Intense Flavours...

There was a special offer on at the supermarket on Chorizo... spanish, dried, smoked/garlic sausage if you're not familiar with it.  I'm a huge fan of this stuff as being able to add some fantastic flavours to relatively ordinary dishes.  It's quite salty and calorific but it works in such tiny amounts that this is no big deal in the grand scheme of things.

Over the weekend I made some chunky soups, for example, and chopped up a little chorizo into them... wonderful.   And tonight I'll be making a simple Chickpea and Red Pepper Stew flavoured with another tiny piece.

I feel the same way about Parmesan.  (Has to be fresh off the block rather than that dandruff-like pre-grated stuff they sell in pots.)  It's such an intense flavour that just a few shavings of it on a salad or a pasta dish really lifts the whole thing... for very few extra cals.

And my other favourite are caraway seeds.  I make bread at home and just a tablespoon of these permeates the whole loaf with the most delicious, slightly aniseed tones.