"Greatest Meal Ever": Vegetarian Chili

One of the only things I enjoy more than a good meal or recipe is a good story. I found both in this past month's Saveur, which included 25 mini essays of famous people in food and writing describing their "greatest meals ever." It's a superb issue with a lot of wonderful stories, but for me, a few favorites quickly emerged. The first one, "Open House," by Gabrielle Hamilton, is about a Sunday lunch that Hamilton planned à la those held by her Italian mother-in-law. She had a menu ready, guests were invited, "Except that somehow my husband and I fell into one of those massive, lacerating, deep and dark martial blowouts that you never forget for as long as you live." A recipe comes attached to each essay and this one looks truly amazing: Brown Butter pasta topped with pine nuts and fried eggs. It's on my to-do list, but until then, check it out and read the essay here.

The other essay, "Fire in my Belly," by Suketu Mehta was one of those that the moment I finished reading, I needed to discuss. This discussion was quickly followed by an urge to make the dish that the story hinges on, an extremely spicy, vegetarian chili. [Extreme sidebar information: I didn't see the recipe or even a photograph of the dish on the essay's adjacent page, and without this, my little millennial/short-attention-spanned brain skipped the next logical steps and immediately Googled the author, found his website, and sent him an email saying something like: "I loved your essay! Where can I find the recipe?" Mr. Mehta was kind enough to reply with a nice message and a link to the Saveur site where it had been conspicuously sitting all along. I also then found it in the magazine a few pages back. My bad, but goes to show you how crazy/cool/weird the Internet can be. No?]

Though only one magazine-page long, this mini essay spends almost the entire first half setting up the author's affinity for chiles, spicy food, and in particular, his vegetarian chili, which he makes with the spiciest chile on planet urf, the naga jolokia. Do you know about the Scoville scale? It's basically how us humans measure the spiciness of chili peppers. Mehta explains: "A jalapeño has about 8,000 [Scoville units], a habanero, half a million. The naga jolokia, meanwhile, explodes with over a million Scoville units." You must read the story yourself to know what I'm talking about when I say that Mehta's vegetarian chili sounds frighteningly spicy, as in, this chili could hurt you in a very harmful way.

Saveur's version:

Photo: Todd Coleman
 
our version:

So what did I do? I completely wussed out. Even though I love spicy food, the story made me believe I couldn't handle this chile's level of spiciness. This combined with Saveur's tips on Taming the Heat in Chiles caused me to use three habaneros instead of the naga scaryokias. But guess what? All of this taming and fear of chiles led to one major letdown. My chili was hardly spicy at all.

It was, however, super flavorful. These dried chipotles and lone ancho chile really added a nice depth of flavor.

Speaking of depth of flavor, you keep adding things to this chili, almost as if in layers, which made for a really satisfying if not a bit labor-intensive cooking experience.

And while this may not have been my greatest meal ever, as far as vegetarian chili's go, this one definitely ranks up there with the greatest. However, next time, I'll be sure to stay strong and try the naga jolokia or at the very very least, use extra habaneros sliced in half. The three above were simply cut open, and with a pot of chili this big, it's just not enough heat, particularly when you are expecting to Scoville yourself to death.

Vegetarian Chili via Saveur
12 oz. dried dark kidney beans, soaked overnight
12 oz. dried pinto beans, soaked overnight
Kosher salt, to taste
1⁄4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
12 cloves garlic, minced
3 dried chipotle chiles
2 bay leaves
2 large white onions, chopped
1 dried ancho chile
8 oz. button mushrooms, quartered
6 medium tomatoes, chopped
1 1⁄2 cups canned hominy, drained
1⁄2 cup tomato paste
2 tbsp. red wine vinegar
2 tsp. fresh thyme leaves
1 tsp. dried oregano
1 tsp. ground cumin
8 sun-dried tomatoes, chopped
3–6 naga jolokia or habanero chiles, 

slit lengthwise down one side
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Sour cream, minced cilantro, 

and minced red onion

1. Put kidney beans and pinto beans into a large pot and cover with 3" water; bring to a boil, reduce heat to medium-low, and simmer, stirring occasionally, until beans are tender, about 1 hour. Season with salt; set pot aside.

