Chorizo and pepper ‘remembered rice’ recipe

This is an approximation of the rice dish that’s served at nearly every beach bar on the Algarve. It was one of my dad’s favourite dishes. He used to kind of growl when the bowls of it arrived. 

This is as near to the dish we loved as possible. I did wonder whether it contained cumin – maybe it did in some places – so you could add half a teaspoon to the vegetables. 

You could also add half a teaspoon of Marmite to the stock. The dish tasted quite beefy in some places but the addition is up to you. If you don’t have enough chicken stock, add water to make the liquid up to 750ml.

Timings

Prep time: 10 minutes 

Cook time: 40 minutes

Serves

4 as a side dish

Ingredients

• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 150g chorizo, or a mixture of bacon and chorizo, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, grated to a purée
• ½ each red, green and yellow pepper, seeded and cut into squares
• 200g basmati rice
• ½ tsp chilli flakes
• 3½ tsp hot smoked paprika
• 35g tomato purée
• 2 bay leaves
• 750ml chicken stock

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a saucepan and sauté the chorizo and bacon, if using, until the bacon is pale gold. Lift them out with a slotted spoon and set aside.
2. In the same oil, sauté the onion until it has a good colour, then add the garlic and peppers and sauté till soft. Add the rice, chilli flakes, paprika, tomato purée, bay leaves, and chorizo and bacon. Season.
3. Pour on the stock and bring up to the boil. Boil hard until the liquid has almost disappeared and the surface of the rice is pitted.
4. Put the rice on a very low heat, cover with a lid and leave to cook for 15 minutes. Fork the rice through to aerate it. Serve with chicken piri piri, or griddled or fried chicken or squid.