Recipe: The Choripan

the appetizer:

Daisy: Morning, Noon, and Night—Bringing Your Family Together with Everyday Latin Dishes by Daisy Martinez includes recipes like The Choripan; Shrimp Ceviche ("Xni Pec"); Peruvian Roast Chicken (Pollo a la Brasa); and Milanesas (Panfried Breaded Veal, Turkey, Pork, Beef or Chicken Cutlets).

The Choripan

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. Take the choripan, a deliciously simple chorizo sandwich seasoned with juicy, freshly made salsa. Not surprisingly, given the huge Italian population in Argentina, Argentinean chorizos resemble fresh Italian sausages (minus the fennel seed) more than they do the firm cooked Spanish-style chorizo or uncooked but well-seasoned Mexican chorizo. I am lucky to have access to a great Argentinean butcher in the neighboring borough of Queens (which satisfies my jones for the real thing), but you can capture the spirit of a choripan with your favorite hot or sweet Italian sausages.

Here's all there is to it: Find a firm but not crusty sandwich-size roll. In the Northeast, it's easy to find Portuguese rolls, which have exactly the right texture, but in other parts of the country, where such a thing may not exist, you'll do perfectly well with a good-quality kaiser or ciabatta roll. Next, make a simple fresh tomato salsa, like the Weeknight Salsa on page 147 of the book jazzed up with a little extra chile, or the salsa that is part of Shrimp Ceviche ("Xni Pec"), which already has enough heat built into it. Pit and peel an avocado, cut it into 1/2-inch dice, and add it to the salsa of your choice.

Split each link of chorizo or Italian sausage open along the shorter curved side, but don't cut all the way through the sausage. (This is known as "butterflying.") Open the sausage up so it makes a neat rectangular shape. Leaving the casing on keeps the sausage from falling apart, and the butterflying makes it easy to cook the sausage through without burning the outside. Grill the sausages, starting with the casing side down and turning them once, until cooked through and well browned, about 8 minutes. Let them sit for a minute while you split and toast the rolls. Fill the rolls with sausages and a good amount of salsa, and you're off and running!