Turkey-Black Bean Chili

Chili is a dish that can elicit strong opinions. I've seen notable sources claims that chili is 1) a preparation of meat and chilies that should not contain beans and 2) basically beans cooked with cumin. Whoa. Sounds like a smackdown in the making.

Regions play a role in defining chili. Texas chili, for example, is known to contain meat and chilies and nothing else, while Cincinnati chili includes cinnamon and chocolate and is often served over spaghetti.

I like mine with either ground beef or the lower-fat alternative of ground turkey. I also like lots of vegetables. Call it a chili stew if you like, but I don't care. It's really good.

I season my chili with a mixture of chipotle chili powder, cumin, dried oregano, seasoned salt and fresh-ground black pepper. For the sauce, I use tomato paste, balsamic vinegar, Worcestershire sauce, and chicken broth. To impart a pleasing smokiness to the dish, I use a combination of liquid smoke flavor and smoked paprika, in addition to the chipotle chili powder, which is also smoky. Read between the lines and you'll see the flavors of barbecue sauce, and in fact years ago I used to make this chili with barbecue sauce and beer, although I've refined the recipe a bit since then. It's a pretty versatile dish, so feel free to play around to find flavors that suit you.

When sautéing the ingredients, I like to use a large oval sauté pan so I can set part of it over the heat and then move the ground meat off the heated area once its browned without having to take it out of the pan. It's a trick I learned years ago watching Rachel Ray, and I find it saves times.

Using a large oval sauté pan allows you move the meat to one side while sautéing the vegetables, rather than having to remove it from the pan. 

Yes, the ingredients list is long, but this is a forgiving recipe, so omit/adapt as you feel fit. And by the way, it's really good served with corn bread.

Turkey-Black Bean Chili

1 lb. ground turkey (thigh or white meat, may use ground beef instead)
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
1 large sweet onion, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
2 tsp. seasoned salt (adjust to taste)
2 tsp. smoked paprika
1 tbsp. ground cumin
1 tbsp. dried oregano
1 tbsp. fresh-ground black pepper (adjust to taste)
1/2 tsp. chipotle chili powder (or more if you like it spicier)
2 tbsp. brown sugar
1 6-oz. can tomato paste
2 tbsp. worcestershire sauce
2 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. liquid smoke flavor
1 29-oz. can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 15 oz. can diced fire-roasted tomatoes
3/4 cup frozen corn kernels
2 cups chicken broth
shredded cheddar cheese

1. Heat a large sauté pan or dutch oven over medium heat. Brown ground meat and set aside or push to side of pan off heat. Drain off any rendered liquid (when using turkey, it produces a lot of water, and I find removing it before adding the vegetables makes them cook faster).

2. Add bell pepper, onion and garlic to pan. Sauté until softened. Stir with ground meat and add spices through brown sugar. Sauté a couple more minutes until vegetables take on a little color then add all of the rest of the ingredients through chicken broth. Cover pan, raise heat to medium-high until it bubbles. Stir well and then lower heat and simmer, covered about 10-15 minutes. Serve in bowls topped with shredded cheese.

Smoky Ginger Cocktail

A few weeks ago, I mentioned a smoky cocktail with ginger beer from District of Pi. It inspired me to make this drink, which features muddled fresh oregano.

The star player her is mezcal, a Mexican spirit similar to tequila but with an intense smoke flavor that comes from roasting the maguey, the form of agave that is the liquor's basis.

I see mezcal more and more on cocktail menus these days and after using it, I can see why. Its smoke flavor is much more intense than that of scotch, another spirit used to add a hint of smoke. There's no hint here; more like a punch.

For this drink, I used the Del Maguey brand Vida mezcal. A lot of the mezcals on the market come with a worm or other dead animal sitting at the bottom of the bottle. I find that rather repulsive. Del Maguey has no use for such gimmicks and I believe their spirits are generally regarded as higher quality than the brands with the bugs.

