the best chili recipe EVER.

this one is cincinnati-style. if you’ve never tried making chili like this before, you’re missing out. it’s vegan. it’s hearty. it’s filling. it’s healthy. and it’s jam-packed with flavor. this one’s a crowd-pleaser, and really easy, too. basically, you just boil things. did i mention that it’s really, really cheap to make?

this recipe is a combination of my trial and error and suggestions from kathy, who went to school in ohio.

+

beans:
i like a combination. mostly red kidney with a few other kinds thrown in as well. try anything. black-eyed peas are always a favorite. white beans and black lentils are another favorite. but anything works.

quick-soak them.
(that just means: boil lidded for about a minute in tons of water, leave the lid on, and soak for an hour.)

drain. in same pot, fry onions in a heavy fat (coconut oil or leftover meat grease are both great).

add fresh water and beans, and begin boiling again.

add a can of whole tomatoes, or a mess of fresh tomatoes.
add a bay leaf.
add a bunch of fresh garlic.

season with tons of:
paprika
cumin
coriander
garlic or garlic powder
molasses
powdered unsweetened cocoa
red wine, red wine vinegar, or a red cooking wine (apple cider vinegar’s good, too)

a few pinches of:
oregano
allspice
cinnamon
cayenne

and just a pinch of:
clove
nutmeg
mace

+

serve on spaghetti with cheese on top if you like it cincinnati-style. or do it healthy: top it with plain yogurt and have it with a salad.

other variations?
sometimes i throw in a few scoops of leftover cooked veggies, or any number of other partially-roasted veggies. roasted peppers, of course, are great, but be creative! zucchini, eggplant, green beans, cauliflower: anything works in chili!
if you have anything roasty or smoky, like roasted garlic, roasted hot peppers, smoked sea salt or smoked pepper, roasted coriander, or bits of smoked meats or fish, throw those in! the smoky flavor works perfectly with beans.
meat-eaters can cut up bits of pork belly to fry with the onion in the beginning. ground meat, of course, is traditional, but i tend to avoid it in chili. why add meat? it’s delicious just like it is!

+

chili is not scary! if you’ve never made it, do it now, before it gets too hot outside!

ribs – dry-rubbed and basted with bbq

my first ribs!

st louis style:
trim membrane and excess fat and rib tips

rub raw ribs with paprika, brown sugar, garlic, cumin, roasted coriander, ginger, salt, black pepper, cayenne, and onion powder.

let sit in fridge for a few hours.

cook at 300

they went into the oven at 6:45ish.

around 9ish, got turned down to 200

around 9:30, got basted with bbq sauce and broiled for a few minutes

TWO DAYS LATER:
they’re gone.
this is simply…
amazing.

smothered pork chops

Smothered Pork Chops
barely adapted from Tyler Florence (via Food Network)

1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons onion powder
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon cayenne
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
4 pork chops, 3/4-inch thick, bone-in
1/4 cup canola oil
1 cup low-sodium chicken broth
1/2 cup buttermilk
2 tablespoons chopped fresh parsley

Add the flour, onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne, salt and pepper to a wide, shallow bowl. Stir to combine. Pat both sides of the pork chops dry, then dredge them in the flour mixture.

Set a large cast iron pan or skillet over medium-high heat and add the oil. When it shimmers, shake any excess flour off the pork chops and carefully add them to the skillet. Cook for about 3 minutes on each side, or until the chops are golden brown. Transfer the pork to a plate and tent to keep warm. Sprinkle about 1 tablespoon of the seasoned flour over the pan drippings (the exact quantity of flour isn’t super important) and whisk to incorporate into the fat and cook off some of the raw flour flavor. Add the chicken broth and whisk to combine. Let the liquid cook down for about 5 minutes, or until reduced and slightly thickened. Whisk in the buttermilk then return the pork chops to the pan. Simmer for 5 minutes, or until the pork is cooked through (at least 145 F on an instant-read thermometer). Season the gravy to taste with salt and pepper and sprinkle with the parsley before serving.

+

from http://traceysculinaryadventures.blogspot.com/2012/04/smothered-pork-chops.html

pork and poblano tamale pie (with diy green enchilada sauce)

a good old-fashioned american recipe. by “american”, i mean, does tamale pie really count as mexican? neither tamale nor pie, i told my friend we’d have to call it something different. nothing quite sounds right, though. rice-and-beans cornbread pie? poblano-pork cornbread-lasagna con salsa verde? who cares; it’s good. not quick, but very easy.

