The Spanish flavors of paella are mixed with traditional dressing ingredients for this saffron chorizo dressing.
Hey, so in case you didn’t realize, the Cubs won the World Series on Wednesday night. I have been a loyal Cubs fan for, I don’t know…a month? That’s not to say that I ever cheered against them, but I never really cared that much to regularly follow them. They were my hometown team, played a mile away, and always, always lost. But, the all-you-can-drink game watches were always a good time back in my mid-20s.
But then somehow they got good. Like, really good. And then all of a sudden last year we were playing baseball in October and hoped against all odds that we’d repeat that this year and lo and behold, we did, and went all the way.
I went out with some friends to watch the game and it was…so emotional. I laugh in my head a little as I write that, but anyone who watched Wednesday night knows that the mood went from excitement to despair and back in minutes, the bar from roaring loud to almost silent. In the end as the final out was called, our little watch party erupted into screams of joy, everyone jumping up and down, beer spraying all as “Go Cubs Go!” played over the loudspeaker. As we walked home to horns honking and fans cheering, I realized that, die hard fan or not, it truly was a special night in Chicago, and I was so, so happy to be a part of it. The parade is today and I’ll be on the sidelines with 10000000 of my closest friends. For the first time I’ve lived here, there is a general sense of happiness in the air, and in a city that is regularly reminded of its shortcomings, it’s a very welcome change.
That was not really related to anything food, but here’s to hoping that the feeling of happiness and community continues with us through the holidays, when stress levels soar, and crankiness can prevail.
Oh, hey, speaking of holidays, that brings us back to our Spanish-inspired Thanksgiving that started with Wednesday’s spinach and manchego smashed potatoes and continues today with my twist on stuffing/dressing. I basically took the flavors of paella and mixed the into homemade croutons rather than rice. The result is amazing because paella is delicious in itself, and throw in bread? My heaven (it’s actually quite reminiscent of the Spanish panzanella). I’m calling it saffron chorizo dressing because to call it paella stuffing would be very misleading and in my opinion, confusing.
Like last year’s apricot and almond dressing, we’re doing this in a pan on the stove and it’s done in around 30 minutes. Keeping Thanksgiving nice and easy as pie.
Written during Superstore.
As seen on MSN.
Saffron Chorizo Dressing
Paella flavors are folded into traditional dressing components for this saffron chorizo dressing
Ingredients
- 4 thick slices French bread
- 4 TB unsalted butter
- 1 red bell pepper, diced
- 1 medium red onion, diced
- 1 1/2 tsp garlic, chopped
- 6 ounces smoked chorizo sausage, medium sized diced
- 1/2 tsp thyme
- 1 tsp smoked Spanish paprika, heaping
- 1/4 tsp saffron plus 1 TB warm water
- 1/2-3/4 cup vegetable or chicken stock
- 1/4 red pepper flakes
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp black pepper
- 1 cup frozen peas
- 1 lemon, juiced
- 1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped
- olive oil, about 3 TBSP
Directions
- Step 1 Preheat the oven to 400F.
- Step 2 Butter each slice of bread with 1 TB each and put on a cookie sheet. Bake 10 minutes, flip each slice and toast until golden brown. Coarsely chop into crouton size pieces.
- Step 3 In a large saute pan, add the olive oil, red pepper, onion and garlic, salt and pepper, thyme, and paprika and cook about 5-7 minutes until the onions are translucent. Add the sausage and cook 2 minutes. Add the bread, saffron, peas and stock. Coat everything very well and let cook until the stock has all been absorbed and reduced. Fold in the parsley and lemon juice, season as appropriate and serve hot.
