Bold but gentle: low-acid chili

A while back my son surprised me by asking to have a wedge pillow like the one I sleep on. I pried a bit and he admitted he had problems with acid reflux. Poor guy! That's usually my department. For a while he'd been avoiding foods he's traditionally loved, like spaghetti and pizza, and dumb me did not connect the dots. So ever since I've felt free to unleash my inner Koufman groupie and serve more modified low-acid foods for dinner.

A recent party plan of Abbey's presented an interesting challenge: make a chili that everyone would like. Abbey is no fan of chili, but I am- despite my ongoing issues with reflux. Many a time I've had to make chili for one or forgo it altogether. This time I was determined to make an all-purpose chili with some specific objectives: (1) it would not burn the acid-sensitive folks, (2) it would be good enough even non-chili people would like it, (3) would be vegetarian to accommodate some guests but (4) also taste good on a hot dog.

The one ingredient that really seems to irritate the digestion of the reflux-prone is tomatoes. It was forgone that there would be no tomatoes in this chili. Not a problem: the original dishes that can be considered the antecedent for today's chili had, of course, chiles as a main ingredient- and frequently the only non-meat ingredient, except for perhaps onions, some masa, and herbs like wild oregano or epazote. Tomatoes were not really part of the equation and meat was the main attraction- so in addition I would have to add some things to make up the meaty flavor. I needed something zingy, yet mild, to stand in for tomatoes and came up with a compromise that would help fulfill multiple needs. I blistered two red bell peppers, mostly peeled them, and processed them in a food processor until smooth. I used a can of the one ready made mild, red enchilada sauces that had no tomatoes (The brand I found was Las Palmas, and their sauce is quite good). The roast red pepper sauce and the enchilada sauce, along with some faux-beef broth, formed the base of the chili. Then I borrowed from my own bag of chili hacks- none "secret" exactly, but some perhaps not intuitive, and came up with a chili that, I am happy to say, pleased everyone!

Bold-but-gentle chili (low acid, low fat, vegan)

The Ingredients

1 tbl olive oil
2 cans of red beans
1/2 to 1 sweet potato, roasted, or equivalent in cooked diced sweet potato
1 can of mild red enchilada sauce with no tomatoes (check labels or look for Las Palmas)
two cloves of roast garlic (from a head of roast garlic- you do roast heads of garlic, right?)
one medium yellow onion
1 tbl Worcestershire sauce (not vegan, there are vegan varieties though)
2 tbls premade black coffee (dark roast, again for our acid-sensitive friends)

2 tbls corn meal
1 tbl nutritional yeast
Enough not-beef bouillon (check label if you are gluten sensitive) to make 2 cups of broth
2 cups water
2 tbl ground cumin
1 tbl chili powder (I used Frontier spices, which contains oregano cumin and garlic powder)
1 tbl brown sugar

The Method

Put a stock pot or enamel pot on a burner set to medium low. Preheat the oven to broil.

Wash the red peppers and place on a cookie sheet.

Peel the onion and cut into medium to fine dice according to your tastes.

When the oven is hot, place the peppers in the oven, top rack, as completely under the flame/element as possible.

when the stock pot is warm, add the olive oil, coat the pan bottom, and add the onion. cook until translucent and starting to brown, about 7 minutes. stir periodically.

Check the peppers. When the sides facing the broiler are blistered and mostly black, rotate 45 degrees and repeat, checking every few minutes and rotating until all sides are done.

Microwave 2 cups of water or bring to boil in a pan. When it is hot, add the bouillon and let it sit for a few minutes. Stir to consistency when the bouillon is blooming and looks loose.

Blanch the peppers in ice water, then peel (or use the paper bag method, which I never knew about until Abbey told me what I was doing was strange!). Do not completely peel, leave a little of the burnt skin for the flavor. Seed and stem the peppers. Toss them in a food processor and whizz. They should be wet enough to form a thick sauce, but if needed, add a tablespoon of water.

when the onions are about done, add the spices and let them toast for 30 seconds. Mash the roast garlic into the pan and mix it all together into a paste.

Add the can of enchilada sauce and the pepper sauce. Turn up to medium high and bring to a boil.

Dice the sweet potato (how much depends on how much you like sweet potato) and add. Break up the sweet potato some but not completely. The chunks of sweet potato will serve as our diced "tomato."

Add the beans, spices, and brown sugar, then turn it back down to low to bubble.

Add the nutritional yeast, worcestershire sauce, corn meal, and coffee. Let it continue to bubble for a least five more minutes while the corn meal dissolves into the chili.

By now the chili is starting to thicken. Thin it with the broth to the consistency you'd like. For me it took about a cup and a half of broth.

Five more minutes to bring the broth to temp.

Please let me know if you try it and how it turns out.

Lunch Break: Falafel Wraps

Abbey and I are big fans of Anthony Bourdain, and we're ecstatic that Netflix has added his CNN series Parts Unknown. Last night we watched, well, more than one, but most importantly, the Tangiers episode. First revelation: now I know how to make a Spanish Tortilla, Tangiers style (which we had for breakfast- including the ketchup and mayo on top, which was delicious). Second: apparently everyone in Tangiers really is stoned, as according to the stereotype. The third revelation was the heavy use of fresh herbs and wild spinach. I've been in a Tangiers kind of mood all day, and I just had to do something middle eastern inspired for lunch. I don't have any wild spinach, but I do have a decent amount of fresh herbage available at the moment.

