Chili Con Carne with Cornbread “topping”

Chili Con Carne with Cornbread Topping (Made in Crockpot)  (adapted)                                    

We are cooking manly food, this week at I Heart Cooking Clubs.  What is manly food?  I think it is what my man likes and he likes chili.  Even better, he likes cornbread topping.  Put those together and we have manly food.

This is a recipe from Nigella Lawson who has a way with food, all food.  I have found appetizers to dessert that I like in her cookbooks and online. 

 Ingredients

Chili:                      

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 onions, finely chopped
• 1/2 teaspoons dried or crushed chili flakes
• 1 red peppers, seeded and finely diced
• 1 1/2 cups canned chopped tomatoes
• 1/2 cup tomato ketchup
• 1/2 cup tomato sauce                                        
• 1 cup water
• 1 tablespoons cocoa
• 1 1/2 cups canned red kidney beans
• 2 turkey sausages, cut into fifths (Nigella used chopped meat.  I had sausages in the house and could not imagine why it would not improve a chili recipe and it did.  Delicious.

Cornbread:

• 1/2 teaspoons salt
• 2 cups cornmeal
• 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder         
• 1 1/2 cups rice milk with one teaspoon vinegar
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoons honey
• 1/8 cup vegetable oil

Directions

Heat the oil in a  large crockpot and fry the onion until it begins to soften.

Add the chili and stir well.

Add the peppers and sausage. 

Cook for one hour on low in the crock pot.

Add the chopped tomatoes, ketchup, tomato sauce, and water stirring to make a rich red sauce.

When the chili starts to boil sprinkle over the cocoa and stir it in.

Add the beans and cook for up to four hours.

At this point you can cool and freeze the chili, or just keep it in the refrigerator overnight.

I refrigerated it and then transferred it to a large baking dish. 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F.

Pour the chili into a large, wide dish or keep in the pan you cooked it in if it is ovenproof.

Combine the salt, cornmeal, flour, baking powder, and cinnamon in a bowl. Whisk together the buttermilk, eggs, honey, and oil in a jug, and then stir into the dry ingredients mixing to make a vivid yellow batter.

Pour the cornmeal topping over the chili con carne, or blob it over to cover the top as evenly as possible.

Bake in a 425 degree oven for 30  minutes or until corn bread is done.  (We took it out too soon and the corn bread was soggy.  We sneaked a little and put it back for another ten minutes.  The corn bread finished cooking.

Let the chili stand for about 5 minutes once out of the oven before cutting the cornbread top into squares or slices to serve with a helping of chili underneath.

It was spicy and delicious.

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