Chorizo and Butterbean Stew

I got home from Valencia a few days ago, full of food gossip, but all my mum wanted to talk about was Rick Stein's Spain (BBC2, Wednesday's 8pm). I can't really blame her, I caught my first glimpse this evening, and within a few minutes I could smell pimento spice and taste that Iberico ham melting in my mouth, I got pang's for the salty sticky bit that attaches itself to the paella pan and you have to scrape off with a spoon. So, all swept up in his enthusiasm I made this lovely little stew, and if you close your eyes (for a second) while it's cooking you could be right there leaning over your table in a tapas bar, with loud chatter and red wine, as this is set down before you and you tuck in with a sweep of bread and a dollop of alioli.

2 tblsp olive oil
2 -3 cloves of garlic
1/2 hot red chili
2 tblsp paprika
2 tblsp pimento powder (key ingredient)
1 tin of black eyed beans
1 tin of butter beans
1/2 aubergine (finely diced)
2 cups of chicken stock
50mls boiling water
1 tblsp tomato puree
200g thick sliced chorizo

Heat olive oil, add garlic and chili. sizzle. Add paprika, add pimento powder. Add the black beans and the butter beans. Then add the aubergine. Add the stock, water and puree. Cook down for 10-15minutes. Then fry up the chorizo separately and add that to the pan leave to cook for another 15-20minutes, or as long as you can bare. As the flavours cook and the sauce thickens is created smokey depth and infused the beans with heaps of flavour, so the butter beans slightly darken in colour and creates a lovely sweet and spicy kick.

BBQ Shack, Worlds End Pub, London Road, Brighton, UK

Reviewed 05/08/2011
World's End pub, 60-61 London Road, Brighton (01273 275 757)

Well, I'd been hearing these rumours for a while, slowly I was building up this weird ' I wish I knew' crush for BBQ shack. I'd talk to total strangers about how 'I'd heard' they did these mouthwatering 18 hour slow cooked ribs. Homemade BBQ sauce. The best slaw this side of 'the pond'. It was getting desperate. The final blow, Jay Raynor from the gaurdian writes a review - I felt left out.

QUICK. The ques will be un heard of.

Well, nah, not really. BBQ shack run's out of the Worlds ends pub,  up London Road, you'd feel out of place with anything other than a flat shoe and even wearing a clean t-shirt felt like I was pushing it. But who cares. I'm in a pub. It's gonna be good and it's gonna be straight to the point, no prissiness's just really good meat, cooked to perfection.

Well. I was half right. The 18 hour slow cooked ribs, smoked over apple and hickory arrived and they were dam good, the meat fell off the bone with a little bite and they tasted sweet and sticky - but they arrived nearly an hour after my boyfriends dinner (pit smoked beef burger) did. So we ate separately except for the slaw when 3 arrived at once, each bland, in need salt. The dumb waiter broke down during service, but there was no compensation or words from the staff, they mostly just mumbled and tried to avoid eye contact, which leaves you feeling kinda of cheated. It's a shame because when these things happen you don't get a true indication of how good a place can really be and that moment when I bit that first bite of rib I knew something great was happening on my taste buds. I couldn't appreciate it though, and ended up just being glad to finish.

Maybe another time, eh.