2. Heat oil in a 6-qt. pot over medium-high heat. Add garlic, chipotle chiles, bay leaves, onions, and ancho chile and cook, stirring often, until onions are golden, 12–15 minutes. Add mushrooms and cook, stirring often, until tender, about 8 minutes. Add tomatoes and cook, stirring, until they release their juices, about 5 minutes. Stir in reserved beans and their cooking liquid, along with hominy, tomato paste, vinegar, thyme, oregano, cumin, sun-dried tomatoes, and habaneros and season with salt and pepper. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until chili thickens and flavors meld, about 1 hour. Serve chili topped with sour cream, cilantro, and red onions.

Window-Sill Gourmet Mushroom + Giveaway

I get quite a lot of emails from people who want me to review their products and/or giveaway said products to readers (you guys!). I decline most either because I don't find the products interesting enough to write about them or I feel you may not want to receive them, even if for free!

But I have to say I am super glad Nikhil decided to write to me because here's something I think is absolutely wow and I am very excited to be able to be part of this initiative and to be able to giveaway something to you guys. Read on for more details, won't you?

Back to the Roots is a 100% sustainable urban mushroom farm in NorCal started by two friends last year after graduating from UC Berkeley! They figured out that they could grow gourmet mushrooms entirely on recycled coffee grounds, and decided to then become full time mushroom farmers! Since then they've grown to produce about 500lbs a week of fresh oyster mushrooms, and are diverting 10,000lbs /week of coffee grounds from Peet's Coffee &Tea and using it as soil for their mushrooms. Read on for more info.

Earlier this year, they launched an Easy-to-Grow Gourmet Mushroom Garden that lets people grow up to 1lb of delicious oyster mushrooms at home in as little as 10 days. You get multiple crops from it, just have to leave it indoors on a kitchen window-sill, and the best part is - it's all on recycled coffee grounds! Imagine how awesome this is for really impatient people (like yours truly) and what a fantastic project to work with your kids on!

This month, they're working to raise money for the Susan G. Komen Foundation for breast cancer awareness (donating 5% of all sales). Alex, the co-founder is in fact a cancer survivor after fighting through it in high school! You can really help by purchasing the product and what's more, Edible Garden readers get a 20% off if you use the code: Cooking20.


How to Participate:

I am giving away 2 window-sill gourmet mushroom kits to 2 lucky winners. All you need to do to participate in the giveaway is leave a comment on this note on Facebook. You will need to join the Edible Garden Facebook page for that.  If you are not on Facebook (really?), leave a comment on this post and I will count you in.

- Give away ends on Nov 22nd, midnight Singapore time
- The product can only be shipped to the US

PS: This is an unpaid review. The 2 kits being given away are sponsored by me. I am helping them promote their website and product only because I think its freaking awesome. Don't you too?

Easy Eggless Chocolate Mousse - Nigella Lawson Recipe

I barely had time to do this month's Sweet Punch - Easy Eggless Chocolate Mousse - a Nigella Lawson recipe. We are packing to go off on our big vacation of the year, the house hunt just got over and we are shifting first week of December, having moved to a new role, work is also not that laid back anymore - so a lot of stuff happening all at the same time!

Still, I couldn't pass over this easy chocolate mousse recipe because even before this month's challenge was shared, I had bookmarked to try this, along with the Chocolate Pistachio Fudge which I managed to make sometime back. 

The secret to this recipe is marshmallows. The gelatine in this eliminates the need to use eggs and also the lengthy setting time that's common for classic mousse recipes.

Eggless Easy Chocolate Mousse Recipe
Source: How to be a Domestic Goddess
Serves: 4-6

Ingredients:
Mini marshamallows - 150 g (I used regular ones)
Butter - 50 g, softened
Chocolate - 250 g (I used 60% dark chocolate, and it was super intense), roughly broken into pieces
Hot water - 60 ml
Cream - 250 ml
Vanilla extract - 1 tsp

How I Made It:

1. In a heavy-bottom saucepan, melt the marshmallows, butter, chocolate and water together, stirring every now and then. Note that the marshmallows take a while to meld down so I cut each further into 4 pieces. I'd recommend you do the same if using regular marshmallows.

2. Meanwhile, whip the cream with vanilla until thick.

3. Fold it into the cooling chocolate mixture until you have a smooth mixture.

4. Pour into individual ramekins / small serving bowls and let it set in the fridge for about 1 hour.

I halved the recipe and got exactly 2 portions of intense, chocolate-y mousse that was silky and had a wonderful texture. Using semi-sweet chocolate is more advisable since the flavour is intense otherwise.