Three Recipes: Chorizo/Black Bean Chili, Banana Bread, and Orange Marmalade

First up is the chili. This is a quick and easy recipe that you can throw together last minute with ingredients from your cupboard and refrigerator  (which is how I came up with this! ) This serves four.

Chorizo and Black Bean Chili

1/2 lb bulk chorizo (Mexican chorizo)
1/2c diced onion
1 can black beans, rinsed
1 can diced tomatoes
2 c pureed pumpkin (or, 1 can)
1T chili powder
2t ground cumin (preferably freshly ground)

Saute chorizo and onion in a heavy pot until onions are translucent, drain off extra fat. I get bulk chorizo from Newflower and there is very little fat and I don't have to drain. If using vegetarian chorizo, use a bit of olive oil or cooking spray. Add the remaining ingredients. Simmer for 20 minutes. Top with sharp cheddar and serve with cornbread.

About the pumpkin: adding pumpkin makes the sauce/gravy part of the chili super rich and thick, but adds no "pumpkin" flavor.(Doug, the pumpkin-hater, can vouch for this). I add pumpkin to every chili recipe I make.


Banana Bread

this is a simple recipe, and makes a pretty large loaf. You can cook this in muffin tins, too.  preheat oven to 350
up to 6 bananas
1 c sugar
2 eggs
pinch salt
1t baking soda
2 c flour
1/2c butter melted
1/2t cinnamon
1/2 nutmeg
(or allspice, or pumpkin pie spice, cardamom, whatever)
1 t vanilla

mix together wet ingredients and sugar. Mix in remaining ingredients, pour into greased loaf pan. Bake one hour. (muffins, 20-30m)

I forgot to take a pic of this before I had a slice or two. Oops!

Orange Marmalade
I've been to the Caribbean a lot, lots of places, and every time I order toasted bread, I got a bowl of butter and bowl of orange marmalade. (I also always got a pitcher of  "sweet milk" with my coffee, but that's another story) I'd had orange marmalade before, but only the kind in the tiny rectangles that you get in restaurants, but it was nearly flavorless and cloyingly sweet. The Caribbean marmalade was so strongly flavored, alive and vibrant and just a big jubilant happy dance in your mouth with butter and toasted bread.
I made that marmalade today.



This isn't my recipe: I got it here


Here's what you need to make this:
8 oranges,
3 lemons
4 cups of sugar
baking soda
1 1/3 boxes of sure-jell, the pink box.

I also added a big heaping tablespoon of freshly grated ginger, too. MMMM!

First, you wash the fruit thoroughly.

Then, use a vegetable peeler to remove the skin, leaving only the white part behind.

Here are all the skins.

Finely chopped, then boiled down.

4 cups of sugar, and pectin

The marmalade all jarred up and ready to boil!

Process in boiling water 15m. Here are the finished jars.

According to the website to which I referred, it takes up to 2 weeks for the marmalade to set properly. Before then, it may be too runny.

Once these cool, I'll label the lids with Sharpie.
I have a ton of the brass rings, and a few of the white and a few of the "silver" color. Most of the lids I can find these days are silver and don't match the brass, so I'm trying to use those up. Once all of my brass lids are gone, then I'll recycle the matching rings.


For more info and details, go here