Mr Harris the cat loves chorizo.

Hard to believe but Harris does like Spanish chorizo. I gave him a bit to try the other day thinking he would turn up his cat nose in distain or just walk away from the Spanish titbit but no. He loved it and begged for more. He just had a few more bits as I didn't fancy mopping up spicy cat sick from my carpet. It never happened and he seemed more than happy to give himself a huge lick afterwards.

Today as I prepared an interesting Spanish style dish (patatas bravas with pasta, basil and pomegranate seeds) he showed interest yet again. If only I could train him to buy me endless supplies of San Miguel beer for nothing! I knew you would find this phenomenon hard to believe so here is photographic proof. I promise you it is not laced with anything or super glued to his cat tongue.

The making of the fiery patatas bravas was fun. Firstly I sliced up some old almost sprouting diddy new potatoes and par boiled them and them added them to a dish in the oven which had been warming through with hot vegetable oil. So far we are looking at mini roast potatoes in the making.

Then I chopped up lots of garlic, ginger, a single hot red pepper a small amount of fresh basil leaves. As the potatoes were crisping off I added the previously listed ingredients for ten minutes and stirred the lot together. In the meantime I had opened two tins of chopped tomatoes and added a tablespoon of chilli powder and the same in  paprika to the tomatoes and stirred them together.

The hot fat was drained off the mix and then the mix was added to the tomatoes and spices and stirred. This went back into the oven for about half an hour to cook thoroughly and attain a slightly dry feel. Patatas bravas ain't no good wet! In the meantime I took all the juicy pips out of a pomegranate and gradually discarded the inedible rough off white core elements of the fruit.

I boiled a small amount of penne pasta and drained when ready, adding a little butter and a shake of black pepper. In the presentation I added the pomegranate pips and some fresh basil leaves. Was it nice? You bet! It may have taken over an hour to put together but every minute was worth it.

Here is the finished dish below. Doesn't it look good?