Smoky Ginger Cocktail

1/2 oz. fresh lime juice (juice from 1/2 lime)
1 tbsp. fresh oregano leaves
1/4 oz. agave syrup
1 1/2 oz. mezcal
2 oz. ginger beer

1. Squeeze the lime juice into the metal cup of a Boston shaker. Add the oregano leaves and use a muddler to crush the leaves into the juice. Add ice, agave syrup and mezcal and shake until cold. Add ginger beer and poor mixture into the other cup to combine then pour into a collins glass with some more ice. Serve with a straw.

Food (Section) Fight!: Week 22

Food (Section) Fight! is my weekly look at The Washington Post's Food section and The New York Times' Dining section with my verdict on which section had the better content for the week.


Washington Post


Spirits columnist Jason Wilson, one of my favorite Food section writers, takes center stage this week with an article about tasting rum. He argues that although wine tastings are common--few people spend much time tasting spirits, apart from Scotch on occasion. I, for one, would not last long at a spirits tasting, and judging from his descriptions, they tend to get somewhat raucous after awhile. Sounds like fun, actually.

I also really appreciated David Hagedorn's The Process column on making meat stock sauces. It's a very time intensive process, probably not one many of will ever attempt (although I'd like to at some point, just for the experience). I raved about this column when it first appeared in mid-April, and I'm still quite excited about it, if he's going to continue exploring subjects as interesting as this.

The Food section was rather slim today at just 6 pages, and I wasn't really into many of the recipes, save for the Corn Bread-Encrusted Black Grouper that accompanied the article about how the Zac Brown Band likes to eat well with fans while on tour.

New York Times

The Dining section was also just 6 pages today (c'mon advertisers, step up!), but managed to pack in quite a few stories and recipes I found interesting. Chief among them were the two articles about recent efforts to legislate what we eat: Jesse McKinley's story about California's new law that will ban foie gras as of July 1, and Julie Moskin's story about New York City's efforts to ban large-size sugared beverages. Both stories were nicely balanced, providing the perspectives of restauranteurs, food activists and legislators alike.

Also loved Jeff Gordinier's story about the upstate couple who makes small-batch pesto, which sounds delicious.

Both page 2 recipes are in keeping with my current interests. I've been experimenting with green garlic this week, which I picked up at my farmer's market. The Times wrote about it 2 weeks ago and now it appears again in Melissa Clark's Seared Pork Cutlets with Green Garlic Salsa Verde. Even better is David Tanis's recipe for Green Gnocchi with Peas and Fresh Sage Butter, which sounds like something I will have to make real soon.


Verdict


The New York Times. Although short, The New York Times managed to pack in quite a lot of good content this week.

Score


The New York Times: 12
The Washington Post: 10

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Since I was so happy with how the Greek yogurt-based blue cheese dressing turned out for my wedge salad, I decided I wanted to see what else it would taste good with. I also wanted another crack at the smoked blue cheese.

Buffalo chicken wings aren't a personal favorite, but they are an interesting use of blue cheese dressing, which serves as a sharp counterpoint to the wings' spicy hot sauce and the refreshing celery stalks.

For this salad, I adapted that party favorite into a dish that I think would be perfect for a picnic. I lightened the chicken by sautéing them in olive oil, rather than the traditional deep fry and slather with butter (not that I object to slathering anything with butter). For some extra crunch, I also toasted some sliced almonds in a dry pan until they were nicely browned.

A neat trick when making anything with celery is to chop the celery leaves and use them as an herb garnish. They look nice and, no surprise, they taste like celery.

Buffalo Chicken Salad

Serves two

Dressing:

1 garlic clove, finely minced with added salt to make a paste

1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1 tsp. agave syrup

Fresh ground black pepper and salt to taste

2 oz. smoked blue cheese, crumbled

Salad:

1/4 cup sliced almonds

2 tbsp. olive oil

Seasoning salt and fresh-ground black pepper to taste

3/4 lb. chicken breast cutlets

Hot sauce (such as Tabasco), to taste

4 cups torn green leaf lettuce

2 celery stalks, chopped at a sharp angle

1. To make the dressing, mince the garlic clove with a pinch of salt until it's very fine, almost a paste. Add to medium-size bowl with yogurt, lemon juice, agave syrup, pepper and salt and stir well to combine. Add blue cheese crumbles and stir to coat cheese.

