Substitutes for chorizo and fennel

[Zhlake]

I am making some new recipes this week and I am frustrated by living in a small town! I had trouble finding several ingrediants. One of the biggest is chorizo because it is a main part of a recipe. The recipe called for ready to eat chorizo. Any substitutes? I ended up buying hot sausage, but I don't know if that is similar.

Also, there was no fennel. It is in a pototo salad that is supposed to have fennel. Any help.

There were other things, but I just decided to forget about them!

 

[buckytom]

hi zhlake.

is the hot sausage the ready to eat kind, ya know, dried? it should be ok as a sub for chorizo, but of course the flavor will be a little different, depending on how hot it is. add just a little paprika for the color, and maybe a little garlic powder for a similar taste. it depends on what you like in chorizo.

you can sub celery for the fennel for texture, and add fennel seeds to get the flavor, somewhat. you should be able to get fennel seed in the supermarket.

 

[Steve A]

The chorizo substitute actually depends on whether it was Mexican chorizo or the traditional Spanish chorizo. Mexican chorizo is more like a bulk sausage flavored with herbs and spices such as garlic, paprika, etc. The Spanish chorizo, while having much the same flavor profile is a dried sausage much like pepperoni. I would think without you knowing what the flavor profile of either chorizo was, you would have a hard time approximating the taste.

As for fennel, if it was the flavor you're looking for, anything with a licorice background such as anise, star anise, etc., would cover the flavor profile. However, if it was for a salad and the crunch was in question, you might look to jicama or something without so much flavor as texture and then modify your flavor components.

Good luck and ciao,

 

[jennyema]

"Ready to Eat" chorizo would by definition be Spanish, as the Mexican type must be cooked forst.

A hard spicy sausage would sub.

I'd just leave out fennel in the potato salad unless you are an anise freak. Then I'd add some fennel seed.

 

[Aurora]

Fennel seed in potato salad may be a bit too crunchy or hard on folks with dentures. If you want the flavor of fennel you could add ground fennel to give it that taste, but be careful a little ground fennel goes a long way.

 

[Robo410]

In all honesty, if you have to sub out a lot of ingedients, don't make that recipe. FInd one that interests you with ingredients that you can find.

 

[Gretchen]

You might look again at your supermarket for fennel. they call it anise in ours.

 

[karadekoolaid]

You might look again at your supermarket for fennel. they call it anise in ours.

I buy "Anis Dulce" ( Sweet anise) in our local supermarkets, and Indian Fennel seed in the Indian Grocery. They're supposedly from the same plant, but the local spice is darkish brown, small and very tasty; the Indian fennel is green, considerably larger and also very tasty, but in a different way.
Now that's confused everyone, hasn't it ?

I'd also support the idea of pulverising it first. Anyone who's not used to whole spices in their food might reject the idea.

Hey, and I've just thought - why don't you post the recipe so we can play around with it? THAT might solve the problem.

 

[GB]

Hey, and I've just thought - why don't you post the recipe so we can play around with it? THAT might solve the problem.

Now that is a GREAT idea cliveb!

 

[Zhlake]

You might look again at your supermarket for fennel. they call it anise in ours.

But you are talking about the fennel spice right? I am talking about the fennel bulb.

I think it is a great idea to post the recipe. I don't have it with me, but I will post it tomorrow. It is in the Fine Cooking magazine for Sept (i believe). It is a roasted potato and fennel salad.

 

[GB]

But you are talking about the fennel spice right? I am talking about the fennel bulb.

Yes the fennel bulb is also called anise in some supermarkets.

 

[Zhlake]

Yes the fennel bulb is also called anise in some supermarkets.

Oh, okay. I did not realize that. I know that we don't have that either. We had nothing resmebling fennel at all!

 

[GB]

Perhaps you could ask the produce manager if they might be able to get some for you?

 

[karadekoolaid]

Oh, okay. I did not realize that. I know that we don't have that either. We had nothing resmebling fennel at all!

Fennel bulb has a very specific and particular flavour. I don't think you'd be able to duplicate it.
However, it occurs to me you might try celery in the salad and add some anise seeds. Different, I'd hasten to add (!) but the texture of fennel approximates the texture of celery.

 

[jennyema]

In all honesty, if you have to sub out a lot of ingedients, don't make that recipe. FInd one that interests you with ingredients that you can find.

I tend to agree. Rather than trying to sub for fennel in a potato-fennel salad, maybe a different recipe would work better.

 

[Zhlake]

Yes you are right. I really thought I would be able to find fennel so I had got a bunch of other ingrediants in my cart before I made it to the produce section.

It is just so frustrating living in a small town. The stores are totally lacking in finding some ingrediants. Fresh herbs, good produce...it sucks.