Smokin' Hot Chocolate Chili
I got out of work a half-hour early on Monday and rode my bike seven miles to Harvest Health. For the chili, I got some generic TVP (called Harvest Burger), peppers, beans, and some spices I didn’t think I had. Harvest Health is a great place for spices you might or might not have because you can get little bags for 79 cents.
I also got some more tofu (firm and extra firm) for the spinach and tofu lasagne I plan on making someday.
Soy protein powder (cheap in bulk) was on the grocery list, too. With 20 miles on the bike for this week already, I will soon be carved out of wood. I think I will start keeping a tally of my bike miles for the week. Each week, you can find out how many BMs I have (insert laughter).
This week is chili week, and I’m not lying when I call it a week, either. It takes me a long time to get everything ready, not to mention I usually end up going back to the store at least once. You have to soak the beans overnight, then you heat them a little until they’re soft, then you drain them, then you put them back in the pot with all your other stuff, then you heat it more, then you add a pinch of this or that to taste, and then you might even want to top it with a little shredded soy cheese. Most of these steps take hours (except the optional topping with the soy cheese step). Those hours combine forces to form days. Those days secret handshake each other, do a whirligig dance, and turn into a week. That week is called chili week.
A fun thing about chili is that you make it sans-recipe, which is how I usually roll. Each chili outcome will be a different surprise, which you may name as you see fit. My previous forays into chili have produced such greats as: Liberty, Freedom, Communist Red, Smog, and Mean Green.
I am putting a decent amount of carob powder in this chili, as well as a lot of heat, and a bit of smoke. I would dare say this batch of "Smokin' Hot Chocolate Chili" pretty much named itself.
Ingredients:
Beans - I like to use more than one kind. In this case black and adzuki. Make sure you use beans with similar cooking times, though, or you will wind up with half being undercooked and the other half being mushy.
1 sweet onion
1 green pepper
Tomatoes (diced, crushed, canned, whatever, as long as they are in pourable form)
Some dried red peppers (enough to suit your taste)
Minced garlic
Textured vegetable protein
Tamarind
Carob or cocoa powder
Molasses
Liquid Smoke (if you don't know what this is, you gotsta learn, sucka)
Chili powder
Note: I'm using a fairly regular-sized crock pot here, other size vessels will change the amount of ingredients.
You will have to let the beans soak for at least 8 hours if you want them to cook right. I poured them in a crock pot of cold water early Monday evening. Tuesday morning, I turned the crock pot on, set it at "Low," and went to work.
When I got back from work, I noticed that the crock pot was filled to the top with beans, so I put some in a container and set it in the fridge to use for another time.
Once the beans have been cooking long enough to be soft, add your tomatoes, about 3 tablespoons of Liquid Smoke, the dried red peppers, 2 tablespoons of chili powder, 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic, and about 1/3 cup of molasses.
Now dice your pepper and onion. I have a great knife for dicing, called an "ulu." It's a knife from Alaska, where the native peoples used it long ago to clean fish. Today, some Alaskans still use ulus but they use them to cut pizza, although some might still cut fish. Either way, if you don't have an ulu, I suggest you look into it. It is a great tool for dicing things.
Add the pepper and onion to the chili, give it a good stir and taste a little to see if you have the right amount of spice.
Now it's time for tamarind. I'm not going to say these things are easy to cook with - they can be a real pain - but here's a quick lesson in how to get the best out of them.
Tamarind pods have a hard outer shell that you can easily break. Inside is a sour/sweet gummy pulp, which covers the tamarind seeds. The gummy pulp is what you want but removing the seeds can be tricky.
I find that boiling tamarind is the best way to get rid of the seeds. To do this, you want to first fill a saucepan with about a cup of water and set it on the stove to boil. Crack open 4 or 5 tamarind pods and discard the shells and all the stringy parts from around the pulp. Put the tamarinds in the pan and let them boil down for a few minutes, checking occasionally so as not to burn the pulp. You will wind up with a syrupy/tamarindy soup.
Pour the boiled tamarind through a strainer into your chili. Give the stainer a few shakes so you get all the good syrup out. This is going to add a tangy flavor to your chili.
After the tamarind comes one of the more storied ingredients, one which can make more difference than some realize - the chocolate. I like to use about 1/2 cup of carob powder in my crock pot. Cocoa powder works, too, just be careful it's not "dutched" or has sugar added. Sugar is not what you are looking for here, it's the natural flavor of the roasted carob or cocoa beans. You don't want to add too much that the flavor is overpowering, though. Add a little chocolate, stir, taste test, and repeat if necessary. After you add your chocolate, stir the chili up until there is no powder still glomming on to your spoon.
The chili is almost done except for one last thing, the meat, except I'm not using meat, I'm using textured vegetable protein (TVP) which adds an incredibly similar texture without the ethical or dietary concern. You have to figure that TVP will double in size when fully saturated with liquid so don't add too much or your pot will overflow. But, you can also use the TVP to soak up excess liquid. If you chili is runnier than it should be, maybe you should use a little more TVP. I use about 1 1/2 cups in my chili but I try to go heavy on everything else, first. After you add the TVP, stir the chili up again and let it sit for another hour or two. This may seem like it takes forever but believe me, it's worth it.
When the time has come, or you can't wait any longer, gra the biggest bowl you can find and dish yourself up some chili. Some people like sour cream, others like cheese. I'm using a dairy-free version of both in the picture below.
Variations:
If you can't find enough willpower to experiment with something that takes two days to make, you've got no business holding that spoon in your hand. There is really no easy way to screw up chili if you ask me. And, if you do screw it up, you probably wanted to in the first place.
-Matt
I also got some more tofu (firm and extra firm) for the spinach and tofu lasagne I plan on making someday.
