Smoky Red Rice and Chorizo with Black Beans

OK, first things first - when getting the seeds out of a serrano chile, please try as hard as you can not to actually touch the seeds. When I was making this last night, I had the brilliant idea that it would just be so much easier to take the seeds out by hand rather than struggle with a knife. WRONG! For the remainder of the night, my fingers itched; and any time I touched my face, either my nose started running or my eyes started tearing. The best part was actually this morning, when I tried to put my contacts in and it felt like my eyes were on fire for about 15 minutes. But don't worry, it's all better now, and the meal was very tasty!

Alright, now the second thing - my lovely friend Katie taught me how to set the white balance on my camera so that my pictures don't come out as yellow. Unfortunately, that means fooling with the aperture (I have no clue what these words really mean, so please don't ask me to clarify ;), which I do NOT know much about yet; and so that led to out of focus pictures. But again, don't worry, I am working on how to fix that as we speak.

Is ANYthing clear in this pic?

And now to the food! This meal was fairly simple to throw together. I loved all the spicy flavors; and except for the chorizo, this dish is pretty healthy as well! The original recipe says it makes 4 servings, but it gave us two larger servings with a few leftovers (yeah, we eat a lot). If you don't like heat, leave out one of both of the serrano chiles. I had to add some sour cream to the finished product because it was borderline too spicy for me!

Spicy Red Rice with Chorizo and Black Beans

adapted from Every Day with Rachael Ray

Makes 2 servings with leftovers

1 3/4 cups chicken broth
1 cup white rice
2 jarred roasted red peppers, drained
1/3 cup flat-leaf parsley, finely chopped, or about 3 teaspoons dried parsley
1 teaspoon paprika

olive oil
3/4- to 1-pound package Spanish chorizo, cut on an angle into 12 slices

2 serrano chiles, seeded and chopped
1/2 medium onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped

1 15-ounce can diced fire-roasted (if you can find them, otherwise regular is fine) tomatoes, drained

1 15-ounce can black beans, drained and rinsed
Salt and pepper

Bring the chicken broth to a boil in a medium pot. Add the rice, cover, lower the heat and simmer for 15 minutes, or until most of the liquid has been absorbed.

Using a food processor or mini-chopper, puree the roasted red peppers. Stir the puree into the rice along with the parsley and paprika. Cover, turn off the heat and let stand for 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a large skillet, heat about a tablespoon of olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the chorizo and cook until crisp, turning, about 3-4 minutes on each side. Remove and place on paper towels to drain.

Add the chiles, onion and garlic to the same skillet and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Turn heat to low and stir in the tomatoes, beans, and chorizo; season with salt and pepper and cook until heated through.

Spoon each serving of rice into a bowl and top with the bean mixture. Sprinkle with parsley if desired.