Butter Bean, Chorizo and Red Onion Soup

We were out wandering around for a long time yesterday. Fortunately, Brian (a friend of Travis's) is a hardcore serious foodie. He is studying for a Masters in Gastronomy. He knows every good eating place in town for every type of cuisine. I initially asked Travis what he was like. He replied to me, "He's like you on food steroids."

We met up in Chinatown and got down to business with some dead-serious sushi. I had been craving it for awhile now, and I can't tell you how this hit the spot. We had a couple of rolls, one scallop and one with salmon. Delicious.

We moved onto a Malaysian place, which has won some accolades in the city. We barely made it in before the end of lunch and grabbed the last table. That, too, was spectacular. I'll be looking into Malaysian food more closely in the future. It's very saucy, spicy and sweet - which is right up my alley.

After this, we ended up walking home from downtown Sydney, which took awhile. It seemed cabs just kept avoiding us until we got within 500 yards of the house, then there were cabs everywhere. All told, it was probably 3-4 miles to get home.

We wanted something simple for dinner, and since Vanessa's margaritas claimed a few more victims the night before, a nice soup seemed to be the ticket. We stopped by the fish market and got a few items from the deli and away we went.

This is a fantastically simple dish, that takes no time to prepare and cook. It's so fast, it appears in Gordon Ramsay's "Fast Food" cookbook, which I highly recommend. This is one of the knockouts in it.

225 g chorizo picante, skin removed
3 tablespoons olive oil, plus extra
2 red onion, peeled and finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and very finely sliced
3 sprigs thyme
2 cans butter beans, drained and rinsed
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 squeeze lemon juice
1 large handful parsley, roughly chopped

Chop the chorizo into small bite-sized pieces. Put the kettle on the boil.

Heat the olive oil in a heavy-based saucepan and add the onions, garlic and thyme. Cook, stirring for 2 minutes then add the chorizo. Stir over a high heat for a few minutes until the oil has taken on a reddish-golden brown hue from the chorizo.

Tip in the butter beans and pour just enough boiling water to cover them. Bring to a simmer and cook gently for about 10 minutes.

Season generously with salt and pepper and add a squeeze of lemon juice. Scatter over chopped parsley and ladle the soup into warm bowls to serve.