First ever Leon cookbook, c'est excellent!

[KellyDJ]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2008/oct/09/foodanddrink

Pinto bean, black bean and chorizo soup

When we first opened Leon we did so with a swathe of Brazilians, who were a lot of fun to work with, and used to proudly bring in bits of their national cuisine for us to try. I'm not sure if the conquistadores taught the pig-and-bean thing to the natives or vice versa, but surely the Brazilians and the Iberians are top of the world league. The origins of this soup are in their national dish of feijouada, which involves pork, beans, then more pork and more beans: absolutely delicious, but don't book yourself in for a power afternoon afterwards. Our version doesn't trigger your nap button in quite the same way, which is either a good thing or not, depending on how you see your afternoon going.

Serves four, but you can probably stretch it to six as it is pretty filling

75g dried pinto beans

75g dried black turtle beans

250g good-quality raw chorizo sausages

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tsp cayenne pepper

1 red pepper, medium diced

3 cloves of garlic, sliced

1 medium red onion, thinly sliced

1 x 400g tin of tomatoes

1-1.5l chicken stock

1/5 savoy cabbage, chopped

A big handful of coriander, chopped

Salt and pepper

Soak the pinto and black turtle beans in cold water overnight.Next day, drain them, cover them with fresh water and cook them in their own pots. Cook them all the way through but not to total collapse. Dice the chorizo into medium cubes and get your oil warming in a deep, thick saucepan. Sizzle the chorizo until it has browned and that red oil starts to seep out but beware: the golden brown sausage and lustrous red oil can quickly turn to brown-black in an instant if the heat is too high.

Stir in your spices, red pepper, garlic and onion; turn the heat up a bit and cook until translucent and all well mingled together. Season with sea salt.

Add the tomatoes, let it all burble together for around 10 minutes, then add a litre of stock and reduce on a well-maintained simmer for 20 minutes.

Drain the beans, keeping about half a litre of the cooking liquor, and then stir the beans, liquor and the cabbage in well. Cook for another 20 minutes, letting the soup simmer down to a pleasing thickness, and turn off the heat for a bit of a rest. Give it five minutes with a lid on to let the flavours settle.

Check the seasoning and consistency, letting it down with the remaining stock if you fancy, and stir in the chopped coriander before serving.

Sounds great. Might give this a go this weekend

 

[snackhead]

Sounds great. Might give this a go this weekend

Was planning to make brownies this weekend but haven't got time anymore defo next weekend tho

 

[KellyDJ]

Sounds great. Might give this a go this weekend

Forgot to get the bloody chorizo

 

[Mrs Magpie]

The Book People are only online.

No. I've just bought a book at work. They often are in hospital foyers, offices, schools etc. I think you contact them and they come in to your place of work with a crate of books. You choose, you pay, and in about 3 days time they bring your book.

 

[tarannau]

No. I've just bought a book at work. They often are in hospital foyers, offices, schools etc. I think you contact them and they come in to your place of work with a crate of books. You choose, you pay, and in about 3 days time they bring your book.

Not sure if it has any shops, but they've a good website and often do book drops to offices.

it's ridiculously cheap really. You'll typically save a tenner or more per (cook)book. Remarkable that they're cheaper on the Leon cookbook than the restaurants itself, even being in stock before the Guardian's extracts.

I knows that. The slight confusion was more to do with Clyde suggesting that he'd pop down to a shop to buy the book - the shop being Leon itself rather than The Book People ifykwim.