I decided to make falafel the base of my meal, and since I was running short on time, I wanted it to be portable. Rather than use the more cumbersome pita, I grabbed the fresh wheat tortillas in the fridge for this project so I could wrap it up tightly and take with if needed. Of course, since this is Morocco-inspired, I had to listen to some Master Musicians of Joujouka while cooking and wash it all down with some a thick shot of espresso.

Ingredients

2 tbl light olive oil
box of Falafel mix
1 tomato, sliced
1 small carrot, peeled and shaved with the peeler into strips
a couple of inches of cucumber, sliced, then cut at least in half
red and/or yellow and/or orange bell pepper. I used small ones , you can cut big ones into squares.
fresh wheat tortillas (I like Tortilla Land brand)
plain Greek yogurt
dill pickles
whatever olives you like, I used a mix of Greek green and calamatas

For the sauce
1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
a handful of cilantro, leaves, stems, etc
a small handful of fresh mint (tsp of dry if no fresh is available), leaves, stems, etc
2 cloves of garlic, finely diced
commercially prepared harissa sauce (or make your own from one of the many recipes on the interwebs)
salt and pepper (if you have Turkish pepper and spice mix, use it!)



Prepare the falafel and let it sit according to the instructions. In the meantime, heat a couple of tablespoons of light olive oil in a shallow pan over medium-high heat.

While that is heating up, chop up the cilantro and mint, then mix in a bowl with the garlic and a small dollop of the harissa. Taste it- if it's not hot enough, add some more. salt it, then add a couple grinds of pepper. I used a Turkish pepper mix with fennel and coriander, but that's not necessary at all. Add the extra virgin olive oil and stir.

When the oil is hot,  use an ice cream scoop and toss in dollops of falafel. Add  the peppers.  In about three minutes, the falafel should be ready to flip, but check for brownness first. Turn the peppers no more than once or twice so they char a little. After you've flipped the falafel, break it up a bit.

I used one pan for this: remove the falafel and peppers, then toss a tortilla into the hot pan. Check it in a minute and flip if it's starting to get dark brown spots. When nothing on the tortilla looks translucent, it's done.

You probably don't need my instructions on how to proceed from here. Put some sauce on the wrap. add a few chunks of falafel, layer in the strips of carrot, slices of cucumber and tomato. For the sake of efficiency, I roughly diced the olives and pickles together and spooned some on. follow up with the plain yogurt and more sauce. Roll as you might a burrito or spring roll: fold up the ends, then roll the whole thing forward, carefully tuck in the rolled ends as you go. Look what a nice roll it made!

And that's how simple it is. Delicious, too.

Could you have made your own falafel? If you possess that kind of magic, absolutely, do so. My falafel making skills are middling at best, so I normally just grab one of a couple different mixes I like at the store.

This is what I listened to while making it. I hope you enjoy it as much as I did!

Kylie Kwong is hot!

I love Kylie Kwong. As my wife surely realizes by now, one prerequisite of mine in a compatible mate is, not only the ability to cook, but the desire to do interesting things with food. A is a very creative person, and it turns me on. What can I say? Anyway, Kylie Kwong wields culinary imagination as deftly as a good cook wields a chef's knife. I feel the same attraction to her that I feel to other favorite cooks of mine, such as Jacques Pepin and Julia Child. That is, of a decidedly platonic nature, but passionate nonetheless.

Anyway, at some point in the past couple of weeks I made her Sung Choi Bao of Vegetables, and it was delicious.

More fun with Greek food

Salads- done right, it's hard to argue with the appropriateness of a salad for the main course of a meal if you are trying to be healthy. Not only so most salads feature prominent vegetables (at least those conceived since the sixties), but also you will absorb fewer calories. Unfortunately you also absorb fewer nutrients, so it's good to use nutrient-dense greens like spinach and romaine lettuce. Actually the salad below uses iceberg, but that's all I had on hand.



When A suggested "greek salad" for lunch, I was gung-ho because Greek cuisine has been of special interest to me lately. I decided to compensate for a lack of a good olive in the house by making it more like a farmer's salad; the balance more on the chunky vegegetables and less on the lettuce. Greek farmer's salad minimally consists of sliced tomatoes, bell peppers and onions in an oregano-y vinaigrette (sometimes with marinated green beans and hard-boiled eggs) and feta. If it contained pieces of flat bread, we'd be talking about the Lebanese treat known as Fattoush. For dressing I wanted to try something other than my usual lemon and olive oil vinagrette with oregano, something with some added dimension, perhaps a bit more authentic. I loved the idea of whizzing green peppers in the dressing as detailed on the wonderful Kopiaste blog. (I actually found this recipe in its blogspot incarnation.) It was well worth the effort as you can see. I decorated with pieces of toasted organic french bread (LaBrea, store-bought, nonfat, no extra junk added). In retrospect I think I forgot to add onions, but it was tasty and filling.

It would be a drag if the old Kopiaste blog disappeared one day and the dressing recipe along with it. I made it exactly as specified:

Greek Salad Dressing


Ingredients

* ½ cup extra virgin olive oil
* 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
* 3- 4 tablespoons lemon juice
* 1 clove of garlic
* Bell peppers, fresh or frozen (red, yellow, orange) about 2 – 3 spoonfuls (I used frozen)
* 1 piece of feta cheese 4 x 4 x 3 cm
* ½ teaspoon salt
* ½ teaspoon oregano
* Black pepper, to taste

Directions

Place in a food processor and puree all ingredients. Taste and adjust flavour according to your taste.