Chorizo Hash with Peppers and Paprika

This, if you like, is a more sophisticated version of Corned-beef Hash with Fried Eggs, using red peppers as well as onion and potato. It's brilliant, but only worth making if you get genuine Spanish chorizo made in Spain, available at deli counters and specialist food shops – the English 'made in Surbiton'-type clones are not at all what they should be.

Method

First the onion needs to be peeled, sliced in half and then each half sliced as thinly as possible so you end up with little half-moon shapes. Next halve and deseed the red pepper, slice it, then chop it into ½ inch (1 cm) pieces. After that, peel the skin off the chorizo sausage and cut into pieces roughly the same size as the pepper.

The potatoes need to be washed and cut into ½ inch (1 cm) cubes, leaving the skin on. Then place them in a saucepan and pour enough boiling water from the kettle to almost cover them, then add salt and a lid and simmer for just 5 minutes before draining them in a colander and covering with a clean tea cloth to absorb the steam.

Next heat 2 tablespoons of the oil in the larger frying pan and, when it's fairly hot, add the onion, pepper and garlic and cook for about 6 minutes, until softened and tinged brown at the edges. Then push these to the side of the pan, add the chorizo and, keeping the heat fairly high, cook for about 2 minutes, again, till nicely browned at the edges. Next, add the paprika and stir everything together, then remove the whole lot to a plate. Now add another tablespoon of oil to the pan and, still keeping the heat high, add the potatoes and seasoning. Toss them around in the hot pan for about 3 minutes, keeping them moving, until they begin to crisp and brown at the edges, then return the chorizo, onion and pepper to the pan and, using a pan slice, keep turning the mixture over. Carry on cooking the whole thing for 5-6 minutes, until it's all really brown and crispy. Then turn the heat down to its lowest setting and, in the other pan, fry the eggs in the remaining oil (see _How to fry an egg_, below). Serve the hash divided between the two warmed plates with an egg on top of each and have plenty of tomato ketchup on the table.

_This recipe is taken from How to Cook Book One._