Sausage paella

Beautiful sunny Sunday, which got a bit windy towards teatime - could have been Spain, not Cheshire.  So, what with bargain sausages in the fridge and veg left in the veg box - we settled on paella for dinner.  Made shed loads, so outlaws took some home for the freezer and the dogs had a treat.

The bargain sausages - were infact bargain pork meatballs, but they looked too big for a mouthful, so I split them in 2 and made 24 smaller meatballs from them.  Had they been actual sausages I would have taken them out of their skins and rolled them into small meatballs.

Serves: 8, Calories per portion: approx 250  Price:  Approx:  70p

1 tbsp olive oil
50g chorizo
1 leek
400g sausages/ meatballs
1 garlic clove
pinch of chili flakes
150g (ish) rice
pinch of mixed herbs
1 courgette
1 red pepper
200g green beans
200g mushrooms
2 tins of tomatoes
2 pints of chicken stock, with a pinch of saffron if any is available

1. Chop chorizo into small dice.  Roll sausage meat into small balls.
2. Fry chorizo in small splash of olive oil, until it starts releasing its coloured oil, and crisping a bit around the edges.
3. In a separate pan fry sausages balls in another splash of olive oil, just to get them firm and get a bit of colour on them.  Remove from the pan and keep them to add in later.
4.  Add chopped leek to the chorizo, and stir around until a little bit soft.
5.  Add rice to chorizo and leek and stir until every grain is coated.
6.  Chuck in chopped veg, garlic and chili.  Stir in stock and tomatoes.
7. Simmer.  Add sausage balls - simmer again.  Try not to stir too often.
8.  When veg is soft leave to stand for a few minutes - scoff.