Three Bean Chili

What I love about making chili is that it’s so easy to improvise. It turns out differently every time, but only gets better and better.

I used three types of beans for this version – black, pinto, and kidney. The base consisted of cooked down onions, red bell pepper, and poblano pepper. A few chipotle chilis gave it a smoky heat, and a mixture of ground chili, cumin, coriander, and oregano rounded out the flavor. We made this to eat while watching the first Pats game of the season, so adding a bottle of beer seemed appropriate.

This chili was the perfect match for beer and football. Beware though, it was quite spicy.

Three Bean Chili

Vegetable oil
2 large sweet onions, chopped
1 poblano pepper, seeded and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tbsp. coriander seed, toasted and ground*
1 tbsp. cumin seed, toasted and ground*
1 tbsp. Mexican oregano
1 tsp. hot chili powder (not a chili blend, just chili powder)
3 chipotle peppers, chopped
1 12-oz bottle of dark beer (we used Brooklyn Brown)
1 28-oz can of whole tomatoes
1 14-oz can black beans
1 14-oz can pinto beans
1 14-oz can kidney beans
1/3 c. cilantro, chopped
2 scallions, thinly sliced
Juice of half a lime
Avocado, for serving
Greek yogurt or sour cream, for serving

*I toast the whole seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat until lightly brown and fragrant, and then grind them.

Cook the onions in some vegetable oil over medium heat for about 15 minutes. Add the chopped poblano and red bell pepper. Cook for another 15 minutes until the vegetables are soft and lightly caramelized.

Add the garlic, coriander, cumin, oregano, chili powder, and chipotles. Cook for five minutes.

Add the beer and turn the heat up to high. Cook for about five minutes and add the tomatoes, crushing them before adding them to the pot. Once the tomatoes are simmering, add the beans.

Cook the chili for about an hour, adding water if it gets too dry. Right before serving, add the cilantro, scallions, and lime juice. Top with sliced avocados and a dollop of greek yogurt or sour cream. Crack open a beer.

Marco Canora Night – Part 2

Marco Canora’s ribolitta is made with a type of kale called cavolo nero (aka black cabbage, or Lacinato) and served with lots of parmesan cheese and crusty bread. The recipe can be either made with a meat stock, or with water to make it vegetarian. It’s so comforting, but extremely healthy as well.


I don’t think I had ever tried cavolo nero before. It’s a sturdy green that’s actually kind of funky smelling when raw. The recipe calls for it to be chopped extremely fine, which is not easy when you’re trying to chop eight cups worth! We read that one of his tricks is to freeze it overnight and then simply crumble it into the soup. Unfortunately, we didn’t think that far in advance. The results, though, were totally worth the effort.

Ribolitta

Ingredients


Olive oil
3 c. each carrots, celery, and onion, finely diced
1 small head (or half a large head) of savoy cabbage, chopped
1/3 c. + 1 Tbsp. tomato paste
8 c. finely cavolo nero, very finely chopped
5 c. cannellini beans, 3 c. pureed and 2 c. whole
10 c. water or meat stock

Instructions


Start by sautéing the carrot, celery, and onion in a couple of tablespoons of olive oil until soft but not browned. Be patient - this takes a little while. The pot should be covered for most of the time.


Next, add the savoy cabbage and cook for just a few minutes until it wilts.


Then add the tomato paste and stir until combined.


Add the cavolo nero.


Cook for about 20 minutes.


Add the water (or stock) the whole beans. When it comes to a boil, add bean puree and simmer away. I’m not sure if there’s an exact simmer time, but we let it go for about an hour.


Top the soup with parmesan cheese, olive oil, and crusty bread or toast points and there you have it: a yummy, comforting bowl of soup perfect for the winter.

Gazpacho with Smoked Paprika Croutons

I‘ve been making a lot of gazpacho this summer to make the most out of tomato season. In the past, I’ve made it the very traditional way with stale bread to thicken the soup, but we had a huge heirloom tomato from my neighbor’s garden last week that was so good that I just pureed it with some cucumber, garlic, olive oil, and sherry vinegar. I tried to roughly measure out what I used:

1 large heirloom tomato (about 2 cups chopped)
2/3 c. cucumber
½ clove garlic
½ Tbsp good quality sherry vinegar
1 ½ Tbsp good quality extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

I was going to strain it to remove the seeds and skin, but I found it not even necessary. This one tomato was kind of freakish in that it didn’t have many seeds and had a really thin skin. It was completely delicious, and less work for me!

To go on top, I made some smoked paprika croutons. I would normally use some kind of leftover, crusty bread to make croutons, but the only leftover bread I could find in the house was frozen hamburger buns. Not ideal, but it worked in a pinch! I removed the crust, cubed, tossed in some olive oil, salt, and smoked paprika. I put them in a 350 degree oven for probably about five minutes, until they were browned and crispy.

I served the gazpacho topped with some of the croutons, chopped chives, and a drizzle of really good extra virgin olive oil.