Chili With a Twist

Our PA weather is chilling down. Need something to warm up your tummy? Try some homemade chili. So easy; one pot, if you like beans in it this is your recipe. And a little something different; cubes of butternut squash or yam. Yeap yam, it picks up all those spicy flavors, as does butternut squash. Really great with cornbread, I made some fresh southern style using both cornmeal and gf flour, baked them in an 8 ear cast iron corn cub mold and 6 silicone sleeve muffins. I used ground venison, but you can use beef, turkey, venison, or use a plant-based ground meat substitute. This is somewhat spicy but not too much, my tummy can no longer handle the really spicy stuff. You can up the spice or tone it down a bit.  Your chili, your choice.

I make a basic cornbread, but a tasty version. Enjoy!

Need something special!

Angie’s Sort of Spicy Chili Con Carne

Ingredients

1 to 1 1/3 lb. ground beef, 90 percent is what I used

Cooking spray

1 medium onion; chopped into ½ cup dice

4 garlic cloves, minced

1 medium poblano pepper diced (I used half a good sized one as I can’t do spicy so good anymore)

2/3 cup diced green or red bell pepper

3 tsp. chili powder

½ tsp. cumin

½ tsp. smoked paprika

½ tsp. coriander

½ tsp. cinnamon

¼ tsp. red pepper flakes

1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce

1 28 ounce can crushed tomatoes

¼ cup red or white wine (one you would willingly drink!) or broth

roughly 1 and 1/3 cups peeled and cubed yam or butternut squash;

1-2 cups water

1 tsp. kosher salt

¼ tsp. ground black pepper (more if you want it)

1 14 oz can large kidney beans, rinsed and drained

1 14 oz can small red beans, rinsed and drained

Directions:

Spray large wide 4 qt. pot with cooking spray, heat and add chopped onions. Let cook on medium for 3-5 minutes until softening. Push to edges and add ground meat. Let brown as you break it up and spread out the meat. After turning it once, cook, stirring a lot, until meat isn’t pink. Add minced garlic; stir in, cook 30 seconds. Add all spices, stir well; cook a minute. Add wine or broth, stir, Add crushed tomatoes. Use cup of water to rinse tomato can and add all to pot. Add diced yams and Worcestershire sauce. Cover and simmer on low at least 30 minutes; I cooked mine for more like an hour. I stirred it a lot, at least every 10 minutes taking care to scrape the bottom, so nothing is sticking. I had to go out so I shut it off, put the lid on and restarted it when I returned. It’s flexible that way. Then add kosher salt to taste; I put in 1 tsp. Add the beans. Stir in carefully and cook 15-25 more minutes. Taste and adjust salt, add more ground black pepper if wanted. Honestly it is even better after a good rest in the fridge; the flavors will blend further. So good with corn bread. I didn’t add any toppings; it was just right without any additions, but you can go to town with scallions, grated cheese, or whatever you like. Enjoy!

Here are the ingredients for a delicious Cornbread, ingredients:

1 cup cornmeal, 1 cup Cup4Cup flour or a measure for measure flour, 1/3 cup sugar, 1.5 tsp baking powder, 1/2 tsp baking soda, 1/4 tsp salt, 2 lg eggs, 1 cup milk, 1/4 cup melted butter. Mix the dry ingredients; add beaten eggs, milk and butter, Stir just until blended. Be sure to let your batter rest 5-10 minutes before pouring into a hot baking dish; I have a cast iron 7 ears of corn one and I do 6 muffin tins too; liberally buttered right before you dump in the liquid mix. Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.

Get a hunk of cornbread and dive in!

Cauliflower Cheese Savory Dinner Pie

In these busy preholiday days sometimes, you want a supper that is comforting and delicious. If you have a nice head of cauliflower, you can put it to good use in this vegetarian entrée. I love the cheesy cauliflower flavor of it, pretty substantial served with a substantial salad; a great meal. This savory dinner pie isn’t that difficult to construct; the crust is shredded raw potatoes mixed with an egg, a little rice flour and some salt and pressed into the greased pie pan. You bake it for about 45 minutes and then gently lay in some shredded cheese, then the cooked veggie filling, top it with more cheese, pour on the egg custard and sprinkle it with paprika before baking it to a crispy tender pie that should serve 6 unless you are piggish; then I think you will get still get 5 large slices!

The untraditional pie crust makes this easy to create. Nothing tricky at all in this recipe. Just a few steps to put it together. It is pretty much naturally gluten free, just a bit of rice flour to dust the pan with; I dusted the excess right into the shredded potatoes. Just a bit of flour in the pie pan and in the crust.

Sauteed onions, herbs and garlic

Cauliflower Cheese Pie

Mixed together cauliflower filling

Ingredients:

Ready to bake; yes, that is a chunk of cheese on top! The end of the block; don’t want to grate my fingers; it will melt nicely into the pie.

POTATO CRUST: 1 tsp. sea salt

1 lg egg, beaten

1 -3 tsp. gf flour, divided

Directions: Heat oven to 400 degrees.  3 large russet potatoes; washed. I left them unpeeled but you can peel if you prefer to do that. Grate each whole potato on coarse side of a box grater. I did it right into a large mixing bowl. I like to press a couple paper towels on top to soak up any excess liquid. Or spread it out on a lint free kitchen towel, roll up and squeese out the watery juices. Put in the mixing bowl and add rest of the crust ingredients and stir well. Press into a pie tin sprayed with cooking spray and then dusted with rice flour. I used a big spoon to lay it around the pan and then a fork to press it into the shape of the pie tin. I left a bit above the glass/metal rim to form a nice rim of the crust. Spray the potatoes all over with the cooking spray.  Bake 40-45 minutes. Make the filling while it bakes.

CAULIFLOWER FILLING:

About 3 -4 cups cut up flowerets of raw cauliflower

1-2 Tbsp. mild olive oil or sunflower oil

1 large onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

¼ tsp dried thyme

¼ tsp. dried basil

Directions: Cut up the cauliflower; it was about ¾ of the head. Heat a ½ inch of water in a large sauté pan. Add the cauliflower, put a lid on and cook 6 minutes until just tender. Gently pour the pan into a large colander to drain well. Then heat the oil in the same pan. Add the chopped onion; sauté on low 5-6 minutes, I like to add a couple Tbsp. of water to let it steam; then add the garlic, and then the dried herbs. Stir and let cook another minute. The onion should be soft, cook longer if needed.  When done, turn heat off; gently add the drained cauliflower and a quarter to a half tsp sea salt. Mix gently. While the crust is still baking make the custard.

CUSTARD:

3 large eggs

½ cup whole or 2% milk

1 2/3 cup grated cheddar cheese: I used mostly sharp cheddar with a bit of Monterey Jack cheese too.

Directions: beat the eggs in a medium mixing bowl until fairly blended, add the milk.

When the crust comes out turn the oven down to 350 degrees. Pour half the grated cheese into the hot crust, distributing it evenly. Gently spoon the cauliflower filling on top. Sprinkle with the rest of the cheese. Pour the custard in all over the top. Sprinkle well with paprika and bake 40 minutes; until the custard looks done. Let set at least 10 minutes but preferably 25 or 30 minutes to allow it to solidify a bit more before slicing. Enjoy!

A slice straight from the fridge; just need to warm it up in my trusty microwave! Lunch is served.

It keeps 4-6 days in the fridge; well wrapped. I heat a slice at a time in the microwave. A lovely lunch indeed!

All done and ready to slice! Smells fantastic!