OMGSNAX!

chili was daniel’s idea for our weekly dinner at his house last night — fairly easy, good for winter, feeds a lot of people. it sounded pretty good to me, too, so we pulled a couple recipes off the internet & out of cookbooks & intended to wing it when caroline reminded me that her mom makes a delicious vegetarian chili. one phone call later, we were on our way to get the surprisingly few ingredients in this chili recipe!

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 large green bell pepper, chopped
1-28 oz can crushed tomatoes
1 can each kidney beans, pinto beans, & black beans, drained & rinsed
1-10 oz can enchilada sauce
1 teaspoon oregano

METHOD
in a large stockpot, sauté onion & bell pepper in oil. add remaining ingredients. bring to a boil & then reduce heat to medium-low. simmer, uncovered, for 10 to 15 minutes.

DEVIATONS & OBSERVATIONS
added: a second bell pepper, some carrots, a jalapeno. eliminated: all black beans (which daniel decided was somehow blasphemy). substitued: diced tomatoes for crushed (a mistake).

this is an easy recipe to double, which i did in anticipation of a larger than usual dinner crowd — most of whom were sadly no-shows. it tasted just fine, although it wasn’t spicy enough by far — i should’ve considered a spicier version of the enchilada sauce. the consistency was a little soupier than i generally like, & it didn’t reduce down despite simmering for an hour or so. my mom’s chili was always more robust, although hers was basically like eating spicy meat sauce with oyster crackers since no one in my family liked beans when i was a kid. i probably shouldn’t have subsituted out the crushed tomatoes — maybe the chili would’ve been a little less chunky/brothy, a little thicker.

we ate it with cornbread (made from a mix) & saltines, & everyone who ate it gave it top marks, so maybe i’m just nitpicking. if i make it again, though, some changes will be made.

 

 

“3-Bean Enchilada Chili” from caroline’s mom.

july’s heat (& power outage) gave way to a fairly mild august, but the damage was done: i was too beat to go grocery shopping. i thought i’d ease back into my project with something simple like stuffed peppers, which i made for the first time several years ago with my cousin jennifer, who at the time was coming out of seven or eight years of being a vegetarian. we used ground turkey & rice & onions in green bell peppers, & i remember being amazed at how fancy such a simple dish could seem. this was actually my first attempt at recreating a veg version of this recipe.

INGREDIENTS
2 teaspoons canola or vegetable oil
1 large white onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 jalapeno pepper or anaheim chili, cored, seeded, & minced
1/4 cup minced fresh cilantro
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon crumbled dried oregano
2 teaspoons red wine vinegar
2 cups cooked black turtle beans, drained & rinsed
1/4 cup shredded cheddar cheese
1/4 cup grated parmesan cheese
1 large firm red bell pepper, roasted & peeled
1 large firm yellow bell pepper, roasted & peeled
salsa

METHOD
heat the oven to 350F. squirt a shallow baking dish with nonstick spray or lightly grease with unsalted butter.

heat the oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat, swirling the pan to coat the bottom. add the onion, garlic, jalapeno or anaheim chili, cilantro, cumin, chili powder, & oregano & sauté, stirring often, until the onion softens, about 8 minutes. stir in the vinegar & beans. reduce the heat to medium-low, cover the skillet, & cook, stirring often, until the beans are very tender, about 20 minutes. using the back of a wooden spoon, mash the beans.

transfer to a mixing bowl, & stir in the cheddar & parmesan cheese. fill each pepper half with an equal amount of the bean mixture & place in the prepared baking dish. cover loosely with foil & bake until set, about 20 minutes. remove the foil & return the peppers to the oven to brown the tops, about 5 minutes more. serve with salsa.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
forgot to buy cilantro. my bad.

ditto cheddar & parm, but i had some so-called “mexican blend” cheese in the fridge & also part of a block of jack with jalapenos, so i subbed those cheeses in. FYI, i chose the anaheim chili over the jalapeno b/c, according to the produce department at dierberg’s, it’s rated at 3 scovilles (instead of 5, like a jalapeno), & i thought it might be a nice change.

otherwise, followed the recipe pretty exactly. i tried a new method for roasting peppers that involved, yes, the broil setting on the oven & NO oil (which spattered so scandalously last time i roasted something that i set off the smoke detector three times!), & then i shoved the pepper halves into a paper bag & stuck the bag in the freezer for ten minutes & holy cow, they were so much easier to peel sans oil (& i didn’t burn my fingers, either!).