2. Heat a small pan over medium-low heat. Toast the almond slices, stirring occasionally, until browned. Set aside.

3. Heat olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. When hot, pat chicken dry and add to pan. Season with salt and pepper. Cook about 10 minutes, flipping halfway. Set aside to cool and then chop. Add chopped chicken to a medium-size bowl. Douse with Tabasco to reach desired spiciness (I did about 10 squirts, which was not very spicy). 

4. Put lettuce and celery in a large bowl. Toss with dressing. Serve dressed vegetables on plates topped with sauced, sautéed chicken, toasted almonds and chopped celery leaves. 

The Smoke Gets in Your Eyes...

Source: Lebin Yuriy, http://bit.ly/MiKg7d

...or rather it doesn't, but you still want it in your food.

Here's my dilemma: I love smoky flavors, and there is no comparison to the depth of smoky flavor achieved from a long, slow roast on a barbecue grill. It does wonders for meat, fish and vegetables.

But living in a city apartment means I don't own a grill (not counting the one at my mother's beach house, but that's 3,000 miles away) and, lacking sophisticated kitchen venting, options for smoking food in my kitchen are also beyond my reach.

That said, there are other ways of getting the smoke into your food without the actual smoke filling the room. This week's food and cocktail recipes will all feature smoke in some form, delivered via various means, including smoked ingredients, smoke flavor and a Mexican spirit that has gained popularity recently for its intense smoke flavor. All are provided without the sting of smoke in your eyes or your lungs. It's not a barbecue, but it's not bad.

Smoky Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese

I ate a lot of iceberg lettuce as a child, but as an adult I rarely do. It's not just me: statistics show that iceberg lettuce consumption in the United States peaked in 1989, when the average person ate 29 pounds of it, down to just 17 pounds in 2010, although that still puts it ahead of leaf and romaine lettuce at 11 pounds per capita in 2010.

Iceberg's biggest selling point is that it is crispy, as it is decidedly lacking in flavor and nutritional value as compared to romaine or leaf lettuce (for example, romaine has 8 times more vitamin A, according to Whole Foods).

Still, iceberg has its place, and that place is the wedge salad. It's a salad classic that peaked in the 1960s, particularly in steakhouses. Now it's poised for a comeback. D.C.'s Buck's Fishing and Camping makes a really excellent one, and an episode this season of ABC's Modern Family featured a storyline around it.

While delicious, a wedge salad is not particularly healthy drowned as it usually is in a thick coating of blue cheese dressing. Don't get me wrong: I love blue cheese dressing. Always have (Yes, picky child eater me enjoyed this above all other dressings. Go figure). A fourth of a cup of blue cheese dressing is nearly 600 calories, an awful lot for a salad.  I estimate that a fourth of a cup of my dressing below has just 150 calories, a significant decrease.

The secret to creamy, low-calorie dressing is substituting nonfat Greek yogurt for mayonnaise or sour cream. It has great texture and a pleasant tangy flavor. For something like this where the emphasis is on the cheese, it works like a charm.

For more interesting flavor, I used a smoked blue cheese, but you could use nonsmoked or gorgonzola. Also, I love that Buck's dressing has horseradish sauce, so I added some too. Taste it before you add it. The kind I bought was really strong; other brands, particularly the creamy ones won't be. Adjust to taste for your preferred level of spice.

Smoky Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese

Makes two salads

Dressing:
1 garlic clove
Smoked sea salt, ground
1/2 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1/4 tsp. horseradish sauce
1/2 tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 tbsp. lemon juice
fresh ground black pepper
2 1/2 oz. smoked blue cheese, crumbled

Salad:
2 thick bacon strips, cut into 1/2-inch squares
1/2 head of iceberg lettuce, cut in half to make a wedge
3 yellow tomatoes, sliced
1/4 cup walnut pieces

1. To make the dressing, crush the garlic clove to smash it and remove the skin. Cut off the root end. Put the smashed garlic in a medium bowl, sprinkle with salt and use a blunt object to grind it into a paste (I use the round end of a cocktail muddler; use a mortar and pestle if you have that).

2. Add the yogurt, horseradish sauce, vinegar, lemon juice and pepper. Stir until well combined. Add the crumbled blue cheese and sir to combine.

