I had an exciting light bulb moment last night. What would cod and chorizo taste like together? I marvelled at my own ingenuity and had a fleeting image of my new avant-garde cookery show. Then I googled it and realised that there are no original thoughts or deeds left in the world, including mine. There were 482,000 results for cod and chorizo. The internet clearly exists for the sole purpose of rubbing your face in your own mediocrity.

Once I had returned to my natural bovine state, I cooked this lovely stew based on a recipe from BBC Good Food. I find BBC Food sometimes wear a hair shirt when it comes to spices so I have beefed it up a bit.

Serves 2       Prep: 15 mins    Cooking time: 20 mins

Ingredients

Half a red onion (or white if you don’t have red), finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed.
50g of chorizo, chopped. I used Dulano chorizo ring from Lidl.
2 chunky, skinless cod fillets
1 tsp of paprika
1 tsp dried or fresh rosemary.
1 tsp dried chilli flakes
Pinch of salt and pepper.
1 tin of butter beans, drained and rinsed. If you don’t have butter beans any will do. Cannellini or kidney beans would be a good substitute.
1 carton of passata. Aldi do nice-sized cartons for a meal for two.
Oil for cooking
Squeeze of lemon
Bread, to serve.

Method

1. In a frying pan with a lid, fry the onion and garlic in a slosh of oil until done (but not crisp). Remove to a plate.
2. Add the chorizo to the pan and fry until crispy. Return the onions and garlic back to the pan and add the rosemary, paprika and chilli flakes. Stir for a minute.
3. Add the passata and beans and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Place the cod fillets on top of the sauce and cover with a lid, if you have one big enough.
5. Simmer for 6-8 minutes until the fish is cooked through.
6. Once the cod is done add a squeeze of lemon then remove the fillets to a plate. Ladle the stew into two bowls and place the cod on top. Serve with bread to mop up.