Wednesday, January 27, 2010

Ubergrun Chili



One thing I love about the German language (and subsequently the English language, though we don't do it nearly so much these days) is that new words are incorporated all the time just by smashing some together that already exist. Here I've used the adjective "ubergrun" to mean "intensely green," referring to the fact that five out of the seven whole food ingredients in this chili are of that persuasion.


While fighting off the cat in order to lick my bowl clean, I was uberpissed to learn from my husband- the Orlando Weekly's calendar editor and social butterfly extraordinaire- that there will be a chili cook-off this weekend. Why pissed? Because just when I finally invent a chili I'm proud of, and just when a chili cook-off finally happens in my neck of the woods... we won't be in town. On Friday, we hop a plane to Colorado and pay an off-season visit to some of the farms at which we've applied to intern. (That, or sit around in the airport all weekend waiting for a plane that's been delayed by an uberblizzard up in Denver.)

Joking aside, I'm ecstatic about this trip! If you'd like to read about the places we'll be touring, please pop on over to Doveland Farm and peruse some of my husband's recent posts.

I know, I know... enough with the blog plugging already. Bring on the uberdelicious chili recipe!

Ubergrun, Uberdelicious, Geez-I'd-Better-Stop-Saying-Uber-Before-I-Offend-a-Real-German Chili

Ingredients

2 Tbsp. olive oil
1 yellow onion, diced large
1 stalk celery, sliced
1 Anaheim chile pepper, diced small
2 large cloves of garlic (or 3-4 non-ubercloves as pictured... gah, there's just so many appropriate places to say uber!), chopped
3 tsp. dried cumin
1 3/4 c. broccoli florets
1/2 c. cilantro leaves, chopped
Salt 'n' pepper to taste
1 1/4 c. black beans, cooked
2 Tbsp. sherry vinegar
3 medium to large green tomatoes, diced (approximately... I used two big ones from the farmer's market and five little ones my mom gave me from her garden)
2 tsp. orange blossom honey


Directions

Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan on medium-high. Add the onion, celery, chile, garlic, and cumin. Saute 2 minutes.

Add the broccoli florets and saute a few minutes more, until the onion is translucent and the broccoli is tender.

Add the cilantro, salt, and pepper; seasoning to your preference as if you intend to eat it as is. (Yes, there are still some ingredients to add, but when the water contained in the vegetables evaporates, you will be left with perfectly salted chili). Saute one minute more, then stir in the black beans.

Pour in the sherry vinegar and deglaze the pan.

Stir in the tomatoes, reduce the heat to medium-low, and cover the pan. Simmer 40 minutes. Add the honey and taste one more time to see if you need any more salt. Simmer, covered, 10 minutes more. Serves 3-4 (number of servings can be augmented to a solid 4 if you ladle it over rice, potatoes, cornbread, meat, etc.)


Don't get me wrong, the flavor of this chili was amazing; but in case you hadn't noticed, it's quite mild. I got an ubercramp in my wrist from shaking hot sauce into my portion. If I were to enter it in the cook-off, I would add a couple jalapenos for heat.

Okay, gonna stop saying uber now...

Dang, just said it again.

Okay... NOW!

Addendum: Huh, looking back on this, I'm not sure what all I'm counting as a "whole food" ingredient here... I didn't count my black beans because they came from a can, but there were no salt or preservatives added, so... meh? What do you guys count as whole food?


Beat the eggs. Whip the cream. Show no mercy.


13 comments:

Jhonny walker said...

hahahah....so truely german!! lovely post!

Divina Pe said...

Interesting chili. I never had this before but it's worth a try.

wasabi prime said...

Fabulous -- and would make any mother who lectured us to "eat our greens" to beam with pride. Honestly, that's why I love soups and chilis, because they're so flexible and can take just about any ingredient. This reminds me of a meat loaf I made when we were overwhelmed with CSA greens. It was more veggie than meat, but it turned out fine!

redkathy said...

Hey this chili sounds great! Individual heat addition is sometimes a good thing ya know. I would so enjoy it but the hubby aka "the Carnivore"... need I say more! And it's too cool that your mom blogs too! I checked her out, very nice blog. Have a great trip.

penny aka jeroxie said...

I love chillies. So this dish has my name on it

Viviane, Taste-Buds said...

The Taste-Buds think you deserve the honest award check it out here:
http://thetastebudz.wordpress.com/2010/01/31/the-honest-award-10-things-to-hate-about-us/

Anonymous said...

Your chili sounds fantastic! Have a wonderful trip!

Tasty Eats At Home said...

Sounds ubercool! I think canned black beans still count as a whole food!

Mary Poppins in Heels said...

Yes, uber cool! And delicious...uber, even!

Conor @ HoldtheBeef said...

Looks delicious. Dare I say uber delicious? Oh dang, I see I've been beaten to saying this. Oh well, it still stands :D

SashaInTheKitchen said...

chili looks great. i actually prefer to go mild on the heat with my chili so I might have to give this a try. I would love for you to check out my blog too :) I really like yours a lot.

gastroanthropologist said...

I do like my meat and my husband is often under the false impression that meat of some sort is a must at dinnertime. However, I hate meat in lasagnes and chilis. Not sure what it is, just turns me off. This chili is definitely very appealing to me and too bad you wont be able to enter it into a contest. Your trip to Doveland Farms sounds so cool. On whole food - my general rule of thumb is nothing from a package or can, but if there isn't salt or preservatives and its just the beans sounds pretty whole to me.

Anna said...

Add a smidgen of Sriracha and I guarantee it won't be mild anymore, that is potent stuff ...