Our Favorite Chili

 Memory plays a role in a lot of food preferences and this chili is no different. I think I started making chili this way...or close to this way...when I first started living with Sweetie. When you are a working Mom, you find a way to plan dinner meals that can be made ahead and reheated or started in the morning in a Crock Pot or Instant Pot using the slow cooker feature. You also learn how to put something together in 30 minutes or less, but that's for another post.

I prefer to make this chili on a day when I have some time, even though it goes together in about 30 minutes. That way I can turn the heat to simmer and let it cook for a while and become thicker. If it is also made a day or two in advance, I know that it will taste even better reheated because that seems to be one of the great things about cooking with onions...dishes taste better if allowed to sit in the fridge a day or so before eating.

I like to use ground turkey for this, but you can use any ground meat you prefer...or leave out the meat altogether. It goes together really quickly because you are using a packet of seasonings, canned tomato sauce, canned diced tomatoes and their juice, and canned kidney and canned black beans. If you have the time you can dice some onion and sauté it before cooking the ground meat but it's fine without it if you are in a hurry or can't be bothered. After all, this is meant to be a quick and easy dish!

Easy Chili
Elle's recipe

1/2 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 tablespoon neutral oil
1 pound ground turkey (or beef if preferred)
1 tablespoon neutral oil
1 packet chili mix
1 15oz. can diced tomatoes in juice
1 15 oz. can tomato sauce
1 15 oz. can cooked black beans, drained
1 15 oz. can cooked kidney beans, drained

In a large pan sauté the onion in the neutral oil with a wooden spoon until onion is translucent. Remove onions to a plate and wipe the pan of onion residue.

In the same pan, wiped, sauté the ground turkey, breaking it up into chunks and small pieces as you stir and cook it, until turkey is no longer pink. Some pieces will be browned. Return the onions to the pan.

To the turkey mixture, add as much of the chili mix packet as you like. I usually go with half the packet, but some folks like it hotter or spicier. Stir to combine and continue to sauté another minute, stirring.

Add the can of diced tomatoes and juice to the pan and stir and scrape with the wooden spoon to scrape up any browned bits. Stir them into the mixture. Add the cans of tomato sauce, black beans and kidney beans. Stir to combine.

Turn heat to lowest setting and simmer, stirring occasionally to keep bottom from scorching, for another 15-20 minutes, until chili is the thickness you prefer. If you have time, let cool and then chill in the refrigerator, covered, overnight, then reheat. If you don't have that time, serve chili piping hot with any toppings you desire...or just as is which is my favorite way.

Leftovers can be kept in the fridge for a couple of days.

Fast and Fun Burrito

Now that I live in California I'm surrounded with some of the best Mexican food outside of Mexico, but when I was growing up on the East coast, I knew absolutely nothing about tacos and enchiladas and burritos much less empanadas or tamales or any other south-of-the-border foods.

When I lived in Berkeley I went to a dinner party where the highlight of the dinner was make-it-yourself burritos. I liked it so much that it soon became a staple of our busy lives. When you make a big pot of chili, there are leftovers and those become the centerpiece of the burrito. Add a tray with a pile of chopped fresh tomato, a pile of chopped cilantro, a pile of diced avocados or a bowl of guacamole, some sliced olives, a bowl of shredded cheese, shredded lettuce, a bowl of re-heated rice, a bowl of sour cream or plain yogurt and you are almost there. We used to add plain tortillas, heated briefly in the cast iron skillet and doled out as they were warmed. Now there are so many types of tortillas that we can have some flavored with tomato or spinach or herbs, but I often go with the plain tortillas I remember from my first encounter with this dish.

Once the children were grown and no longer around the dinner table, I lost track of this dish for some reason. I think we've had it half a dozen times at the most in the last dozen years. Today I needed a quick meal and remembered the left over chili in the fridge. Once I discovered a package of tortillas on the bottom shelf the rest was easy. Unfortunately we were out of avocados but it was OK. Even with a limited number of add-ons, it was just as much fun as I remembered. On a warm tortilla I laid out a rectangle of hot chili, sprinkled on some shredded cheddar cheese, a big pinch of cilantro, a dribble of plain yogurt, then folded it up into the classic burrito shape. Brought back great memories I can tell you!

You can make your own memories. This is a great meal to do with kids because they can make it their way. If you don't have chili you can use refried beans or kidney bean, black beans or pintos. If you do that, add some salsa and/or hot sauce for zest.

Sweetie ate up all the tomatoes we didn't put into the burritos and then we ate some wonderful Bing cherries for dessert. Fast, easy and fun.

