Homemade Chili Powder

If you want a fresh, custom chili powder, make you own! This is adapted from Alton Brown’s recipe. For medium heat, use ancho peppers. For more spice, use arbol or cayenne. Use a combination for a more complex flavor. Wear gloves when handling hot peppers.

Ingredients
5-6 Dried chilies, stemmed, seeded and sliced, use any combo
2 tablespoons whole cumin seeds
2 tablespoons garlic powder
1 tablespoon dried oregano
1 tablespoon smoked paprika

Method

  • Place the chilies and the cumin into a medium sauté pan. Cook on medium-high for about 3-4 minutes. You want the chilies and cumin to get slightly toasted, this releases more flavor. Set aside and cool.
  • Place all ingredients in a blender or spice grinder. Process until a fine powder is formed. Wait for the powder to settle before you remove the lid. Chili powder isn’t anything you want to breathe in. Store in an airtight container for up to 6 months.

This post is part of Monday Mania. and Pennywise Platter

Secret Ingredient Black Bean Chili

When the weather is cold and snowy, I find comfort in a big pot of bubbling chili and hot-out-of-the-oven cornbread with lots of butter. It almost makes the latest snowstorm tolerable … almost.

There are endless variations of and opinions on what goes or does not go into a good bowl of chili. Some think that there is no place for beans in chili. In fact, I’m pretty sure it is illegal to add beans to chili in the state of Texas. Others insist on using red kidney beans and nothing else will do. What I like about all the variations is the assortment of “secret” ingredients. Any chili chef worth his/her salt has a secret ingredient or two in their pot.

In the January/February issue of Cook’s Illustrated, the test kitchen looked into many chili secret weapons, including red wine, peanut butter, cola, prunes, coffee, cornmeal, beer, molasses, cocoa powder, anchovies and mushrooms. They gave the boot to all but beer, molasses, cocoa powder and cornmeal. While I was tempted to try them all (yes, all the winners and losers in the same pot), I refrained and only used a few.

I usually make chili with ground beef. My husband recently made a delicious pot with sirloin steak (coffee is his secret ingredient). Since I had lots of beans in my cupboard, I decided to go the veggie route. I always use dried beans. They do take time, but don’t require much effort.

I use dried beans for several reasons.

-They are more flavorful than canned beans.
-I have fewer cans to recycle.
-They are cheaper. Canned beans are pretty cheap, but organic beans can be around $2 a can. The dried, organic equivalent is about 60 cents.

A big reason I go for dried beans is that I try to avoid cans in general. Most cans are lined with Bisphenol A (BPA). The FDA assures us that it is safe, but I’ve read enough studies to think this endocrine disrupter isn’t anything I want touching my food.

Luckily, if you are in a hurry, there are a couple of options for beans. Eden Foods beans are packed in Bisphenol A (BPA) free cans. Amy’s Kitchen is going to start rolling out BPA free cans this year.

Unfortunately, canned tomatoes are the worst offenders because their acidic nature causes more of the BPA to leach into the food. I have yet to find canned tomatoes free of BPA. Don’t be fooled by thinking that organic canned tomatoes are BPA free, most, if not all are not (I’ve called and asked). Supposedly Muir Glen (owned by General Mills) has BPA free cans of tomatoes on the shelves, but they are being a bit cagey about it. If you buy a can today, it may or may not be BPA lined and there is no way to tell by the date canned. I’m assuming when all of their cans are BPA free, they will send the all-clear signal. Until then, I use home-canned tomatoes in glass, store-bought tomatoes in glass or those packed in aseptic packaging (the waxy-looking box).

My favorite part of chili is all the fixings. Sour cream or plain yogurt, cheddar cheese and raw chopped onions are a must for me. I also like to throw in avocado and cilantro if I have them hanging around.

And, of course, probably the best garnish for chili is a cold mug of beer!

Stay warm!


Black Bean Chili

This is a vegetarian recipe but, if you fancy, by all means, add some meat!

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
2 tablespoons molasses
1 large box (26 ounces) chopped tomatoes, undrained
1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
2 cups vegetable stock
4 cups cooked black beans
2 cups fresh or frozen corn
1/2 to 1 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
1/2 to 1 teaspoon black pepper (more to taste)

For garnish:
Cilantro, chopped
Cheddar cheese, grated
Sour cream or plain yogurt
Onions, chopped
Avocado, chopped

Method:

  • In a large pot, add olive oil and onions, sauté over medium-high heat for a couple of minutes. Add peppers and garlic and sauté another minute.
  • Add spices, cocoa powder, tomatoes, vinegar and stock; bring to a boil. Add black beans and corn.
  • Reduce heat to low and simmer for at least 30 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add salt and pepper to taste. Ladle a hefty serving into each bowl and top with garnishes.

