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Archives for March 2009

Good old midwestern chili to cure the blizzard blues

Last Tuesday was quite the day for our region. After receiving 5 inches of new snow on Monday, Mother Nature decided to wallop us with a full out, horizontal snow, 30 below zero, batten down the hatches blizzard. Now, I love a good blizzard – in December or January. But it’s March! It’s time for all of this snow to melt! The whole region was shut down and we had to deal with another almost foot of snow that had been blown up into huge drifts aftermath.

What better on a cold spring winter’s day than a big steaming bowl of midwestern hamburger soup chili. Mine is pretty typical but I do like to add a few things that make it a bit more interesting. I started with ground beef and onions, of course. But I added chopped carrots as well. I use more than just kidney beans if I have them on hand. In this chili you might see some garbanzo beans in there as well as some black eyed peas. I like corn in my chili. Frozen corn tastes fresher than canned corn. For spices I don’t just reach for chili powder. I make my own mix. I ground my own blend in my trusty coffee spice grinder made from cumin seeds, coriander seeds, red chili flakes, a touch of oregano and, the secret ingredient, a cinnamon stick. This blend of spices went in near the beginning just after the meat was browned. Some canned crushed tomato and tomato sauce were added and the whole thing simmered up until good and cooked. I added a splash of sriracha hot sauce near the end. That’s at least one version of my midwestern chili.



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Hummus

This middle eastern garbanzo bean dip goes great with fresh made pita bread. And, it is so easy to make. I start with two cans of drained garbanzo beans. You can certainly cook them yourself but a can is so easy. I add a couple of cloves of garlic, juice of one lemon, 2 tbsp of tahini, salt and pepper. I place everything into the food processor and turn it on. I drizzle in olive oil until it is the right creamy consistency. You can add some water or some of the water from the bean can of you want to cut down on the amount of fat. This is garnished with kalamata olives and a sprinkle of ground sumac.

Chicken sausage and beans

I actually made this dish during Mardi Gras week but am only just now getting around to blog about it. It was Cajun inspired and thrown together at the last minute for a quick meal. This has some sliced chicken sausuage, red kidney beans, carrots, onions and garlic. I flavored it with some Old Bay seasoning and red chili powder. Some tomato paste and chicken broth helped create a wonderfully flavorful sauce to cook everything in.

Tofu and eggplant stir fry

If I may say so, this stir fry was absolutely fantastic! I love the slender Asian eggplant and it was perfect paired with tofu.

Here you can see my pan cubed tofu. I first threw in chopped garlic and ginger into the pan. That was followed by the tofu which I seasoned with a little soy sauce and some of that wonderful chili flakes in oil. You can see what half a teaspoon of it does to color this dish.

I stir fried the tofu on high heat until it was browned on all sides. This was removed from the pan and set aside.

Into the pan, still with the flavored oil from frying the tofu, I added more chopped garlic and ginger, onions and that delicious Asian eggplant.

The eggplant was fried until it began to get tender. The tofu was added back to the dish and it was seasoned with some sesame oil and soy sauce. One last thing I added was a teaspoon of Szechuan black bean and garlic paste. Oh, what a flavor! I was pleased with how the sauce clung to the food and not the pan! I definitely have to make this again.

Chicken and vegetable stir fry

Another stir fry with chicken breast this time. I flavored it with garlic chili paste and used carrots, bean sprouts and napa cabbage. Perfect over a bowl of sticky Korean rice!