Chorizo: Fino’s David Swain shares his special recipe
How to make your own chorizo sausages, then incorporate them into this stunning Italian-Spanish recipe.
The dish: Chorizo, charred onions and pickled tomato.
Backstory:Fino’s David Swain can be considered one of the few contemporary chefs to have had a serious impact on South Australia’s food culture. While his career has taken him many places, it was his return to the state and the opening of Fino in Willunga in 2006 that seemed to crystallise Swain’s approach and cement his reputation.
Way ahead of the pack, Swain was all about local suppliers and a gentle hand with his Mediterranean inspirations from the get-go. Fino Seppeltsfield has only amplified Swain’s reputation for food and for creating restaurants that work outside the metropolis.
“House-made chorizo has played a leading role in Fino menus from the very beginning,” says Swain, who has been trying to replicate the sausages of expat Spaniard Angel Cardoso since trying them in the early 1990s when he worked in Melbourne.
When Cardoso stopped production, Swain says he had no choice but to master the chorizo himself. When Fino opened in Willunga, business partner Sharon Romeo brought with her a rich Italian heritage inspired by her father, Rocco, “the undisputed king of pickling”, Swain says.
Produce: Swain uses South Australian-based SchuAm Pork for his Fino chorizo. “SchuAm’s sustainable farming practices and the low-stress, respectful way they manage their Berkshire pigs produces meat of such superior texture and fat content,” he says. “We support local growers wherever possible; Daniel Schuster and Damien Amery are setting the benchmark for pork production in Australia, we reckon.”
The method: “It’s a plan-well-ahead dish,” says Swain, although it can be achieved with any well-made, commercially available chorizo. The pickling onions go through a simple seven-day salt cure before washing, steeping in vinegar three days and then storing in olive oil. The best green tomatoes are available at the end of summer and once they are pickled you have a supply all year.
“It’s a really simple process of salting, washing, steeping, draining and storing with oil and flavouring agents, like garlic and oregano. Very Italian.”
The twist: “We ask SchuAm to find us a 50-60kg sow, although a lot of Italians and Spaniards would say this is too small,” says Swain. “We choose a smaller pig for the sweetness in the meat. It also delivers a perfect ratio of fat to meat, and the whole beast is used.”
Rocco’s original recipe for the pickled tomato used white vinegar but Swain uses champagne vinegar for subtlety.
The price: $24. Fino has a shared dining approach so one chorizo between two is the usual way to go, “unless you are one of our regulars who refuse to share the sausage and want it all to themselves”. This dish epitomises Swain’s regional culinary philosophy and ties it neatly to Romeo’s family traditions.
How to cook it yourself
Chorizo, charred onions and pickled tomatoes
Chorizo sausage (makes 2kg): Sausage skins size 28-32 | 1.4kg pork meat | 600 gms pork back fat | 30g Murray River salt | 30g capsicum puree | 30g sweet smoky paprika | 14g black pepper & fennel seeds coarsely ground add chilli flakes to taste | Bactoferm — see your butcher
Rinse sausage skins in water and fresh lemon juice. Roughly dice pork meat, mix in all ingredients (except Bactoferm) thoroughly and refrigerate overnight. Remove mix and mince the diced pork on a coarse setting on the mincer, add Bactoferm and fill sausage skins. You’ll need a surface large enough to swirl the sausage into a spiral. Twist the sausage into 15cm lengths and hang with twine to air dry in refrigerator for five to seven days.
Charred onions: 1kg pickling onions | 1kg rock salt | 1 litre champagne vinegar | Olive oil to cover
Peel onions and leave whole. Place them in a stainless steel bowl, add salt and mix thoroughly. Pack them in a sealed container for 7 days refrigerated. Wash off salt, add vinegar and seal them in a container and refrigerate for 3 days. Pour off vinegar and add olive oil. Place in a glass sealed jar for 1 month.
Pickled tomatoes: 1 x kg green tomatoes | 125g salt | 125ml champagne vinegar | 1tbsp dried oregano | 3 cloves of garlic, sliced | 5 red chillies, sliced
Cut tomatoes into 5mm slices and layer in a container. Add some salt, repeating with layers of tomatoes & salt. Place a weight on top of the tomato slices and refrigerate for 24 hours. Drain and gently wash off excess salt. Cover with vinegar and mix thoroughly. Reapply the weight and refrigerate for another 24 hours. Carefully squeeze the tomatoes to drain off any excess liquid and place them back into the container, adding oregano, garlic and chillies. Mix well, cover with olive oil and seal in a glass jar for 1 month.
Cook chorizo over hot charcoal until centre is still pink. Slice and serve with charred onions, pickled tomatoes and parsley.