3. Heat a medium nonstick frying pan over medium heat. Cook the bacon until crisp, drain and set aside.

4. Heat a small nonstick frying pan over medium-low heat. Toast the walnuts until fragrant and set aside.

5. Place the lettuce wedge on a plate. Arrange the tomato slices and toasted walnuts around it. Spoon 1/3 cup of dressing (half of the recipe) over the wedge and top with bacon crumbles.

Mediterranean Dinner: Chickpea Patties with Hummus, Pitas and Salad

Here's a dinner that came together out of necessity.

I had planned on making falafel, but realized that its hour-plus cooking time made it a foolish choice, given that this dinner was scheduled the night before we were to leave for a long weekend vacation. Ugh. 

In addition to being ideal for mashing avocados, a pastry blender works great with chickpeas too. 

So I improvised, digging into my recipe archive for a dish that I hadn't made in years but that Chris and I used to love: a falafel-like chickpea patty that is pan-fried rather than deep-fried. So in addition to be a quicker recipe, it's also healthier.

Homemade hummus is easier than I realized; Smoked paprika makes it a little orange.

I also nixed my plan to make tzatziki, repurposing the Greek yogurt into the dressing for the salad (which would have been an herb vinaigrette except that Giant and Whole Foods were both sold out of mint, dill and basil the day I went looking for them. Ugh). 

So this dinner isn't authentically Mediterranean. Rather Medterranean-ish, I suppose. But it was really good. And I didn't get in trouble, despite making a somewhat complicated meal on the night we had to do laundry, packing, etc. That's a nice benefit to being a cook: good food can frequently get you out of a jam.

Chickpea Patties
Adapted from Bean and Grain Patties, from Prevention

1 15 oz. can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 eggs, lightly beaten
3/4 cup herbed bread crumbs
1/3 cup grated parmigiano-reggiano cheese
2 tbsp. chopped Italian (flat leaf) parsley
2 scallions, chopped
Fresh ground black pepper and seasoned salt to taste
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp. olive oil
Whole wheat pita bread
Hummus (see recipe below)

1. Add chickpeas to large bowl and mash (I use a pastry blender, but you can use a fork or potato masher).

2. Add eggs, bread crumbs, parmigiano-reggiano, parsley, scallions, pepper, seasoned salt and garlic and stir until ingredients are combined. Using your hands, form into 6-8 rounded patties about 3/4-inch thick.

3. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Add olive oil and, when hot, add the patties, spacing them evenly in the pan. Cook until browned, about 5 minutes, turn over and cook another 5 minutes. Remove from pan. Serve with pitas and hummus.

Mediterranean Salad

1 cucumber, seeded and chopped
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 scallions, chopped
1 red bell pepper, chopped
3/4 cup pitted kalamata olives, cut in half
1/3 cup feta cheese crumbles
1/4 cup nonfat Greek yogurt
1 tbsp. lemon juice
Sea salt and fresh-ground black pepper
1 tbsp. chopped Italian (flat leaf) parsley

1. Combine cucumber, tomatoes, scallions, bell pepper, olives and feta cheese in a large bowl. Whisk together yogurt, lemon juice, salt, pepper and parsley. Pour dressing over salad ingredients and toss to combine.

Hummus
Adapted from Mark Bittman's Hummus from How to Cook Everything

2 cups chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1/2 cup tahini
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 garlic cloves
1 tbsp. smoked paprika
Juice from 2 lemons (plus more or water if needed for consistency)

1. Add chickpeas, tahini, olive oil, garlic and paprika to food processor and turn on. Drizzle lemon juice through the feeding tube, adding more to reach a desired consistency (it should not be runny, but not so thick that it's difficult to eat with pita chips).

Pita Chips
The hummus recipe makes more than you need for the patties, so here's a way to use it up a day later.

3 whole-wheat pitas
Extra virgin olive oil spray
Ground cumin
Paprika
Garlic powder
Seasoned salt

1. Preheat oven 350 degrees F.

2. Cut pitas into eighths. Distribute evenly on a large baking sheet. Spray cut pitas with olive oil and sprinkle with cumin, paprika, garlic powder and seasoned salt. Bake until crispy, about 15-20 minutes.