Blue Sky Cook: Chorizo Stew with Lemon Thyme & Lime Courgettes

I'm not entirely sure what a cliché is, although I use the word a lot. So here's the definition, in case you were wondering: "a trite, stereotyped expression; a sentence or phrase, usually expressing a popular or common thought or idea, that has lost originality, ingenuity, and impact by long overuse". So in light of the above new found knowledge, I'm pretty sure that the term "one pot wonder" may well be a cliché. However I'm going to use it anyway, because this is one of that illustrious group. Or rather, it would have been if i could have fitted the courgettes into my stew pot. As it happened I couldn't, for fear of overflow, so instead I sautéed them with citrous flavours and they brought a light freshness to the stew which would otherwise have been missed. So the moral of the story.. sometimes it pays to have a small stew pot. It forced me to think up a new use for my courgette..Hooray!

Ingredients

Stew

200g Chorizo, roughly sliced

70g Panceta, diced

2 tins of chopped tomatoes

2 heaped teaspoons of sweet Paprika

2 Bay leaves

1 Red Pepper, sliced into chunks

2 medium Onions, peeled & sliced

2 medium cloves of Garlic, Squashed & finely chopped

Fresh Thyme & Rosemary (a few sprigs of each), finely chopped

1 tablespoon of Olive Oil

Salt

Courgettes

1 Courgette, sliced

Zest of half a Lime

The leaves from 2 sprigs of Lemon Thyme

Olive Oil

Method

To start the Stew put the onions in a heavy bottomed pan over a medium heat and sweat in the olive oil and a little salt until translucent & beginning to burnish. Then add in the Chorizo, Panceta, Paprika & garlic. Allow to sizzle for about 5 mins stirring frequently before adding in the remaining ingredients. Allow the pot to simmer for an hour or so over a medium heat, stirring occasionally.