I've promised a while back to post this recipe and now is the time. Fresh Chorizo is one of our goto sausage when using sausage in cooking. It's got a great mix of spice and heat. We will mix it in with burger meat for chorizo burgers or Chris makes a great Mexican Eggplant Parm. (That recipe is on the site)
Ingredients:
5 lbs pork shoulder or but 75/25 split meat/fat
1/8 cup of Kosher salt
2 Tbsp Smoked Paprika
8 garlic cloves crushed thru garlic press
2 Tbsp Dried Mexican Oregano
1 Tsp Cayenne pepper
2 Tsp Black Pepper
1/4 Tsp cinnamon
1/4 Tsp toasted and ground whole cloves
2 ounce dried ancho or poblano peppers
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
About 4 1/2 feet of medium hog casing
Steps:
1. Make sure your pork is well chilled and grind it thru your fine grinding plate. Put it back into the fridge to rechill it.
2. Soak the dried peppers in hot water. After they soften, remove the stems. If you like a milder sausage, you can also remove the seeds. Puree the peppers in a blender using as much water as needed to form a paste. Use 1/3 cup of the paste for this recipe and refrigerate the leftover to save for another use.
3. Add all herbs, spices, pepper paste, and the red wine vinegar to the ground pork and mix it with your hands until evenly mixed.
4. Stuff your sausage into the hog casing. Prick any air pockets.
5. Place the sausage on a baking sheet, refrigerate uncovered for 1 day to let the spices meld.
6. Wrap in plastic and refrigerate for up to 3 days or freeze.