckingham palace he addressed Prince Philip as “Your Majesty” instead of ” Your Royal Highness”. Worse yet, Michele put her arm around the Queen. Tsk, tsk.

  12. I tend to shy away from a lot of Filipino products for that very reason…nitrites, preservatives, food coloring, etc. Speaking with a Bay Area food writer, we both agreed that Filipino food would have a higher profile if dishes were prepared with better ingredients and refined technique. Kinda goes back to my previous comment a few posts ago.

    Watching that supposed ‘state dinner’ really made me squirm. Its seemed awkward for both respected heads of state. I’m not surprised at the toast. But to address remarks from a speech typed up on cards table side was sophomoric. I couldn’t make out from the venue with the tropical decor and disco lights if this was indeed a state dinner or a wedding reception or debut. The last straw was the reference to Mrs. Commerford and the Obamas enjoying lumpia and adobo. Really? That itself took the importance of what was accomplished earlier that day and took the US-Philippine relationship back another 10 years.

  13. Woohoo! Am planning a return to Cebu next year for more whale shark photos…I’m definitely stopping at Zubuchon for chorizo and lechon (can feel my arteries slowly blocking already!) …and likely will overnight at the Islands hotel too.

    S.

  14. Sister, he is a bachelor. So his “Carson” would be more to blame. I wasn’t going to comment on the dinner, but since everyone else has started it, yes, there were some “cringe moments” not the least of which was the translation of the menu. Kalamansi MARMALADE is not a jam, unless they made and meant kalamansi JELLY — any “jam” like substance made with citrus is technically a MARMALADE. Whole or whole-ish fruit is preserve, sliced up citrus is marmalade, clear citrus jelly is jelly. So unless they pureed the kalamasi pulp and rinds and made a thickish looking sweet “jam” the translation was poorly done. I believe there were some odd translations of food items as well. Unless I am just wrong as several filipino food items have multiple local names… Guimaras lobster should probably have been translated as “banagan” in the Filipino version of the menu. Instead, I think they put “ulang” which is fresh river prawn. (I googled lobster and the translation is ulang. But in all of my years writing about food, I have always heard banagan for lobster and ulang for large headed river prawn — so maybe the translator was using google to figure out words for the menu…) And later, they describe suahe or (white shrimp) as fresh river prawns…. While both shellfish are sustainably raised in pens or fishponds (that’s good), the next course featuring red dotted lapu-lapu is dubious. Several varieties of lapu-lapu are on the IUCN watch list and while perhaps not endangered, already on their way there… so I hope the “red-dotted” one isn’t one of them… But these are little quibbles, and just a bad translation, the actual dishes sounded quite appealing and otherwise appropriate for a state dinner. The decor was another matter, I will not comment except for the mock bahay kubo in the background… seriously?! What really made me shiver was the sudden appearance of what people or a designer probably thought was a modern day remake of a terno by having the younger or hipper guests dressed in jet-black ternos presumably to honor the “black tie” type of event. To me, this was just SO WRONG. A terno is meant to showcase the beautiful hand made fabrics of the country and looks stunning when properly done in piña or jusi. I noted with some relief that the most senior ladies sitting near the Presidential table were in traditional ternos for the most part. And the President’s sister, Kris, apparently wore a purple terno by Cebu designer Cary Santiago — not traditional material, but closer to the real spirit of a terno in form and function….

  15. MM, I think PNoy have a champagne glass though it was filled with water because they say he doesn’t like anything with alcohol.

  16. Botchok, I didn’t see the faux pas so I don’t know for sure. But even if he had a champagne glass, they could have filled it with champagne and he didn’t have to drink any of it, just raise it and bring it to his lips. It’s just a formality, but with dignitaries, they do tend to be sticklers for protocol and manners of this sort…

  17. Sorry,didn’t know your president was a bachelor.
    Why can’t the Palace get away from bahay kubo decor?

  18. Hello MM, I think adding curing salt will give that distinct sausage flavor to your chorizo :) it gives the cured taste like bacon or ham otherwise it will just taste like ‘salted pork’ :)

  19. When I saw the bahay-kubo, I felt my eyes grew wider in disbelief. Really, what was the decorator thinking?

  20. My kind of chorizo! You are the only one who sell nitrite-free chorizo. I’ll buy from the nearest Zubuchon this Saturday.

  21. Can’t wait to try the new chorizos at Zubuchon! All the posts about the “presidential dinner” were hilarious!

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