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Brazilian Stew

I had a Brazilian Black bean stew in a restaurant and it was beautiful, packed with meat and really deep with flavour. I wanted to be able to make something that reminded me of that dish but that I could make a bit quicker after work. So a few tries later and I arrived at this recipe which has a fairly spicy smoky flavour and only uses chorizo as it's something I often have in the fridge. All the other ingredients are cupboard staples so I don't need to plan ahead to make it.

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My version has quite a lot of heat as I'm addicted to chilli but to keep the flavour and tone down the spice just omit the red chilli pepper and swap the cayenne pepper for a mild chilli powder. It's all about the temperature that works best for you.

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I like to serve this on a bed of diced roast potatoes but can work well on it's own with a bit of bread to soak up the juice

Ingredients

​Serves 2

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  • 150g Chorizo

  • 1 medium onion

  • 2 cloves of garlic

  • 1 tin of plum tomatoes or 3 tomatoes chopped

  • 300 ml water (450ml if using fresh tomatoes)

  • 1 400g tin of black beans

  • 2 tbsp thyme

  • 1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

  • 1/2 tsp smoked paprika

  • 1 tbsp Worcester sauce

  • 1 chopped red chilli

Method

Halve the chorizo length ways and slice into 1/2 cm semi circles. Fry these in a little oil (olive or vegetable, what ever you have) until they start to crisp which should take about 3 mins. If you feel it has over done don't worry as when you add the wet ingredients it will soften it, chorizo is a very forgiving ingredient in my experience.

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Slice the Onion the same way so you have long strings and finely chop the garlic. Turn down the heat in the saucepan to low and add the sliced onion cooking for 8 minutes until they are softened, then add the garlic and cook for 2 mins more.

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Now add your chopped tomatoes, water, chilli, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika and Worcester sauce and bring to a gentle simmer. Cover a leave simmering for 15 mins to allow the flavours to deepen.

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After 15 mins uncover, add the black beans and allow the stew to simmer down and thicken. This should  take another 10 to 15 mins but what we are looking for is the sauce to be thick enough that when you drag a spoon across the bottom of the pan the sauce very slowly flows back to fill the space. This way you know it's not too watery.

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Season with a good pinch of salt and black pepper then ladle over diced crispy roast potatoes or into bowls with a side of bread.

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