Black Bean Chili

This recipe is adapted, simplified basically, from one in Deborah Madison's The Greens Cook Book. It makes eight very generous servings at a cost of 62 cents (Seattle) or 40 cents (Tucson) exclusive of garnishes and polenta. Like most soups and stews, this is better made a day ahead and reheated, making it excellent for entertaining. Additionally, chili is a familiar concept and won’t frighten the carnivores.


2 cups black beans
1 bay leaf
4 teaspoons ground cumin
4 teaspoons oregano
2 tablespoons chili powder
4 teaspoons sweet (mild) paprika
¼ teaspoon cayenne
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 medium yellow onions, ¼ inch dice
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 14 ounce cans diced tomatoes, including juice
½ teaspoon chipotle puree, or to taste
½ teaspoon salt, or to taste
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, or to taste


Garnishes:

pasilla peppers, roasted, peeled and diced
green onions, sliced
crumbled cotija or feta cheese
sour cream or Greek yogurt


Put the beans and bay leaf in a large kettle and cover them with water by a couple of inches. Bring the pot to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer.

Put the cumin in a large ungreased skillet and toast until they begin to color. Add the oregano and chili powder, stir and continue to toast until the mix is very fragrant but not scorched. Turn off the heat, add the paprika and cayenne and stir to combine. Remove the spice mix and reserve.

In the same skillet sauté the onions in the oil until they are soft. Add the garlic and spice mix and cook five minutes. Add the tomatoes and chipotle puree and simmer 15 minutes.

Add the tomato mixture to the beans and continue to simmer until the beans are quite soft. Season to taste with salt, vinegar and additional chipotle, if necessary.

Serve over polenta, garnished with cheese, peppers, sour cream or Greek yogurt, and green onions.

"Pork" with Red Peppers

In the late 1960's the Time/Life company had a "Foods of the World" cookbook series. My family had just returned from a year and a half in Europe, and we came back to a pretty dismal food scene. Even though I was only in high school, I subscribed to the series and taught myself to cook from it. These cookbooks, which I still have, are now widely and cheaply available in used book stores and thrift shops and each and every one of them has at least a few recipes I make over and over again. Hard to believe I've been making some of these recipes for forty years!

My mother was a fairly adventurous cook and used to make a fabulous Portuguese pork dish (Lombo de Porco com Pimentos) from the The Cooking of Spain and Portugal book. I suspect part of the fabulousness was the quarter cup of lard the original called for. My vegetarian version substitutes butter -- and less of it -- and I think it's still good.

Ingredients:

6 oz faux chicken strips, thawed and cut into uniform pieces
2 generous tablespoons butter
4 large cloves of garlic, minced
1 large red bell pepper, seeded, deribbed and sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine or white vermouth
1/2 cup vegetable stock
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 lemon wedges

Method:

In a nonstick pan, melt a scant tablespoon butter and saute the strips until they are lightly browned. Remove and reserve.

Remove any bits of the strips sticking to the pan and melt the rest of the butter. Add the minced garlic and cook until it is just beginning to brown lightly. Add the red pepper slices and saute for a couple of minutes until they soften slightly. Add the wine, stock, and salt. Simmer over very low heat for about half an hour (adding more stock if necessary) until the pepper is very thoroughly cooked and the liquid has a sauce-like consistency. Add the reserved strips, stir to combine and cook until they are just heated through.

Serve over rice, garnished with the lemon wedge. Serves two. Recipe can easily be doubled, tripled or quadrupled.

Afghan Eggplant - Badenjan Boorani

This is a recipe I adapted from Madhur Jaffrey's indispensable World Vegetarian. The main change I made was to brown the eggplant in the oven first thing, rather than deep frying it at the last minute.

You can cook the eggplant the day before you serve the dish and the tomato sauce is actually improved by being made a day ahead.

If I have leftovers, I puree everything in the blender and add vegetable stock to make a wonderful soup. In the summer I add yogurt to the soup and serve it chilled.

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1/8 teaspoon cayenne, or more to taste

1 large eggplant

olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped fine

3 cloves of garlic, minced

1 15 oz can of petite diced tomatoes, plus juice

1/4 cup water or tomato juice

1/2 teaspoon salt

fresh ground black pepper to taste

3 tablespoons of fresh mint or 1-1/2 teaspoons dried

Greek style yogurt (a half cup or more to taste)

mint or flatleaf parsely sprigs

Toast the cumin and coriander in a dry pan until they are very fragrant. Turn off the heat, add the cayenne and stir to combine. Set aside.

Cut the eggplant crosswise in slices 1/2" to 3/4" thick. Spread each slice with a little bit of olive oil on each side and bake on a nonstick baking sheet in a preheated 350 degree oven until they are nicely browned but still somewhat firm -- 20 to 30 minutes.

Put 1 tablespoon of oil in a large nonstick frying pan. Saute the onion in the oil until it is softened and transluscent. Add the garlic and stir for about a minute. Add the reserved spices and stir well to combine. Add the tomatoes and their juice, the water or tomato juice, the salt and pepper, and the chopped mint. Simmer gently for ten to twenty minutes, until the sauce has thickened.

Put the eggplant in a lightly oiled baking dish in one layer. Cover with the tomato sauce and bake in a 350 degree oven until it is completly heated through.

Stir the yogurt with a fork until it is smooth.

Put one or two slices of eggplant on a plate (or all the slices on a platter). Top with the yogurt and garnish with mint or parsley. Serve with rice. This is a very light dish, so I like to precede it with a salad that includes garbanzo beans. This recipe serves about three to four people.