+

i miss the tamale guy. i no longer live in a city. i am not going to simmer pork cheeks all day. a tamale craving out in the country? this will have to do.

here’s what i actually did:

PORK AND POBLANO TAMALE PIE___
(my version)

==green enchilada sauce:

a can of mild green chiles
half-can of hot jalapenos
a carrot
a head of roasted garlic
a roasted poblano
a raw yellow pepper (any bell pepper is fine)
cilantro (key, but i’m somehow out – used it all for kofta curry meatballs last night. used some raw mixed greens like arugala instead.)
a great deal of onion (houseguest refuses, so we’re going without, and it still smells wonderful)
cumin
coriander
oregano
a kiwi (wait, what? well, no tomatillos; why not?)
salt
a splash of lime juice
two drops of fish sauce

stick all that in the food processor and grind it up.

fix up some stock or bouillon and dump the ground-up veg matter (which should smell and taste amazing) into the stock. add a pat of lard if you have a greasy bacon-juice jar in the back of your fridge.

boil a while. some say an hour. you can stick it in a slow cooker if you have one – i don’t. really i’m guessing any amount of time is fine – even raw if you really wanted to. why not?

==pork

salt and brown a few pork steaks and chop em up into little bite-sized pieces.

next, you want to boil the pork steaks in the green sauce. i added a half-cup rice, a half-cup black lentils, and two cups water to the pork and green sauce and cooked it all together. i don’t know how long. until they are cooked? a while.

==cornbread topping

3/4 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup yellow cornmeal (preferably whole-grain stone-ground)
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
cumin
coriander
3/4 cup whole milk
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1 large egg
1 tablespoon honey
a bunch of cheese
half a can of corn

= the process

butter a pan and line it with pork-and-rice-and-chile-sauce mixture.

crack a few eggs on top.

you are layering these, by the way.

pour cornbread mixture on top of that.

grate tons of cheese on top of that.

bake at 400 until cornbread’s done.

tweaked a recipe i originally found here

+

8:24pm
smell-wise:
so far, so good.

green sauce is bubbling on the stove and smells wonderful. i’ll add meat in another moment or two.

10:15pm
the whole thing’s in the oven. smells wonderful in here.

3/11
we finished it for breakfast. awesome, although i don’t know how much more special it is than rice and beans with cheesy cornbread on the side. will make this again.

sourdough biscuits

what is up with my sourdough starters???

+

modified this recipe slightly

Sourdough Biscuits
makes around 10 biscuits

2-1/2 cups flour
1/3 cup lard, (yes, lard, the “most elegant fat you’ll ever meet”) cold and cut into chunks, or a mix of half lard and half cold/frozen butter
1 Tablespoon sugar
3/4 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
(ed: half a teaspoon of packaged yeast, since my starter is still weak)
1 cup sourdough starter, freshly fed a few hours earlier
up to 1 cup of milk
melted butter

In a large bowl, sift together all the dry ingredients except the baking soda. Using your fingers or a pastry cutter (I use my fingers) cut in the lard (yes, lard. Don’t even try substituting shortening. Lard is where it’s at for flaky biscuits, pie crusts and tortillas. ) or lard and butter into the dry ingredients until it is mealy and the fat is in roughly pea-size pieces, evenly distributed throughout the flour. Add the starter and stir well.

Now, mix the baking soda with just a teaspoon or so of warm water. Add to the dough and stir well.

Then, add in just enough milk to make a biscuit dough. Biscuit dough should be quite sticky and just stick together. It should never be dry.

Dump biscuit dough onto a lightly floured surface, turning to lightly cover with flour and just barely, with your hands, push the dough together to form a rough rectangle. Gently press down until it is about an inch and a half depth.

I have made dozens and dozens of biscuits and have tried all kinds of techniques. I find that my biscuits are lighter and fluffier when I don’t overwork the dough, don’t flour too much and don’t use a rolling pin! The pressure from your hands is enough.

The dough should feel like a soft baby’s bottom.

Now, using a biscuit cutter, or even just a glass, dip the cutter into flour and then quickly cut the biscuits, making sure to have as little waste as possible between cuts. You can (and will be) reforming the dough to make more biscuits until the dough is used up, but the fluffiest, lightest, highest raising biscuits will be the ones that you cut from the first batch.

So try hard to get as many biscuits out of that first cutting as possible.

Why? Because biscuits are pastry and they become flaky through the interspersing of fat throughout the dough melting during baking and making layers. The more times you press the dough together, the more the fat pockets will disperse, the layers will flatten, and the biscuits will be denser. I’m sure someone, somewhere explained it more eloquently, but that is just how it works around here.

Place biscuits, touching, on a greased baking pan or 9″x13″ pan. Allow to rest and rise for about half to one hour.

Right before baking, baste the tops of the biscuits with melted butter (this was the secret at the Colonel’s, by the way) and bake in a 375 degree Fahrenheit oven for 30-35 minutes.

