Chorizo Skillet

So its really really cold at the moment. I don’t know why it is but the idea of winter becomes so much less appealing after Christmas, the frosty mornings and air so chilly that your breath condenses as you talk is no longer charming, it is a nuisance. As the rest of the country experiences the first snowfall of 2015 and spends their weekends reliving a scene from a Victorian Christmas card, the Manchester skies are a flurry of dismal unidentified slush. I have never seen anything so depressing.

After Christmas I felt so sick I could barely eat for weeks but now with the advent of this weather a small part of me is longing for buttery mashed potatoes and pies and sponge puddings and roast dinners and ah everything that would screw up any hope of being able to fit through my front door by my forties. This is also seriously challenging my need for easy, cheap food, created by a mixture of essays, exams, a post christmas overdraft and some serious January sales bargains! As a result I have been trying my best to find interesting recipes that are comforting, healthy, quick and inexpensive, because at this time of year a salad just won’t cut it.

This skillet is a great example. Its more summery than wintery but it is a perfect hot lunch that won’t break your bank or rip your jeans and best of all it can be eaten straight out of the pan! The chorizo gives it a fiery, smoky hit and the oozy egg yolk brings a silky delicious texture. An added bonus is that you can chuck just about anything in it. If you don’t have potatoes this is really nice with just a handful of quinoa stirred through. Equally you can use half a tin of tomatoes instead of fresh ones. It also tastes great with spring onions, courgette, parsley or sweet potato so its a great one for cleaning out the odds and ends of your fridge. Enjoy!

Chorizo Skillet (serves one)

• One chilli
• A handful of cherry tomatoes
• A Potato
• Half an onion
• Quarter of a chorizo sausage
• 2 eggs
• Half a pepper

How to make it

• Finely dice the chilli and onion and fry over a medium heat. Once they have softened down add the chopped chorizo. Fry for a couple of minutes before adding the potato and pepper.
• Once everything is pretty much cooked stir through the tomatoes and leave for a minute until they soften. now create two wells in the mixture for the eggs. Crack in the eggs and continue to fry for a few minutes so that they cook on the bottom. Now put the pan under the grill to cook the top of the egg. This should only take two minutes of you like your eggs runny. Cook it for one or two minutes longer if you want them to firm up a bit.
• Serve on its own or with crusty bread.

Cost Rating: ** I used: One potato costing 22p, one chilli costing 20p, 1/2 an onion costing 21p, 1/2 a pepper costing 60p, 1/2 a bag of tomatoes costing £1.10, 1/3 of a box of eggs costing £1, 1/4 of a chorizo costing £2. Total Cost: £2.20

Washing up Rating: *** I used: a knife, a chopping board, a wooden spoon, a pan, a knife and fork.