Posts Tagged ‘chili’
Soupah’ (Could a Been a Chowdah’) Bowl
Better get my BlogtimOregon on again already. One meager post in January–here’s to keeping up with New Year’s resolutions. We made the Silver Palate’s ever-reliable “Chili for a Crowd” for the game. This is not your everyday chili. It’s got a unique Dijon mustard-olive-dill-Italian sausage-enhanced tang. We served it with two versions of cornbread: a maple syrup-enhanced one and another with whole kernels, inspired by the Baltimore food blog Coconut & Lime. Added some polenta to the mix to amp up its texture. And we chased it down with Oregon Trail Brown Ale, fresh from the 2.5-gallon beer pig.
Too bad I didn’t realize how appropriate chowder would be this year. Food52 had a cute Manhattan vs. New England Clam Chowder breakdown. Ironic that Manhattan wins hands down in my book. With a coughing baby needing attention, I barely watched a minute of the game. I don’t pretend to care about football, or any professional sports for that matter, but it’s hard to ignore America’s second biggest food holiday, worts (spelling intentional, prounced “wert” my KLCC editor reminds me) and all.
Chocolate Chili, with Local Beans, Local Grain
Kronis Purple and Moon Beam chili beans from nearby Matt-Cyn Farms.
Plus Stahlford Seed's Wheat berries
It’s been wicked cold, windy and usually dry (until today) in Oregon this week. You want to stay huddled under the covers, wear a hat and gloves even in the house when you emerge and eat steamy soup for dinner. So a hearty batch of refreshingly vegetarian soup we cooked up this week. I first made this Wheat Berry Chili recipe from the Ten Rivers Food Web last year. It’s not the most flavorful or unusual chili I’ve ever had, but it’s a great canvas on which I could showcase the locally grown wheat from Stalford Seed Farms and for the first time, locally grown dried beans lovingly raised by the husband-wife team behind Matt-Cyn Farms.
Matt and Cyndie grow a rainbow of 20-plus varieties of heirloom beans, including the Moon Beam chili ones and Kronis Purple kidney shaped ones that I used in the soup. Another secret ingredient: I substituted some spoonfuls of semi-sweet chocolate chips for the cocoa power the soup’s recipe called for. It’s not that far-fetched when you think of spicy chocolate mole sauces and the fact that most chili recipes feature a tiny bit of cocoa. But I can’t claim credit for the idea. I conveniently heard Nigella Lawson talking up such a recipe on NPR. The chips imbued the soup with creamy flavor that remained subtle, not in your face. Things did get a bit too spicy with the addition of jalapeno peppers I didn’t de-seed enough. It’s amazing how much pepper to pepper varies in heat.
I’ll post the simple recipe here tomorrow, as I’m now nodding off to sleep. But considering the warming pleasure of barley-like wheat berries and dried beans, especially if local farms are selling these crops in your area.
The chocolatey chili.
The Simplicity of Soup: A Meaty, Tangy Chili for the Ages
I have nothing but praise for this “Chili For a Crowd Recipe” from the venerable Silver Palate cookbook. We had it at an inauguration party, and I couldn’t wait to recreate it. Ah, The Silver Palate, that bible-like tome for those nouvelle foodies coming up in the 1980s. Fond memories of my parents peering over its sauce-splattered, dog-eared pages. I think I made our host feel old, referring to it as “my parent’s cookbook.” What will be our generation’s Silver Palate? Let’s hope it’s more Mark Bittman, and less Rachael Ray.
Chili demands cornbread: I made this rosemary/olive oil one from the Baltimore food blog Coconut & Lime. I halved the chili recipe and substituted brined kalamata olives, per our host’s directive. No need to drain the tomatoes– you’ll want that broth. The Italian sausage adds bite, but it did call for too much ground chuck, and not enough beans, for my taste. I might do ground turkey (or lamb and white beans!) next time. I can’t believe we’ve had beef two weeks in a row. Sinners, repent! At least tomorrow we are going to a soup lunch, sponsored by the statistics department, that’s a fundraiser for the Oregon State University Food Bank. Let’s hope they have vegetarian options:)
BaltimOregon to Maine 