Cheat's Chorizo Paella

One fine Sunday I felt the urge to bake cupcakes. Not just one lot of cupcakes, but lots and lots of cupcakes. It was going to be a Crazy Cupcake Sunday (more on that later).

Halfway through Crazy Cupcake Sunday, I was buzzing a bit thanks to lots of sugar, chocolate, butter, caramel sauce, cream cheese, eggs... and thought 'I need something seriously savoury, stat!'. I had my latest Donna Hay magazine out on the counter with the intention of trying her recipe for s'mores (more on that later too) and though a nice sausagey rice would be the perfect foil to my sugar high.

This was very very simple. Donna calls it an everyday easy one-pot wonder and I completely agree. I mean, I managed to cook this one while trying to manage two cupcake batters which were making around 60 cupcakes in one 12-hole cupcake pan. I know, I should have bought two.

It is lovely and light. I used half a csabai smoked sausage bought from the Swiss Gourmet Deli which meant the chorizo flavour wasn't as strong as it could have been but in this situation it was really good as there was nothing really overpowering in it. It's quite tomato-y though, but I think that might be because of the mildness of the sausage. A stronger sausage may have cut through the tomato a bit. It was still very comforting, and the feta melted into lovely creamy little blobs which was a nice surprise throughout the dish.

Cheats Chorizo Paella
from Donna Hay Magazine Winter 2008, p64

1 tbs olive oil
2 cloves garlic, sliced
1 onion, chopped
1 chorizo sausage, sliced
1 cup (200g) medium grain rice
2 cups (200ml) chicken stock
1 x 400g crushed tomatoes
1/2 cup coriander leaves
100g feta, crumbled.

Heat the oil in a large, deep frying pan over high heat. Add the garlic, onion and chorizo and cook for 4-5 minutes or until browned. Add the rice, stock and tomato, cover, reduce heat to low and cook for a further 15 minutes or until stock is absorbed and rice is al dente. Stir through the coriander and feta to serve.

Donna says that this serves two, but DD and I got lunch that day and I got two work lunches out of this.