roasted peppers

black beans, anaheim chili, onion, & spices

this recipe basically boiled down to the stuff you’d put in a bean burrito, minus the tortilla. couldn’t really go wrong — cumin + chili powder + oregano is basically taco seasoning, after all — but i will admit that they looked kind of yucky, especially b/c the peppers apparently weren’t firm enough (although the roasting is really what caused them to lay flat in the pan).

almost finished

pepper pancake

i thought it tasted fine, but i apparently won’t make it again; daniel amended his verdict of “nothing special” to “unappealing,” & didn’t finish his.

all in all, an inauspicious return to OMGSNAX: THE SNACKENING.

 

 

“Black Beans in Bell Peppers” from The Essential Vegetarian Cookbook: Your Guide to the Best Foods on Earth by Diana Shaw, 1997.

so we returned from urbana (illinois) at 5am & spent the day, no, not sleeping, but GROCERY SHOPPING. b/c i am THAT DEDICATED to this project. & to having food available, yea, & juices to slake my thirst & provide me with vitamin c & calcium & also sugars. delicious, delicious sugars.

sometimes, when i’m at work, i spend my “lunch” “break” (neither a “lunch” nor a “break,” discuss) poking around on the internet looking for interesting recipes to try. emeril’s huevos rancheros was one of these finds. i especially like the part where he thinks we just have three or four skillets hanging around the kitchen. or a fancy deep-fryer, or an electric ice cream maker, or something else inane that we could use to make steak tartare (seriously, so gross).

INGREDIENTS
ranchero sauce:
1 tablespoon vegetable oil
1 cup chopped white onions
1/2 cup chopped red bell pepper
1/2 cup chopped green bell pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon cayenne
1 tablespoon minced jalapeno
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 cup chopped tomatoes & their juice
1 cup chicken vegetable stock
3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

2 teaspoons vegetable oil
4 large corn tortillas
1/2 cup warm refried beans
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
8 large eggs
1 1/2 cups pepper jack

METHOD
to make the ranchero sauce, in a medium pot, heat the oil over medium-high heat. add the onions & bell peppers & cook, stirring, for 3 to 5 minutes. add the cumin, salt, cayenne, jalapeno, & garlic & cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. add the tomatoes & their juices & cook, stirring, for 2 minutes. add the stock & simmer until thickened, about 15 minutes. remove from the heat & add the cilantro. adjust the seasoning to taste & cover to keep warm.

in a large skillet, heat 1/2 teaspoon of vegetable oil over medium-high heat. add 1 tortilla & cook until warmed through & just starting to brown, about 30 seconds. turn & cook on the second side. remove, cover to keep warm, & repeat with the remaining oil & tortillas.

in 2 medium skillets, melt 1 tablespoon of butter each over medium-high heat. break 4 eggs into each skillet & fry until beginning to set, about 1 minute. sprinkle the eggs with the cheese & cover to finish cooking, about 1 1/2 minutes.

place 1 warm tortilla on each of 4 plates & spread each with 2 tablespoons of warm refried beans. Place 2 eggs on top of each tortilla & top with the warm ranchero sauce. serve immediately.

DEVIATIONS & OBSERVATIONS
so call me slow, but i’ve recently begin to appreciate the benefits of prep work. i always used to half-ass it & then scramble to get the remaining ingredients prepped as i cooked, but lately i’ve been getting everything assembled & measured & chopped before even getting started, & there’s really a lot to be said for this approach.

just a portion of the prepped ingredients

all things being equal, though, a lot of this chopping went into making the ranchero sauce, which amounted to little more than a fresh salsa. it tasted good & all, don’t get me wrong, but i probably could’ve heated up some of whatever i’ve got in my fridge & i wouldn’t have really been able to tell the difference.

& speaking of the ranchero sauce, it really WILL thicken, even though it looks really liquidy once the stock is added.

simmering ranchero sauce

the only other adjustment i made was cooking up six eggs instead of eight (there were only three of us eating). i probably could’ve scaled back the cheese, but it didn’t occur to me till after it’d been grated.

eggy weggs

oh, & i used flour tortillas instead of corn, b/c that was what i had on hand. corn probably would’ve been a little less soggy, but the flour held up just fine.

daniel, brian, & i decided that these would be totally worth making again, even with the minor hassle that comes with vegetable chopping.

dinner!

 

 

“Huevos Rancheros” from Emeril Live, 2002.