Chili -- Slow Cooker Meal for a Pressure Cooker Day

You may wonder, what did the Blog Appetits have to eat while Mom was eating her way through the Fancy Food Show? They had chili. I made a huge batch on Saturday night and it kept us well fed for the duration.

This chili started life as a photo on the cover of the January/February issue of Cooking Light. Gary saw it and immediately began requesting chili. I didn’t use the magazine’s recipe, but I borrowed generously from its spicing. This makes a chili that’s somewhere between mild and medium. If you like it hotter, goose up the hot stuff.

Because my man wanted a slow meal with lots of different kinds of beans on a busy day, I used canned beans and made this in the pressure cooker. You can adapt it for regular cooking by making it in a large skillet and simmering until the mixture was cooked through and thickened. (You might need to add a bit more liquid.) You could probably adapt it to a slow cooker as well. Proceed through browning the meat, reduce the liquid to 1 ½ cups each of water and stock, put all ingredients but the corn meal in a slow cooker and cook on low or medium for 6-8 hours. About a half hour before serving, switch to high, uncover and add in the corn meal, giving it a good stir every now and then.

Turkey Chili with Four Types of Beans
Serves 6 - 8

1 ½ pounds ground turkey (I used 7 percent fat, labeled "lean.")
1 ½ tablespoons sweet paprika
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
½ teaspoon dried oregano
½ teaspoon black pepper
¼ teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons grape seed or other vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons dried oregano
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 canned chipotle chiles, chopped
1 -15 ounce can of black beans
1-15 ounce can of small white beans, rinsed and drained
1-15 ounce can of adzuki beans (or pinto or kidney if adzuki are unavailable), rinsed and drained (The adzuki beans add a slight nuttiness to the dish.)
1-15 ounce can of garbanzo beans (chickpeas), rinsed and drained
2 cups chicken stock, homemade or purchase low-sodium
2 cups water
1-28 ounce can of diced tomatoes
¼ cup of corn meal

Toppings: plain yogurt or sour cream, chopped cilantro, lemon wedges, avocado slices, shredded cheese, fresh salsa, etc.

In a large bowl, mix paprika, garlic, 2 teaspoons of chili powder, 1 tsp of cumin, ½ teaspoon of dried oregano, black pepper and salt with ground turkey. Combine well.

Heat oil in a large pressure cooker. Working in batches if need be, brown the seasoned ground turkey mixture, breaking up the meat into clumps as it browns. Add the onion, 1 tablespoon cumin, 2 teaspoons oregano, 1 tablespoon chili powder, and chopped chipotles. Cook, stirring often, until the onion is softened. Add in drained beans, diced tomatoes with their juices, water and chicken stock. Stir well.

Place and lock lid on pressure cooker. Bring up to pressure and cook at high pressure for about five minutes. Open vent and allow steam to escape until all pressure is released. Take off lid.

Over medium heat, stir in the corn meal and cook until the chili is slightly thickened.

Serve with toppings as desired.

Soup -- Thai Chicken Curry Transformed

That Pim.
Thoughtful, dedicated, talented, well-traveled and a good Samaritan to boot. Oh, did I mention she can really cook? And blog? Check out Chez Pim for yourself.

I was one of her raffle helpers a few weeks ago for Menu for Hope II and she served us a wickedly good Thai curry noodle dish that has haunted me ever since. Thanks to Brett of In Praise of Sardines I now know we had khao soi, a northern Thai curry chicken and noodle dish. (The photo above shows the accompaniments Pim served with the curry.)

That dish inspired my own, much less authentic version of a Thai Chicken Curry. I very loosely adapted a recipe from Thai Table. I used Thai red curry paste, some chopped onions, bite-size pieces of chicken breast, fresh green beans sliced into thirds, small, round eggplants cut into chunks, cubes of tofu, a combination of light and regular coconut milk, and water to make a very spicy and soupy stew which I served over rice and later noodles. (Dear Reader, I confess I made a LOT of the Thai chicken curry.) It was good. It got better (and hotter) each day. After a few days, I wanted to change the taste profile, so I added a 28-ounce can of diced organic tomatoes with their juice, reheated the stew/soup and ladled into my soup bowl. I served whole grain flatbreads warmed on a griddle to eat alongside the my newly christened Thai Chicken Curry and Tomato Soup.

It was great. But it was not nearly as wonderful as Pim's.

Soup Thai Food

Vacation Condo Soup With Tomatoes, Vegetables, Sausage and Chicken

When the weather outside is frightful, a good soup can be delightful.

Never did that statement ring truer than over New Year’s weekend here in rainy California. To counteract the damp weather and to fill my in-laws’ freezer with something easy and good to eat during our recent visit, I made a batch of Vacation Condo Soup.