How to cook dried beans:

  • Decide on the amount you want to cook. One cup of dried beans equals 2.5 cooked. While you are cooking beans, you might as well make extra. You can freeze the leftovers and grab them when you want a quick meal.
  • Sort through the beans, rinse and pick out any little pebbles. Most of the time I don’t find any, but that time or two that I do, my teeth are happy I took the extra step.
  • There is a big culinary debate about whether to soak or not to soak beans. Apparently it is a toss up on whether you save time and reduce the bean’s gas-producing properties. I always soak unless I forget, then I just cook them.
  • To soak, place beans in a large bowl or pot and cover with cold water. If any beans float to the top, remove them (they are too old). Soak for at least six hours, but preferably overnight. I keep them out on the counter.
  • Drain the beans and discard the liquid.
  • Place the beans in a heavy-bottomed pot and cover them with water. Add enough so that there are a couple inches of water above the beans. Bring to a boil, cover and turn the heat to low. Add more water if the water level dips below the beans. Stir occasionally. Cook until bite-tender. This will take one to two hours, depending on the beans.
  • Drain and use now or freeze.

Slow-Cooking variation: Place beans in slow cooker, cover with water and soak overnight. Drain; add fresh water to cover with two additional inches. Cover and cook on low for eight hours.

This post is part of  The Nourishing Gourmet’s Pennywise Platter Thursday and Fight Back Fridays and The Healthy Home Economist Monday Mania.

How I was deprived of grits…

The first time I remember eating grits was in Boulder, Colorado. After college, I worked at a fancy-pants restaurant called Q’s in the Hotel Boulderado and we served pan-seared pork chops with blue cheese grits. It was the perfect, albeit not traditional, introduction into the corn-mush dish.

If you are wondering how I, as a southerner, made it until my 20s before I had grits, you aren’t alone. I wondered this, too. I asked my sister about it. Like me, she didn’t have grits at home growing up. I would say her first grits experience was a little more true to our southern roots since she had them in Columbus, Georgia, with our grandfather, aka, Poppa Gus.

I also asked my mom. She first said, “What? Are you going to write about how I deprived you of grits growing up?” I would never do such a thing. Then she said that she and my dad did indeed eat them often but “You guys just weren’t interested in them.” Yes, my mother, who was born in Mississippi, says “you guys” instead of “y’all.” Go figure.

My brother could not be reached for comment, at least not by my deadline. I do know that at least now, he eats grits. He recently sent me a pound of stone ground grits from McEwen & Sons Gristmill in Wilsonville, Alabama. They mill excellent organic corn products.

Let me back up a bit. Though the package was clearly labeled “grits,” my brother didn’t really send me a pound of grits, he sent me a pound of coarse, stone-ground cornmeal. I can turn the cornmeal into grits, polenta, cornbread or hamburger corn pone (Southern fare my family did eat).

What’s in a name? With grits and polenta, not much. Grits and polenta are both made with the same thing — ground dried corn kernels. The terms grits and polenta really just refer to the dishes made from ground corn. Some food companies, Bob’s Red Mills for one, label their coarse cornmeal with both “grits” and “polenta.”

To make matters more complicated, southern grits are often made from white corn hominy, so you will often see hominy grits on menus.

Hominy grits are a bit different. Hominy is hulled corn kernels, stripped of their bran and germ and nixtamalized. Nixtamalization is a process of treating the corn with an alkaline solution, such as lye. This makes the kernels swell to several times their natural size and increases the bioavailability of niacin (a fancy way of saying it’s easier for your body to use). When ground, the hominy grits are, well, grittier, than regular grits. They have more of a tooth to them.

For some people, it’s hominy grits or nothing. For me, I prefer yellow stone ground grits, but then, what does a late grits bloomer like myself know!

Blue Cheese Grits

Ingredients
4 cups water
3/4 teaspoon salt (more to taste)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 cup coarse stone-ground grits
1/2 cup whole milk
1 cup crumbled blue cheese
1/4 teaspoon black pepper (more to taste)

Method

  • Bring water and salt to a boil in a large heavy saucepan. While stirring, gradually add grits. Stir often with a wooden spoon.
  • Reduce heat and cook at a bare simmer, uncovered, stirring frequently. Cook until the water is absorbed and grits have thickened, about 25 minutes. As the grits start to thicken, be sure to scrape the bottom of the pan (they have a tendency to stick).
  • Stir in butter, milk, blue cheese and pepper. Continue to heat on low until it is the right consistency, which for some is on the thin side but, for me, is more like mashed potatoes.
  • Salt and pepper to taste. I almost always need more pepper.

Serves 6-8.

Participating in Monday-Mania.