sweet potato chili

Serve with quinoa and garnish with some sour cream and feta cheese and you’ll have a hearty, healthy meal perfect for cold nights, or just about anytime! You could probably just eat the chili by itself, but I enjoy eating it with quinoa,or bulgur, because they’re not as dense or heavy as rice, but it’s chili, you gotta have some kinda carbohydrate with it 😉

Sweet Potato Chili (makes about 10-12 servings)

The Base
1 lb bacon, cut into 1/2″ pieces
1 onion, small diced
5 large cloves garlic, finely chopped
12 oz oatmeal stout or brown/amber ale
3 tbsp soy sauce
1 tbsp smokey paprika
2 tbsp chili powder
2 tbsp siracha
2 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tbsp ground cumin
1/2 tbsp garlic powder

The Goods
2 cans sweet corn, drained
2 cans diced tomatoes with juices
1 can kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 can garbanzo beans (chickpeas), drained and rinsed
2 1/2-3 lbs sweet potatoes or yams, peeled and cut into 1/2″ cubes- you just want them all about the same size so they cook evenly

• weight doesn’t need to be exact, just round to the nearest whole potato

4 cups water, or 2 cans full
salt and pepper

– Cook bacon in a large stock pot over medium high heat until almost crispy. Drain 3/4 of the excess oil off and add onions and garlic
– Cook onions until translucent. Deglaze pot with just enough beer so that you can scrape off all of the delicious brown bits off of the bottom of the pot
– Add spices and seasonings and cook for another 5 minutes. Add in the rest of the beer and then begin adding in all of “The Goods”, except for sweet potatoes
– Bring chili up to a boil over high heat, then add in sweet potatoes
– Once chili returns to a boil, turn the heat down to medium-low and simmer until sweet potatoes are tender about 30-45 minutes, and their starch starts to thicken up the chili
– Season with salt and pepper; add more siracha (or hot sauce) if you want it spicier; add more brown sugar if you want it sweeter
– Ladle into bowls, sit in front of the fireplace or outside on a porch and bon appetit!

chicken n’ cheddar dumplings

The one time I can remember eating chicken and dumplings, I decided that I would never eat it again….but, oddly,  for the past couple days I’ve been craving chicken and dumplings, so I decided that I would tackle this dish and try to make it delicious. And the verdict- I feel it was a great success! I like leftovers, and this recipe makes a lot of food: a full 6 qt pot of food. If you don’t think you can eat all of it, just halve the recipe.

Chicken n’ dumplings

Poached Chicken
2 qt chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 sprig thyme
1 tbsp whole peppercorns
2 large chicken breasts

– Heat stock and seasonings to a boil. Add chicken breasts and bring stock back to a boil.
– Turn heat down to medium-low and simmer chicken breasts, covered, for 20-25 minutes, depending on breast size
– Remove breasts from stock, and set aside till cool enough to handle. Shred chicken into large pieces.

Sauce
4 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
5 medium carrots, medium diced
4 large stalks celery, medium diced
1 yellow onion, medium diced
2 large leeks, halved lengthwise and sliced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp thyme, minced
3/4 cup flour
2 cups frozen peas
salt and pepper
parley, chopped for garnish

– Heat butter and oil in a large pot, or dutch oven (a wider pot is better than a taller one) over medium-high heat
– Add all vegetables, garlic, and thyme to pot and cook until onions are translucent and vegetables begin to soften
– Turn heat down to medium and sprinkle flour over vegetables. Stir flour into vegetables and continue to cook for 5 more minutes.
– Strain ~1 cup of the hot chicken stock into the vegetables. Stir to avoid lumps. Slowly strain the remainder of the hot stock into vegetables, while stirring. Turn heat back up to medium high, bring soup up to a boil so that the flour can thicken it. Continue stirring so the bottom does not scorch
– Once thickened, add shredded chicken and frozen peas to soup. Season with salt and pepper. Turn heat down to medium-low

Cheddar Dumplings
2 cups flour
1 tsp kosher salt
1 tbsp baking powder
2 eggs
1 cup buttermilk

• If you don’t have buttermilk on hand, don’t worry. You can easily make buttermilk by mixing 1 tbsp vinegar or lemon juice for every 1 cup of milk, and then wait a few minutes for the acid to slightly “sour” or curdle the milk. For this recipe, pour the vinegar into a measuring cup and pour milk until you reach 1 cup.

1 tbsp green onions, sliced (chives would work, too)
1/2 cup cheddar cheese, shredded

– Sift flour and baking powder into a mixing bowl. Add salt
– Whisk buttermilk and eggs in a separate bowl and then add to flour
– Mix until it looks like thick cake batter. Add in green onions and cheese
– Use 2 spoons to drop the batter in the sauce, make dumplings about tablespoon-sized, because they will puff up as they cook. Drop dumpling as quickly as possible, spreading them out if you have enough room in the pot
– Make sure heat is between low and medium-low, and cover pot and allow dumplings to cook for 10-15 minutes, depending on the size of your dumplings. Uncover, and gently move dumplings around to make sure all of them were cooked evenly.

~ENJOY!!~

 

“french” onion soup

The word “French” is in parenthesis, because this onion soup is a little different from the traditional version people are used to, because it doesn’t contain any beef broth. However, I promise you, it is just as delicious, and the sweetness and natural flavor of the caramelized onions are really able to shine.

4 tbsp butter
4-5 large sweet onions
2-3 large yellow onion
1 qt chicken stock
2-3 qt water
1 tsp chopped fresh tyhme
salt and pepper
1/2 cup marsala, or white wine (optional)

thick slices of crust bread
gruyere cheese, grated (or parmesan, pecorino, or a mix)

– Cut off both ends of onions then cut it in half, with the grain.  Thinly slice the onions with the grain.It might sound and look like a lot of onions before you cook them down, but trust me, they cook down A LOT!

– Heat butter over high heat in a large stock pot; you want a pot that’s wider than it is tall- the more surface area the faster the onions will cook
– Add onions and cook till beginning to brown. You should not have to add any liquid for the first 10-15 minutes, because the natural juices from the onions will deglaze the pot. Once you see any brown bits accumulating on the bottom of the pot add ~1/4 cup of stock, just to loosen the bits up
– Depending on the size of your pot, keeping the pot over high heat is the fastest way to caramelize the onions, but it does require you to constantly watch the pot, stir, and deglaze, otherwise the bottom may burn

– Continue to cook the onions until they become a dark brown, I normally cook the onions for at least an hour. Although it may just be onion soup, it is not a quick meal, but the depth of flavor you get from the caramelized onions is worth the wait, and you will be able to tell when a restaurant has taken a short cut, and not fully caramelized their onions from now on. Don’t cook your onions for 1/2 hr and then get impatient and skimp on the caramelizing; you’ll be doing yourself an injustice!

– Once your onions are fully caramelized, add the wine and cook for 5 minutes before adding the remaining stock and water. Add chopped thyme and season with salt and pepper.

– Drizzle the bread slices with olive oil and broil in the oven till toasted
– Ladle soup into bowls, top with a slice, or two, of toasted bread, and cover with cheese. If your bowls are oven-safe, place back under the broiler until cheese is bubbly and brown.
– ENJOY!