Upside-Down Pear

I’ve been accused in the past of having too much weird food lying about my kitchen. I don’t, really; mostly it’s normal foods that I happen to keep around regularly, while most folks buy them especially for particular recipes. While this has advantages, such as my “there’s nothing in the house” meals being rather less “nothing in the house”-like, it has disadvantages, such as realizing that you have a collection of oddments around that need to be combined into a meal, and soon, or they’ll go off.

Last night, for example, I had some defrosted chorizo sausages, five bananas just past perfect, and two jalapenos that were threatening to get fuzzy around the tops. I thought about this for a bit, and figured – well, I’ve had Peruvian cooking, and other South American cooking, and they use a lot of chorizo and a lot of bananas, so there has to be something out there with both….

Google found me an Ecuadorian recipe for bean & banana dip, and I used that as my starting point.

Chorizo Banana Dip

• 2 chorizo sausages, skinned and chopped, or 1/2 lb ground beef or pork, seasoned with 1 1/2 tsp chili powder [1]
• 1/2 medium white onion, finely chopped
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1-2 jalapenos, seeded and minced
• 1/2 cup crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups cooked kidney beans or 1 can kidney beans, slightly mashed [2]
• 4 bananas, ripe but firm
• 1 tbsp water, if needed
• tortilla chips [3]
• sour cream

  1. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Brown the chorizo, stirring occasionally.

  2. Add onion & the pale/white parts of the green onions and cook until onion is soft and translucent, stirring occasionally.

  3. Reduce heat to medium and add the garlic, jalapenos, and crushed tomatoes. Mix well and cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally.

  4. Mash beans and bananas together in a large bowl. Add water if needed to make a thick, dip-like consistency.

  5. Add bean and banana mixture to skillet and mix well.

  6. When everything is mixed up and heated through, scoop into a bowl and top with the darker green parts of the green onion.

  7. Serve warm with tortilla chips and sour cream.

  [1] Mild Italian sausage? Was the original recipe kidding me?
  [2] The liquid in canned beans makes me ill, so I always rinse it all off. I wasn’t about to reserve some of it like the original recipe asked for.
  [3] Some brands are way too salty for me. Herr’s chips have 30mg sodium less per serving than Tostito’s, for the same serving size.

This recipe makes quite a lot of dip – about 4 cups. We ate some of the leftovers this morning, in tortillas with scrambled eggs and sour cream.