+

i will be the first to admit that i did not follow this by the letter. next time i will, because they definitely didn’t rise very much in the hour they hung out before being baked.

they are, of course, completely delicious and buttery even when dense and i’ll have no trouble eating all of them, especially when slathered in veggie gravy or leftover veggie stew.

vegan “gravy”

for use with biscuits
(or on top of vegetable stir-fry, as a base for soup [diluted], as a dip, over khichdi or pasta, with eggs scrambled in it for breakfast or on top of pancakes or grits, with bread… the list goes on and on.)

fry onions til translucent (preferably in butter or coconut oil, but anything is ok)
add garlic
add roasted garlic
add coriander, nutmeg, cumin, black pepper, salt, cinnamon, and ginger, and stir-fry for a minute or two
add vegetable stock, bouillon, or broth and cooking wine (maybe a dash of balsamic or acv)
add fresh herbs, whatever you have, and dried herbs (i like rosemary and sage, but anything could work)
boil until delicious
(optional: for white gravy, add a combination of kefir and milk, or almond milk, or watered-down coconut milk, or really anything creamy – cauliflower puree would probably do the trick, too. for brown gravy, add a browned roux if you eat butter, or just caramelize the onions and garlic in the beginning.)
add flour or starch (corn, potato, whatever you have) or both until it reaches the desired thickness.

sourdough cornbread 2

Preheat oven to 425F. Grease an 8 x 8-inch baking pan liberally with shortening or butter. In a large mixing bowl, combine

1 C stone-ground yellow cornmeal

2 T sugar

1/4 C butter/oil

1/2 tsp salt

1 C scalded milk

Stir to dissolve butter and sugar. let cool until just warm. Blend in

1 C sourdough starter

1 egg

1 tsp baking powder

Beat well. Pour into prepared pan. Bake at 425F for 30 – 35 minutes. Serve warm with butter and preserves. Makes 9 servings.

from here

+

i tried to make this recipe, and the dough came out so dry i thought there must be some major difference in the hydration of my sourdough starter. i searched online for another recipe and added the scalded milk (part scalded kefir, too).

now we’ll see!

+

9:21 pm
just popped it in the oven
it smells great, but the batter is REALLY wet

i’m suspicious

+

next day:

not bad! the batter was so wet, i wasn’t sure it would be good, but it’s decent! i added basil and cayenne. i’m still not satisfied, though. the texture wasn’t quite right. also, too much corn. stay tuned for sourdough cornbread 3.

sourdough cornbread

update 1/28:
no good. trying this one instead.

+

Sourdough Cornbread

1 cup sourdough starter
1/3 cup oil or butter
1 egg
1/2 cup flour
3/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 cup salt
1 cup cornmeal

Mix sourdough starter, egg and oil. Sift together dry ingredients. Add to sourdough mixture. Mix until well blended. Pour into an 8-inch square pan. Bake at 350 degrees F for 25 to 30 minutes.

+

from southern living.

rolled oats ragged robins

another strange vintage american recipe – this one from a 1918 text “Foods that Will Win the War and How to Cook Them“

they appear to be oat biscuits.

ever read the invisibles? ragged robin is a pretty compelling character. never knew she was named after a kind of biscuit.

Ingredients
•1 1/2 cups rolled oats
•1 cup bread flour
•1 1/3 teaspoons salt
•1 1/3 cups milk
•2 1/2 teaspoons cream of tartar
•4 tablespoons fat
•1 1/4 teaspoons soda

Instructions

Sift dry ingredients. Cut in the fat. Add liquid and drop by spoonfuls on greased baking sheet. Bake in hot oven 12 to 15 minutes. These may be rolled and cut same as baking powder biscuits. (If uncooked rolled oats are used, allow to stand in the milk for 30 minutes before making recipe.)

lentil puff

another vintage beauty from vintagerecipes.net.

this one comes from lentils and their preparation, Women’s Institute of Cookery, Volume 2. published 1928.

-

29. LENTIL PUFF.–A decided change from the
usual ways of preparing lentils can be had by making lentil puff. Black
lentils are used for this preparation, and they are made into a puree
before being used in the puff. If the accompanying recipe is carefully
followed, a most appetizing, as well as nutritious, dish will be
the result.

LENTIL PUFF
(Sufficient to Serve Six)

1-1/4 c. lentil puree
1-1/2 c. riced potatoes
2 Tb. butter
1/2 c. milk
1-1/2 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. pepper
2 eggs

Soak the lentils overnight in water that contains a pinch of soda,
parboil them for about 10 minutes, and pour off the water. Put them to
cook in cold water and cook until they are tender, allowing the water to
evaporate completely, if possible, so that the puree made from them will
be dry. However, if any water remains when the lentils are done, pour it
off and use it for soup or sauce. Make the puree by forcing the cooked
lentils through a colander. If it is found to be too wet, less milk can
be used than the recipe calls for. Cook several potatoes and rice them
by forcing them through a colander or a ricer. Combine the lentils and
potatoes, and to this mixture add the butter, milk, salt, and pepper.
Separate the eggs, and beat the yolks slightly and the whites until
stiff. Stir the yolks into the mixture and, just before putting the puff
into the oven, fold in the whites. Pour into a buttered baking dish, set
in the oven, and bake until the puff is set and the surface is brown.
Serve hot.