Soy protein powder (cheap in bulk) was on the grocery list, too. With 20 miles on the bike for this week already, I will soon be carved out of wood. I think I will start keeping a tally of my bike miles for the week. Each week, you can find out how many BMs I have (insert laughter).
This week is chili week, and I’m not lying when I call it a week, either. It takes me a long time to get everything ready, not to mention I usually end up going back to the store at least once. You have to soak the beans overnight, then you heat them a little until they’re soft, then you drain them, then you put them back in the pot with all your other stuff, then you heat it more, then you add a pinch of this or that to taste, and then you might even want to top it with a little shredded soy cheese. Most of these steps take hours (except the optional topping with the soy cheese step). Those hours combine forces to form days. Those days secret handshake each other, do a whirligig dance, and turn into a week. That week is called chili week.
A fun thing about chili is that you make it sans-recipe, which is how I usually roll. Each chili outcome will be a different surprise, which you may name as you see fit. My previous forays into chili have produced such greats as: Liberty, Freedom, Communist Red, Smog, and Mean Green.
I am putting a decent amount of carob powder in this chili, as well as a lot of heat, and a bit of smoke. I would dare say this batch of "Smokin' Hot Chocolate Chili" pretty much named itself.
Ingredients:
Beans - I like to use more than one kind. In this case black and adzuki. Make sure you use beans with similar cooking times, though, or you will wind up with half being undercooked and the other half being mushy.
1 sweet onion
1 green pepper
Tomatoes (diced, crushed, canned, whatever, as long as they are in pourable form)
Some dried red peppers (enough to suit your taste)
Minced garlic
Textured vegetable protein
Tamarind
Carob or cocoa powder
Molasses
Liquid Smoke (if you don't know what this is, you gotsta learn, sucka)
Chili powder
Note: I'm using a fairly regular-sized crock pot here, other size vessels will change the amount of ingredients.
You will have to let the beans soak for at least 8 hours if you want them to cook right. I poured them in a crock pot of cold water early Monday evening. Tuesday morning, I turned the crock pot on, set it at "Low," and went to work.
When I got back from work, I noticed that the crock pot was filled to the top with beans, so I put some in a container and set it in the fridge to use for another time.
Once the beans have been cooking long enough to be soft, add your tomatoes, about 3 tablespoons of Liquid Smoke, the dried red peppers, 2 tablespoons of chili powder, 1 1/2 tablespoons minced garlic, and about 1/3 cup of molasses.
Now dice your pepper and onion. I have a great knife for dicing, called an "ulu." It's a knife from Alaska, where the native peoples used it long ago to clean fish. Today, some Alaskans still use ulus but they use them to cut pizza, although some might still cut fish. Either way, if you don't have an ulu, I suggest you look into it. It is a great tool for dicing things.
Add the pepper and onion to the chili, give it a good stir and taste a little to see if you have the right amount of spice.
Now it's time for tamarind. I'm not going to say these things are easy to cook with - they can be a real pain - but here's a quick lesson in how to get the best out of them.
Tamarind pods have a hard outer shell that you can easily break. Inside is a sour/sweet gummy pulp, which covers the tamarind seeds. The gummy pulp is what you want but removing the seeds can be tricky.
I find that boiling tamarind is the best way to get rid of the seeds. To do this, you want to first fill a saucepan with about a cup of water and set it on the stove to boil. Crack open 4 or 5 tamarind pods and discard the shells and all the stringy parts from around the pulp. Put the tamarinds in the pan and let them boil down for a few minutes, checking occasionally so as not to burn the pulp. You will wind up with a syrupy/tamarindy soup.
Pour the boiled tamarind through a strainer into your chili. Give the stainer a few shakes so you get all the good syrup out. This is going to add a tangy flavor to your chili.
After the tamarind comes one of the more storied ingredients, one which can make more difference than some realize - the chocolate. I like to use about 1/2 cup of carob powder in my crock pot. Cocoa powder works, too, just be careful it's not "dutched" or has sugar added. Sugar is not what you are looking for here, it's the natural flavor of the roasted carob or cocoa beans. You don't want to add too much that the flavor is overpowering, though. Add a little chocolate, stir, taste test, and repeat if necessary. After you add your chocolate, stir the chili up until there is no powder still glomming on to your spoon.
The chili is almost done except for one last thing, the meat, except I'm not using meat, I'm using textured vegetable protein (TVP) which adds an incredibly similar texture without the ethical or dietary concern. You have to figure that TVP will double in size when fully saturated with liquid so don't add too much or your pot will overflow. But, you can also use the TVP to soak up excess liquid. If you chili is runnier than it should be, maybe you should use a little more TVP. I use about 1 1/2 cups in my chili but I try to go heavy on everything else, first. After you add the TVP, stir the chili up again and let it sit for another hour or two. This may seem like it takes forever but believe me, it's worth it.
When the time has come, or you can't wait any longer, gra the biggest bowl you can find and dish yourself up some chili. Some people like sour cream, others like cheese. I'm using a dairy-free version of both in the picture below.
Variations:
If you can't find enough willpower to experiment with something that takes two days to make, you've got no business holding that spoon in your hand. There is really no easy way to screw up chili if you ask me. And, if you do screw it up, you probably wanted to in the first place.
-Matt
posted by Matthew @ 9:51 PM
2 Comments:
At January 20, 2006,
Anonymous said…
Is there a subistitute that you can use for the tamarind? Is it bad if you don't use it?
At January 20, 2006,
Anonymous said…
You can use Apple cider vinegar, if you would like. You don't have to use it at all if you don't want to. Worcestire has tamarind in it and you can use that too, but it is not a vegetarian product.
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