Chori-Chicharron: mixing a Toluca style chorizo with pork cracklin

Having recently received a package of Toluca Mexican Style Food Products from their base in Baltimore, Md., I started by experimenting with the Salvadoran and Argentinian brands.

I was saving the Mexican style pork product for later.  And having built up my sense of anticipation, I have not been disappointed.

So many chorizo products on the market stuff the casing with byproducts and melt away when cooked.  That has not been there case here. 

Que Rico brand Mexican Uncooked Chorizo holds up in the skillet as well as the Kiolbassa Provision Company products found in Texas.  That is high praise.  I can assure customers in the Que Rico markets (Northern Virginia to New York) that they are purchasing a high grade product.

This recipe mixes the Mexican style with pork cracklin.  You can use pork rind but then you'll probably want to crumble it first by lightly crushing it in your fist.

Some cooks just throw the pork rind in whole, but that isn't my personal preference. I think the pieces are too big when they soften.  However, pork rind softens faster than cracklin, so if you're in a hurry go for it.

What we have here on the right is a package of Que Rico chorizo with a couple of cups of cooked white rice, cracklin, onion and poblano.

If you follow my blog, you know that I rarely mention exact portions.  You know how fond you are of onion, or poblano pepper or anything else.  I'll leave it to you to decide how much you want.

I like a lot of vegetables, so the portions are similar in my dishes to what you might expect to find in a serving of Chinese stir fry.  Chop however much onion and poblano you want and set it off to one side.

For this dish, I pressed one link of chorizo onto a medium hot skillet and mashed it down with a fork, but making sure to keep it in one piece.  This chorizo can take the heat.  It's not like some cheap chorizos that burn easily, so don't worry too much about how long it's on the skillet.

Once it's burn turned over a couple of times, pour out the excess grease. Now pin down and tear up the chorizo into small pieces.

Lower the heat, pour in a third cup of water and two handfuls of pork cracklin and put a lid on.  Let it simmer for a few minutes so that the cracklin softens.

Raise the heat a little, until most of the water has evaporated.  Put in an tab of butter to make sure the vegetables and rice don't stick.  Stir in the vegetables and rice, stirring frequently until they vegetables are slightly cooked and the rice has evenly turned color by soaking up the spices and grease that have been released from the chorizo.

You should end up with this, a Mexican-style stir fry of chorizo, softened cracklin and vegetables with rice.

It makes a tasty, nutritious entrée for lunch or dinner.

Of course, chorizo is more commonly considered a breakfast food.

One of our favorite and simplest recipes for a breakfast chorizo is to mix it with a can of RoTel diced tomatoes and green chiles.  I also crush a couple of chipotle chiles and mix that in.

Let's get started!

I was making breakfast for three, so I used two links of the Que Rico Toluca style Mexican and mashed them into a medium to low heated skillet.

I opened a can of RoTel and emptied the water.  You may want to keep the water, depending on how juicy you like your topping.

Break up the chorizo into small chunks and then pour in the RoTel and chipotle flake and stir until evenly mixed.

Set it aside or keep a lid on it and leave it simmering on very low heat.

Now start another skillet on heat and spread butter on the surface.

Crack an egg into the skillet.  Cook it to your preference and flip.  We're making eggs over easy.

While this is going on, heat some corn tortillas on a comal, or not.  I prefer to have a side of tortillas myself.  We also had a side of refried beans with this meal, but that's also optional.

This is what the diced chorizo and RoTel should look like in the skillet:

Slide the eggs over easy to a dinner plate and top them with as much chorizo and RoTel as you want!

I like to heap the toppings on generously.

This was my breakfast plate on the left below:

Buen provecho!

Adventures a la Argentinian

Creamy Dreamy Taco

 Recently, we received a shipment from Toluca Mexican Food Style Products from their home office in Baltimore, Md.

I've been experimenting lately with the Argentinian chorizo.  Based as I am in San Antonio, Texas, however, a few of my housemates tried sampling a couple of links on their own--cooking them with diced potatoes.

They gave the chorizo a "C" grade. But I didn't see how it was prepared and disagreed with the grade. I suggested that wasn't the proper test.

First, they needed to keep in mind that--as Mexican-Americans--our preconception of chorizo is northern Mexican/southwest American, which this is not. It tastes very different. And while pairing Mexican chorizo with potato is very traditional, I've no idea how Argentinians do it.

I do know that Argentinians likes to mix ground beef or pork with green olives and raisins. That is a common way for them to stuff an empanada and they're delicious.

I find that pairing South American chorizos with cooked or raw red bell pepper is best and I recommend that as an essential basic pairing. Once you have those two together, you can experiment with a lot of things.

I offered to make breakfast tacos for Valentine's Day and prepared the last link in the following manner.  I chopped one chipotle pepper (also known as morita on the East Coast), and set it aside.  I removed the casing of the chorizo link and put it in a semi-hot skillet with two slices of bacon and pressed the chorizo and bacon into the skillet, occasionally turning the three pieces over until the bacon was browned and the chorizo was fully cooked, but still in one piece.

chorizo, bacon, chipotle, poblano and red bell peppers

I pinned the chorizo and two bacon slices to an inner edge of the skillet with a fork, tipped up the skillet and poured the excess grease into an empty yogurt cup (toss it later).  I then sprinkled the chipotle flake into the skillet with a quarter cup of water and began tearing the chorizo and bacon into small bits.

Que Rico Argentinian Chorizo from Toluca

I had previously chopped red bell pepper and fresh poblano pepper.  Once the chorizo and bacon was diced up, I poured in the chopped fresh peppers with a tab of butter and stirred occasionally until the peppers were slightly blistered.

I then put in five fresh whole eggs and a quarter cup of chopped queso fresco with a few dashes of salt and stirred constantly to make sure the eggs got well stirred and fluffed.

This provided at least two tacos servings a piece for five people. The Argentinian chorizo critics changed their minds.  They very much liked these tacos.  I found them to have a creamy flavor with the bacon and peppers coming across prominently and the chorizo offering a subtle earthy note.

Argentinian Chorizo in a Dinner Recipe

Earlier in the week, I prepared a dinner with boiled yuca on the side.  This turned out very well, but I must warn that boiling yuca is a chore.  Also known as cassava or manioc, the yuca is more dense than potato and takes considerably longer to boil.

I dice the yuca into small sections and put it in a pot with a lid and keep it in shallow water; this requires repeatedly topping off the water so that the pot does not dry out. Stir it regularly; yuca when boiled becomes very viscous. It looks like it's smothered in glue (or gravy, depending on your point of view).  If you don't stir, it will stick to the bottom of the pot. Boil it for about 90 minutes and let it boil down until it is not too watery.  The yuca will keep it's shape unless you mash it; stirring won't break it down they way a potato might after that much work.

With this particular side, I added a Habanero seasoning from Desert Gardens Chile & Spice Co. when I started the boiling process.  That gave it a great taste. I often prefer yuca to potato because it holds its shape and has a natural buttery flavor.

The main entrée was put together very simply.  I cooked the chorizo first, breaking it up after I drained the excess grease. Then I added a generous portion of red bell pepper and cooked that until the pieces blistered during the stirring.

I topped the chorizo and red bell with fresh avocado chunks and queso fresco.

Buen provecho!

P.S.  Toluca products are very good quality, but their market is presently within the Northeast.  If you're anywhere south or west of Virginia, you'll have to order by mail.