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Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Taste Test: Manolete Confit Chorizo (21 May 2011)


A soft spot for chorizo

Thanks for Bianca Alosi from PEPR Publicity for sending me a sample of the Manolete Confit Chorizo to taste test. It’s imported exclusively from Spain by Idea Food and made from Spanish-reared pigs and locally sourced spices making it apparently the only 100% Spanish chorizo available in Australia. I usually enjoy the texture and taste of chorizo, especially when simply pan-fried or grilled, but found this one a lot different to what I’m used to having. Its texture was soft and slightly grainy instead of firm and meaty and its flavour was perhaps too overly spiced with paprika for my liking.

I chose to cook the chorizo two ways. Pan-frying both sides as well as in the microwave for 45 seconds as suggested. I preferred the frying which provide a slight crisp coating but amongst the four taste testers including someone Spanish we all would have preferred a firmer texture which we were half expecting. Microwaving was even less preferred. We thought the rich flavour and softer texture would have definitely been better suited and appreciated in a pasta sauce, pizza topping, paella dish or combined with other ingredients as a Spanish influenced canapé perhaps. Perhaps my palate is too use to the Australian chorizo and can't appreciate the Spanish version?

Ingredients: Spanish pork loin, salt-pork, paprika, salt, pork belly and sunflower oil.

Cost: $27–$33/kg

Currently available at these Sydney restaurants:
Extra Virgin, Crows Nest
Atelier, Glebe
Encasa, Sydney CBD

SNAPSHOT REVIEW:
PROS: Rich flavour, 100% Spanish product if you’re looking for something from your homeland, Would go well in a sauce or as a topping
CONS: Soft and grainy texture rather than firm, Very oily, Not particularly meaty or chilli hot
MUST TRY: Preferably cooking in a dish rather than having on its own

Pack of three small chorizo

Sliced

Pan-fried both sides

Pan-frying produced a lot of oil

Soaking up the oil after frying

Pan-fried and ready to eat


Microwaved for 45 seconds and ready to eat

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