Vacation Condo Soup is what I make when I don’t have access to a full pantry, a stocked refrigerator and the batterie de cuisine is well, battered, or at best minimal. I have made versions of this in rental condos and “suite” hotel rooms with kitchens across the country. Since my in-laws don’t scratch cook much any more, this recipe was called for.

The soup is satisfying and really plays off the sweet fennel taste of the turkey sausage. It is rich tasting and crammed with vegetables, potatoes, chicken and the sausage. It is a meal in a bowl. My taste testers say this soup is too good just to have when you are on vacation.

Vacation Condo Soup Commando

It is always best if you can scope out your kitchen equipment before you have to shop, but sometimes that’s just not possible. Usually, you’ll have a big dull and/ or serrated knife, a paring knife, a small plastic cutting board, an assortment of pots and pans (including one big enough for a modest amount of soup or half package of spaghetti) and enough other equipment to get by if you keep it simple.

A few condos (usually those owned by individuals and not corporations or timeshares) have had small supplies of cooking oil and spices. More, but not all, have had salt and pepper.

So the plan is to limit knife work, boost flavors without having to spend a lot of money on herbs and spices and keep it easy (after all you are on vacation).

One tip: You can store your soup in the fridge in the pot it was made in with the lid on it. But if you think you might need the pot some other time during your stay, pick up some of those disposable plastic food storage containers during your supermarket foray.

Vacation Condo Soup or, Vegetable Soup with Sausage and Chicken

Makes about six one-and-a-half cup servings.

2 tablespoons of olive or other oil (or 4-6 pats of butter or margarine stolen from the breakfast buffet)
16-19 ounces of sweet Italian-style turkey sausage, sliced into ½ inch rounds, amount depends on package size. (Can’t find it in the market? Regular pork sweet Italian sausage will work, too. Want a spicy soup? Use hot Italian sausage instead.)
1 small or ½ medium yellow onion, chopped
2 garlic cloves, minced or chopped fine
2 medium russet potatoes, peeled (use that paring knife if there is no potato peeler) and cut into ¼ cubes
2- 14 to 16 ounce packages of frozen Italian vegetable assortment. (I recommend C&W’s seasoned Ultimate Tuscan with artichoke hearts, red bell peppers, yellow zucchini, soybeans, Italian green beans and spinach) Yes, of course you can use fresh veggies, that’s what I do at home, just figure on about 4 or more cups of trimmed, chopped vegetables.
2-14.5 ounce cans of diced Italian-style tomatoes with basil, oregano and garlic (I used DelMonte. If you can’t find the seasoned diced tomatoes, use the seasoned stewed.)
1-32 ounce box or can of chicken stock, preferably lower sodium
4-6 ounces of shredded, roasted or grilled chicken (I had leftover roast chicken from a restaurant meal the night before. No doggie bag? Look in the market’s prepared foods section for pre-cooked chicken breast. Or use 6-8 ounces of boneless, skinless raw chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces.)
Salt and pepper to taste (bring home some packets from a fast food restaurant or the breakfast buffet if your condo is bare).

Heat the oil or other fat in a three quart pot or larger. When the oil is hot, add the sliced turkey sausage. Sauté until browned on both sides. Remove the browned slices from pot (leaving the oil and drippings in the pot) and let drain on a paper towel-lined bowl or plate. (You may need to do this in batches if your pot is very narrow. Don’t crowd the pot or the slices will steam not brown.)

Add the chopped onions and sauté until softened and a bit golden, stirring up any sausage bits that might be stuck to the bottom on pan. Add garlic and sauté for a minute or so until just colored. Add potato cubes and mix thoroughly. Add frozen vegetables and sauté for a minute or two. Add the diced or stewed tomatoes with their juice. Stir well to combine.

Let simmer for a few minutes for tastes to combine. Add chicken stock. Stir to combine.
Return to simmer. Cover and let simmer for about 10 minutes. If using RAW chicken, add the bite size pieces now. Simmer an additional 10 minutes (20 minutes total), check potato cubes, if almost soft enough to eat, return browned sausage slices to pot and add in pre-cooked, shredded chicken. If the potato cubes have not yet softened sufficiently, cover and simmer, checking periodically until they are and then add sausage and pre-cooked chicken.

Cover pot and continue to simmer until potatoes, sausage and raw chicken (if using) are cooked through.

Taste and season as needed with salt and pepper. (Because of the pre-seasoned ingredients and the commercial chicken stock you may not need to add much, if any, salt.)

This soup is my first submission to Sweetnicks’ weekly antioxidant rich foods cooking round up. For flavorful recipes that are good for you, too, posted every Tuesday, check it out at Sweetnicks. I posted too late for this week’s ARF5-A-Day Roundup, but Sweetnicks assures me I’ll be in the wrap up next Tuesday.

Vacation Condo Soup is brought to you by the following Top 20 antioxidants – cooked artichoke hearts and russet potatoes. Honorable mention to the tomatoes, beans and other vegetables.

Soup