Last Night's Dinner 16

A rich braise of black eyed peas with chorizo and vegetables

I came downstairs to a miracle. The 2 large salad drawers in the bottom of the fridge - always problematic because they collect water and because I am always trying to fit way too much into them - had been emptied out and cleaned. We have been in this house for 12 years and this is the first time someone other than me has taken on this job. I had (very gently, I’m not a monster), suggested that they needed doing but I didn’t expect it to happen and had resigned myself to waiting until I was physically able to do it. But it has been done. Not only that, it was implied that cleaning the fridge might be a job shared in future. I can’t quite believe it.

You may be expecting a but. There is no but. Just a pile of newly visible vegetables, very slightly worse for wear but perfectly edible. There are a few things I might cook when faced with a medley of bashed about produce, soup being an obvious one. But my lot need something a bit more substantial than soup on a wintery school night. So I did a beany chorizo thing which took longer than I had expected to spend on dinner because I had to quick cook the black eyed peas - I had originally planned to use the potatoes I knew we had but couldn’t find. And yes, I am doing some bits of cooking now. I cannot lift pressure cookers, especially if they have anything in them, so I have to have some one on hand for that. And there are some vegetables I can’t cut through. But I think we are all getting better at team efforts, me included.

I made enough for 4 which became enough for 6 as I don’t have a massive appetite at the mo and because Adam supplemented his with a pile of cheese quesadillas and followed it up by several sandwiches. I do not begrudge him this - he’s grown again, now roughly 6ft at not quite 15. As I said to a friend the other day when talking about rapidly depleting food stores - he is doing that teenage boy thing of eating almost as much in a day as I do in a week. So Lilly had some of the leftovers today for lunch with a quesadilla, and I had the last portion with an egg baked into it, shakshuka style and with a bit of cheese melted on top for good measure.

Chorizo - there are all types of cooking chorizo and I like the really squishy picante ones from Brindisa. I skin them and shape them into little balls, as I would with sausage meat. This is much easier than slicing them and I get around 5 balls per sausage, so 20 for this meal. But sliced works just as well if that’s what you prefer.

Black eyed peas - because it was what I had. They needed soaking so I quick soaked -

Refresher on Quick Soaking

Put in your pressure cooker, cover with plenty of cold water and add a teaspoon of salt and a tablespoon of oil. Bring up to high pressure, cook for 2 minutes at high pressure then remove from the heat and leave to stand for a further 5 minutes. Release any remaining pressure - this will give you similar results to several hours of soaking.

Remember if you are soaking the traditional way, add salt to the soaking water too. Of course you can use any other type of pulse. Most will cook from soaked in the time, but check timings in Modern Pressure Cooking or ask me if you aren’t sure. Or, just use cooked, but if doing so, reduce the cooking time to 3 minutes and just add 200ml water or stock. The equivalent of 200g dried is roughly 500g cooked.

Adding Greens

Most greens will overcook if you add for the duration of the first pressure cooking time. The exceptions are all types of kale (not kalettes), chard and collards. And frozen spinach is good too. If you aren’t averse to soft, sweet greens, then green beans, broad beans, peas and courgettes are also good added from the start. Anything remotely sulphurous - the broccolis, spring greens, Brussels sprouts and tops, are best added after the first cook or cooked separately. They will need zero minutes to 1 minute fast release, depending on what they are.

Flavourings

One of the reasons I like using chorizo in dishes like this is that they have so much flavour by way of garlic and hot paprika that I never feel the need to add much more in terms of spicing - just any herbs I have around. Although I am going through an “add allspice to everything” phase so have done so here - I love the combination of paprika and allspice. You can play around with the flavour as much as you want, just be careful of fennel seed as the flavour will dominate if you use more than a pinch. Orange would also work, or perhaps replace a little of the water/stock with some red wine but add it after the allspice and let it cook out.

Tomato alternatives

This dish can be made with coconut milk instead of tomatoes, but will be a bit soupier so reduce the liquid to 200ml. And I would want a bit of an acid hit so would either stir in a bit of sherry vinegar at the end or a squeeze of lemon or lime juice.

Chorizo Braised with Vegetables and Black Eyed Peas

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

Around 150-200g cooking chorizo, sliced or skinned and shaped into balls

2 red onions, peeled and cut into wedges

1 fennel, trimmed and cut into wedges (optional, I salvaged half of one)

2 red peppers, cut into chunks

1 large sweet potato, peeled and sliced (or use squash/pumpkin/celeriac)

3 garlic cloves, crushed or grated (optional, added as my lot INSIST on extra garlic)

1 tsp ground allspice

200g black eyed peas, soaked or quick soaked (or 500g cooked)

1 x 400g tin tomatoes

400ml water or stock

2 bay leaves

1 large sprig thyme

300g sprouting broccoli or other green vegetables (see note at top)