Chili and Cornbread

I like food.  I also like cooking to share with others.  I don't tend to use a lot of recipes but usually just go with what I have on hand and what looks good to me.  Chili is one of those things that you can make a lot of different ways with a variety of ingredients.  Here is one version that I recently made.  This one includes a step with garlic-stuffed roasted peppers that I don't always use but really gives your chili a depth of flavor.  The preparation for the peppers can be done in advance.

Tempeh Chili and Cornbread
Ingredients:
1 head of garlic
2 jalapeno peppers
1 poblano pepper
1 medium onion
4 carrots, peeled
4 ribs celery
1 package tempeh
assorted cans of beans
assorted cans of tomatoes
1 can of beer
some vegetable stock
assorted spices including chili powder, cumin, allspice, cayenne, etc.

Process:
Roasted peppers
1. Peel and trim all garlic, julienne half and mince the rest.

Hollowed pepper with julienne garlic

2. Cut off tops of jalapeno peppers and remove ribs and seeds.
3. Stuff julienne garlic into hollowed peppers.
4. Coat poblano pepper and stuffed jalapenos in olive oil, salt, and pepper.  Roast at 350 for about 30 minutes or until skin begins to bubble.
 

5.  While peppers are roasting, dice the onion, carrots, and celery.  Crumble tempeh into small grounds.
6. Heat some olive oil in the bottom of your biggest pot.  Once the oil gets to temperature add garlic and onions.  Once these begin to caramelize, add salt, pepper, and remaining seasoning.  Get your onions and garlic nice and coated with the seasonings. 

7. As the onions and garlic begin to turn translucent, add tempeh in.  You will want to get the tempeh coated in oil and seasoning (you may need to add a bit more olive oil here) and continue to sautee until it begins to brown.  At this point, add in your diced veggies.
*note: you pretty much always want to start out your dishes by sauteeing your onions and garlic first.  This will mellow out the sharper flavors of the vegetables and the caramelization will add a sweetness that contrasts well with the other flavors in the dish.  In this case, the caramelized garlic and onions with the roasted peppers will contrast any spiciness you add to the chili.

8.  Once the vegetables begin to soften a bit, you will want to deglaze them.  The idea here is that the heated oil coating the vegetables will continue to sautee them until you "wash" the oil off.  For chili, I like to do this with beer, but depending on the dish you can also use wine, sherry, stock, vinegar, or citrus juice.  Once the beer is in the pot, I like to stir it all up and let it braise for a bit before adding in my other ingredients.  Once the foam from the beer settles, bring to a boil and then reduce heat to let this simmer.

9.  Have a beer for yourself!  Cooking is thirsty work.

Bubbly skin peppers

10.  By now your peppers are probably done roasting.  Allow these guys to cool down a bit before trying to handle them.  You are going to want to remove as much of the skin as you can.  You should see the skin bubble up and it is pretty easy to remove.  I like to just get in there with a paring knife but you can also either cover the peppers or put them into a paper bag.  The steam from the cooling peppers will help to lift the skin off.

Poblano with skin removed and minced jalapeno/garlic

11.  After removing the skin, cut out the top and clean out the ribs and seeds from the poblano.  Dice the rest of this one up.  Mince or finely chop the stuffed jalapenos.  This combination of peppers is not terribly spicy, particularly with roasting them.  The garlic will impart a rich, sweet flavor to the pepper and to the broth of your chili.  To make a spicier chili, roast a habanero in place of one of the jalapenos or mince a raw jalapeno to add to the vegetables above.
Reserve these peppers for now.



12.  By now your veggies are starting to marry flavors with your spices in the beer broth and it is time to begin bringing this thing together. 
Occasionally I will make my chili from fresh tomatoes if I find big juicy ones that I like or if I don't have anything better to do in a day.  But typically I will opt for canned tomatoes.  This is quicker and you won't notice a huge difference in flavor.  For this recipe, I used 2 big cans of crushed tomatoes and one normal sized can of diced.  This gives the finished chili a bit more texture.
I also use canned beans for this because it is a lot easier and, again, you won't really notice a huge difference in flavor.

A variety of beans is good both for texture and flavor.  In this version, I used one can each of black beans, kidney beans, great northern beans, and pinto beans.  The earthy protein of the beans grounds the chili and balances out the other flavors. 
Dump all of the cans of stuff into your pot, stir it up, and top the whole thing off with stock or more beer.
13.  This whole mess needs to simmer for at least an hour.  Ideally, you should keep this on for 2-3 hours.  Depending on your tastes, you can add in some tomato paste at this point to help thicken up your broth. 
14.  This is also a good point to make your cornbread.  I don't have a good recipe, so I made this one that I found on Minimalist Baker.  This recipe is really great.  I made a couple of minor variations on this, but it is a delicious recipe as-is.  The bread is moist, just the right amount of crumbly, and sweet.  I am not much of a baker but I found this recipe easy to follow. 

Delicious cornbread

15.  Once your cornbread is in the oven, fix up your toppings!  I like chopped cilantro, green onions, and sour supreme to go with my chili.  Avocado and hot sauce is also really good.