Chorizo and Bean Stew with Gurnard

I decided not to write this until events fully unfolded.  As well as being enthusiastic about food, one of my other passions in life is sport.  I'm not adicted to the extent that I subscribe to the sports channels but if it there is any sport on terrestrial channels then, the chances are, I'll be tuning in.  There are certain things that I will actively seek out. 

I'm a Leeds United Fan, so the events of the last week have left a bad taste in the mouth.  Today's victory has, in my eyes, not justified the sacking of Simon Grayson.  This was not my match of the day.  Football aside, my favourite sport is Rugby Union.  I was brought up in a house where rugby was the most important sport.  It's not club rugby that I'm interested in but International rugby and today saw the start of this season's Six Nations.

Anybody that has read more than a handful of these posts will know where my allegiances lay in today's Calcutta Cup match between Scotland and England.  For anybody that's unsure, allow me to spell it out.  I'm the product of a Scottish Father and a Welsh Mother.  The 6 Nations (5 when I was growing up) was the only sporting event that brought all of the family around the telly.  Although my loyalties were split (Mum or Dad) there was always a common enemy, England.

This year's Calcutta Cup match did not go as planned.  A series of errors by the Scotland team, that wouldn't have been welcome at school level, and a gifted England try gave England the victory.  It's fair to say that I was in a mood as foul as the forecast snow-mageddon.

Fortunately we'd had a brilliantly foodie day in the run up to the start of the match.  We'd spent the afternoon at Cornucopia, an independent food fair at Leeds Corn Exchange. We had taken the decision to seek inspiration from the event and Kirkgate market for our evening meal and we found inspiration in abundance.

The real find was pumpkin oil.  I'd never seen or tasted it before and it is incredible but it's not on the menu tonight so I'll come back to it later.  For tonight we found Yorkshire Chorizo.  There were three varieties on offer and like a child in a sweet shop I bought one of each.  With our spicy Spanish sausage bought we started to pull a meal together.  A trip to the market for the final ingredient was hardly a chore at all.

I made the stew before the match kicked off so that I wasn't distracted.  Once we were ready for it all it took was reheating with the gurnard fillets on top to steam.  This gently cooks the fish and allows the flavours to mingle.  All a stew like this needs is a good hunk of bread.  We got ours from Cornucopia too, it's great what you can find in Leeds when you're looking for inspiration.