Last July, as part of an ongoing promotion by a sausage-making sponsor of the Milwaukee Brewer’s baseball team, a seven-foot tall sausage of Spanish origin ran a 60-yard dash around the Brewer’s baseball diamond, competing with Polish and Italian sausages, a bratwurst, and a hot dog.
While the Spanish sausage, a chorizo, finished only third, it is regarded as a winner on the tables of Spain, Portugal, and Latin American nations worldwide.
The chorizo sausage is expressed in many varieties, and there is some argument over what makes the best or most authentic chorizo. Historically, the basic chorizo is pork and smoked red pepper, but every Latin country has its own recipe.
While Spain’s version is distinguished by the flavor of paprika, Mexico’s is better known for its dark red color. The Portuguese include wine in their recipe. Argentinean producers are known to use exotic meats to create unique flavors. In the Philippines, chorizo is salty and sour near Manila, heavy on the garlic further south.
Perhaps a Spanish aristocrat or an especially influential chef set the original rules, but as old world culture expanded into the New World, regional conditions and available ingredients led to many different styles.
Today, the people throughout Latin America and the Iberian Peninsula know chorizo as simply an essential ingredient in their cooking. It is a unifying element in Spanish influenced cuisine.
Renowned Asheville chef and restaurateur Hector Diaz has substantial respect for the chorizo. The proprietor of Salsas, which features Mexican/Caribbean cuisine and Modesto, an Italian eatery, has chosen to honor this versatile sausage above all others at his pan-Latin dining room in Asheville’s Grove Arcade.
His latest endeavor, Chorizo, the restaurant, opened this spring to rave reviews, with a menu designed to celebrate the sausage in its many guises, using it to flavor his soups and paella, and as a complement to his unusual goat milk panquecas.
Diaz takes pride in his special house chorizo, for which he uses lamb instead of pork for a provocatively feral essence. “The slightly gamey flavor is the secret of my chorizo. I blend in a very specific sasón of five spices: garlic, onion, black pepper, salt, and paprika.”
Clearly, the mighty chorizo continues to be infinitely adaptable. From Barcelona to Bogotá to the Blue Ridge, these luscious links take on the tastes of their locales, but remain, somehow true to the adventurous spirit of the conquistadors.
ChorizoEclectic Latin Fare
1 Page Avenue, Asheville
828-350-1332
