cheesy-chorizo pizza muffins

There're about a dozen things I keep meaning to blog about, but for one reason or another I'm always putting them off (ah, procrastination, my constant companion). So, in an attempt to get out of my bloggy rut, here is one of my favourite recipes: savoury cheesy-chorizo muffins.

The original recipe came from a woman's magazine years ago, but since then I've lost the original copy and also adapted the recipe quite a bit, so this is kinda fudged together (you can probably tell that from my haphazard measurements). On the plus side, it's a pretty forgiving recipe, and doesn't mind a bit of fudging.

300 gm self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon salt
50 ml vegetable oil
300 ml milk
2 eggs
1/2 teaspoon mustard
1 tablespoon tomato paste
150 g mature cheddar
200 g chorizo (or more if you want)
1/2 teaspoon crushed black peppercorns
Big pinch of oregano

(A few notes on ingredients. Fresh oregano is lovely, but I never have any in the house, so I use dried. Also, if you can get the amazing black-pepper-mature-cheddar that some supermarkets do, use that and don't bother with the peppercorns. You can vary the amount of oil to personal taste, as the chorizo makes the mix quite moist anyway.)

Sift flour, paprika and salt together. Mix oil, milk, eggs, mustard and tomato paste together in a separate bowl, then add to the flour. Smoosh it all together.

(At this point, opinion is divided as to whether the mixture should be kneaded. I rarely bother, but if your mix is dry enough and you want to feel like Paul Hollywood, turn it out onto a floured surface and give it a minute of kneading.)

Chop up the cheese and chorizo into fat chunks and stir into the mix, along with the black peppercorns and oregano.

Spoon into a muffin tray and bake at 200 degrees centigrade for about 25 minutes (my oven is a bit slow sometimes; in a better oven they might only need 20 minutes). Should make about 12-15 muffins, depending on size.

Eat 'em either hot or cold (but not straight from the oven because the melted cheese is hotter than the sun).

Like I say, I've always found this to be a forgiving recipe, and if you want to add or subtract ingredients it usually still works out fine. I like throwing in a handful of sundried tomatoes instead of the tomato paste if I'm feeling decadent. If you don't have or don't like chorizo, any kind of spicy sausage works well. I'm also pretty sure you could do an acceptable vegetarian version substituting chopped red peppers and/or olives instead of the chorizo (and chilli flakes instead of the peppercorns), although I haven't actually tried this yet.

So there we go, that's how I make spicy cheesy awesome pizza muffins. Enjoy!

declaration

In approximately two thousand days, I will quit my day job and become a full time writer.

This number isn't pulled entirely out of thin air. Two thousand days, more or less (and I'll admit I've not added it up with any huge degree of accuracy), will bring us to my fortieth birthday. As a special present to myself, I intend to get off the treadmill of the nine-to-five day job and instead hop aboard the from-coffee-a.m.-to-why-am-I-still-awake-p.m. rollercoaster of freelancery.

I've given myself this long-date deadline for several reasons. One: I ain't ready to do it now. With two kids and a student husband, it is completely the wrong time to abandon a nice stable job. Two: I like deadlines. I work well to them. Giving myself some tangible date to aim for will make me more likely to stick to it. And three: by making a public declaration, like so, I hope my friends and family will spend the run-up to my fortieth birthday asking me pointed questions about how my quest for job-independence is going.

As prosaic as it is, I also need time to save up a monetary cushion. I'm under no illusions about my ability to pay the bills by my writing talent alone. I'm hoping that in +/- five-and-a-half years I'll be in a position of relative stability (touch wood) where it wouldn't cripple my family if I became a penniless hack.

So there it is--my public declaration. By the end of 2019, I will have quit my day job and become a full time writer. Anyone reading this: I'm relying on you to remind me of this, in case I attempt to wuss out nearer the time. :)