Make Your Own Burritos

leftover chili OR
refried beans or kidney bean, black beans or pintos and some salsa or hot sauce
reheated cooked rice
shredded cheese
chopped cilantro
chopped tomatoes
1-2 avocados, peeled, pit removed and diced
plain yogurt or sour cream
sliced black olives, drained
shredded iceberg lettuce
more salsa and/or hot sauce
flour tortillas

Heat the chili, or beans and put into a serving dish.
On a tray arrange a bowl of warm rice, a pile of the cheese, a pile of cilantro, a pile of tomatoes, a pile of avocado, a dish of yogurt or sour cream, a bowl of olives, a pile of shredded lettuce. If you don't have any of the ingredients on the tray, don't worry...just serve what you have.
Put the salsa and/or hot sauce on the table, along with the dish of chili or beans, and the tray of fixins.
Heat the tortillas in a skillet or the oven to warm them. Serve wrapped in a towel to keep warm.

For each serving, put a warm tortilla on the plate. In the middle put a rectangle of chili, leaving enough room to wrap the tortilla around the fillings. Add your favorite fillings, salsa or sauces. Wrap by folding in one side, folding up the bottom, then the other side. Eat, being sure to have a napkin handy to catch any drips.

Melty Cheese

I love things with melted, gooey, warm and runny cheese. Grilled cheese sandwiches come to mind. Pizza, too. Even a slice of good bread, topped with cheese and run under the broiler can be real comfort food.

The other day I saw a recipe by Donna Hay that Patricia had posted on her blog Technicolor Kitchen that sounded SOOOOO good, particularly because it had a layer of melted cheese sandwiched between two layers of polenta. I knew I had to try it. Thanks Patricia!

I decided to make some pasta sauce to go along with the Polenta with Cheese and Basil. I had a pound of Willy Bird's ground turkey, so half was devoted to the pasta sauce, along with some very seasonal zucchini.

Half of the turkey was browned and made into a pot of chili. Since I regularly use packaged chili mix for the seasonings and canned kidney beans and tomato sauce, too, I’m not including a recipe for the chili. The secret of making it taste like “home made” is to simmer it for a long time, stirring frequently. Making it a day or so before you plan to eat it is great, too. Kept in the refrigerator, then re-heated, the flavors get even better.

The second half of the pound of ground turkey went into my favorite pasta sauce. The recipe was previously posted here.

Both the chili and the pasta sauce ended up in the fridge and were eaten this weekend. The polenta recipe needs to be made ahead by at least an hour because it needs to chill, too.

Usually I change something significant about a recipe, but this time I just used less butter and used regular instead of instant polenta. This polenta, a whole grain, was purchased at the Bale Grist Mill in the Napa area. I had enjoyed watching them use the huge mill stones to grind the dried corn into the coarse polenta, so eating this particular polenta was a double treat.

Regular polenta needs to be cooked longer than the instant polenta. I simmered mine ten minutes or more, stirring frequently to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the pan and burning. The cooked polenta was thick and had little darker flecks as the corn had dried with some darker bits. It made a nice, firm cake to cut and grill in my trusty cast iron skillet. I used a round 9 inch cake pan, lined with foil, instead of a square pan.

The fresh basil leaves added a nice jolt of flavor that went so well with the tomato based pasta sauce. The mozzarella cheese in the middle melted ... mmmm, melty cheese! ... so there were lots of great textures and flavors going in this dish.

You could also serve this grilled polenta by itself, as a side dish with some pan fried chops or grilled chicken breasts, or garnished with some pesto sauce.

Here is the recipe for the polenta with cheese and basil:

Grilled Cheese and Basil Polenta
A Donna Hay (#40) recipe as posted on Technicolor Kitchen blog

3 cups (750ml) water
1 cup (170g) instant polenta (I used an equal amount of regular polenta)
60g butter, chopped (I only used a tablespoon of butter)
½ cup (50g) finely grated parmesan
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup basil leaves
2 cups (200g) grated mozzarella*
olive oil, for brushing

Place water in a saucepan over medium heat and bring to the boil. Gradually whisk in the polenta and cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes or until thickened. Remove from the heat and stir through the butter, parmesan, salt and pepper. Pour half of the polenta into a 20cm square pan lined with non-stick baking paper (I used foil) and spread to smooth. Top with the basil, mozzarella and remaining polenta. Refrigerate for 45 minutes or until set.
Cut into squares/rectangles and brush with oil. Heat a char-grill pan or barbecue over high heat. (I used my cast iron skillet, well heated) Cook the polenta for 3-4 minutes each side or until golden and the cheese has melted.

Serve topped with a generous serving of the pasta sauce or a ragu of your choice. A nice green salad completes the meal.