Chicken, