Sasha's Kitchen: Superbowl Special - Turkey Chili

I really haven't eaten a lot of chili over the years - I guess I generally assumed I wouldn't like it with all those beans. But, last weekend we went over to a friends' house to watch the Jets-Patriots game and they made a delicious turkey chili. I did eventually get the recipe, but not before I attempted to replicate it with my own recipe. Remarkably, the two recipes were quite similar, and I have come up with this fusion that I will share as the perfect Super Bowl recipe. I really love the use of turkey in chili, as it is much healthier and more to my liking than the traditional meats used in chili. In addition, the toppings here are key - I used nonfat sour cream, grated cheddar cheese and sliced avocado as the toppings here, along with some tortilla chips of course. The tomatoes and beans are all from the delicious shipment of canned goods that I got from ShopRite. So this is the perfect recipe to watch the big game!

Sasha's Turkey Chili
1 T olive oil
2 medium onions, diced
1 1/2 tsp dried oregano
1 tsp ground cumin
1 1/2 lbs lean, ground turkey
1/4 cup ancho chili powder
2 bay leaves
1 T unsweetened cocoa powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 28 oz can of while tomatoes
2 1/2 cups of low sodium chicken stock
15 oz can of white beans
15 oz can of black beans
handfull of chopped cilantro
top with grated cheddar, diced avocado and fat free sour cream

To make the chili, first heat the oil and saute the onions until light brown and tender, which should take about 10 minutes. I also added a bit of fresh red pepper here, but I think it didn't really need that. Add the oregano and cumin and stir. Increase to medium high heat and add the ground turkey, stirring to cool, and breaking it up into small pieces. Stir in the ancho chile powder, bay leaves, cocoa powder, cinnamon and a bit of salt and pepper to taste. Puree the can of tomatoes and mix in the chicken stock and the tomatoes. 

Bring the mixture to a boil and then reduce heat and simmer for about an hour, stirring occasionally. Towards the end of the simmering (it will reduce, like risotto), discard the bay leaves, and add the two cans of beans and simmer until the flavors are mixed together. You will want to be sure to drain and wash the beans before adding them. Serve warm, with fat free sour cream, chips, sliced avocados and grated Vermont cheddar.

Sasha's Kitchen: Superbowl Special - Turkey Chili

Eric's Kitchen in NJ: 3-Bean Chilli Con Carne

So it's finally starting to cool off in the Northeast, Football season is starting and it seemed about time to make some chilli! Both Jenn and I love chilli and my recipe changes pretty much every time but this is how I made it this time around. I usually use just kidney beans but this time around I decided to try some other beans as well. I've also done it with ground turkey and it's still pretty good but I like ground pork and beef best.

Ingredients: (Feeds about 8)
1lb. ground Beef
1lb. ground Pork
2 cans kidney beans
1 can pinto beans
1 can northern beans
2 cans crushed tomatoes (16oz. ea.)
1/2 large onion
5 oz. sliced baby bella mushrooms
4 tbsp. chilli powder
3 tbsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. chilli oil
4-6 bay leaves
cracked black pepper & crushed red pepper flakes to taste

served with sour cream, chives, shredded cheddar cheese and cornbread.

I like to get a large pan nice and hot with a little olive oil and start off with the onions, mushrooms, garlic and meats. I saute everything together, turning the meat often to ensure it cooks completely. Once the meat is browned and the veggies are softened, I transfer everything into my crock pot and start adding the beans, crushed tomatoes and other ingredients.

I let it cook in the crock pot pretty much as long as I can. I think this time I cooked it on high for a few hours, turned it to low for an hour or so and then left it on 'keep warm' overnight. Chilli is one of those dishes that only gets better the longer it goes and the next day it's usually ready.

Jenn made some corn bread with whole wheat flour and we ate it with a little sour cream, cheddar cheese and fresh chives and it was excellent. It's really a great dish to make if you're feeding a bunch of people.

Eric's Kitchen in NJ: 3-Bean Chilli Con Carne

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto - Snapper and Mango Salsa with Rice and Beans

With the heat still blanketing the city and me in my element with it, I decided it was finally time to have company over to my apartment now that I have a brand new balcony! After disclosing my plans to finally start cooking again, my insanely talented musician friend Jimi Maze (check out his music here) agreed to play guinea pig in my epicurean experiments. A few days earlier, he very graciously brought me a pepper plant as a house-warming gift. Add this to the Pakistani mangos I had bought earlier that week in Little India and of course, this got my creative juices flowing! How could I use these gorgeous colourful peppers and sweet juicy mangoes in some way? My brain immediately supplied the answer; mango salsa!

Given the heat, I decided that serving something light was a good idea so I headed to my local megamart to see what kind of fish they had. Once that was done, I needed a side dish. Given that I was already on a South American path with the salsa, I decided some rice and beans were in order! My mother had brought me some farm-fresh corn the previous day and I decided to incorporate it into my efforts. I added a salad with homemade dressing and dinner was set!

Mixy's Mango Salsa

1 mango, peeled and chopped into cubes
1 avocado, chopped and cubed
1 green onion, chopped fine
3 tbsp black beans
1/2 red or yellow pepper, seeded and diced
1 bird's eye chilli, seeded and chopped fine (or leave the seeds for extra heat)
1/4 - 1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp chipotle
2 tbsp cilantro, chopped fine
1 lime, squeezed
dash of lemon juice

Mix everything together and use right away or let it hang out in the fridge for 30 minutes to meld the flavours. Make sure to add the citrus before you add the avocado and mix it in so the avos don't turn brown. This is lovely over fish but I also had leftovers of the salsa over pork chops that I covered in chutney, seared and popped in a 400F over for 10-15 mins which was delicious! Jimi and I had the salsa with snapper that I put in a 375F over for 17 mins with some olive oil, lime juice, salt and salad herbs.

Add to this my side of rice and beans that I cooked in my rice cooker. If you don't have one (and you really should!) just cook the basmati according to the package instructions with all the ingredients in the pot at once; easy one-pot wonder!

Beans and Rice - Michelle-style

1 ear corn, corn sliced off the cob (use raw)
1/2 can black beans
3/4 c basmati rice
3/4 c water
3/4 c chicken stock
1/2 tsp coriander
1/2 tsp cumin
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 lime squeezed for juice
1 bay leaf

Put everything in your rice cooker and hit "start". I felt it needed more salt, but Jimi said his was great, so salt to taste.

I love entertaining and plan on doing much more of it before the summer is over. Must take advantage of my brand new balcony and killer view!

Michelle's Kitchen in Toronto - Snapper and Mango Salsa with Rice and Beans

Christina's Kitchen in Budapest: Jokai Bableves

One of my favorite places to visit in Hungary is the town of Eger, which has a lovely basilica, a big ruined castle and terrific wines, which you can sample by the glass by going cellar-to-cellar in the part of town known as the Valley of the Beautiful Women (Szépasszonyvöl in Hungarian). Eger also has some terrific restaurants, including a pancake (palacsinta) restaurant called simply Palacsintavar and the charming, friendly HBH Bavarian Beer House. On my most recent visit, HBH had taken goulash off the menu and replaced it with a soup just as addictive: jokai bableves. (I should note that true Hungarian goulash is not the beef-stew type dish we're used to in the States; it's more of a beef and vegetable soup.)
Jokai bablevesh (pronounced "YO-ky BOB-le-vesh), or Bean Soup a la Jokai, was named after the 19th century novelist and politician Mor Jokai. I'm still not sure why, exactly, but I'm sure if he ate the version at HBH, he'd love it. It has beans, root veggies, ham and sausage in a spicy, onion-flour-vinegar broth, and I've recently tried to make it at home.
I've been using a cookbook called Culinaria Hungary that was a going-away gift from my co-workers when I left for Budapest. It's a wonderful primer on Hungarian cooking, and while some of its recipes, like for chicken paprikas, are spot-on, the one for this soup was confusing, so I found an adaptation of it online that I, in turn, fiddled with to get that HBH flavor.
The soup gets its thickening by adding a roux of butter, flour and onion towards the end, which reminds me of Cajun cooking. If you're concerned about adding even more fat to the ham-and-sausage-and-stock dish, you can use margarine instead.
I used ham that I bought at the market, which wound up being super-salty (and with lots of fat, and on the bone, to boot!). I should have soaked the ham for at least a few hours to reduce the salinity; as it was, I didn't need to add any salt to the recipe.
Another salty ingredient was the sausage I used. It's a smoky, spicy, dried link sausage from the wine town of Szekszárd. Next time I will try using Csabai kolbász, which is from the town of Békéscsaba. Whatever the sausage, this recipe's an easy way to get my Jokai bableves fix between visits to Eger.

Jokai Bableves
(serves 4)
1 15-ounce can of kidney beans
8 to 10 ounced of cooked ham, cubed
2 bay leaves
1 large carrot, chopped
1 medium parsley root, chopped
1 medium celeriac, chopped
6 to 8 ounces sausage, chopped
4 teaspoons butter
4 tablespoons Flour
1 small onion, chopped
1 clove of garlic, chopped
1 teaspoon sweet paprika
2 to 3 teaspoons white vinegar
1/4 to 1/2 cup sour cream
1 bunch of parsley, chopped
3 cups chicken stock
3 cups water

1. Put beans, ham, bay leaves, carrots, parsley root, sausage and celeriac in a pot with the stock and water. Bring to a boil and simmer for 20 minutes.
2. In a separate pan, melt the butter, then add the flour and onion and stir to mix the roux. Saute until the flour turns golden brown. Add garlic and paprika, and saute for 1 minute.
3. Add this to the stock pot along with vinegar. Bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
4. Stir in sour cream and parsley. Serve with crusty bread, and maybe some hot paprika on the side.

Christina's Kitchen in Budapest: Jokai Bableves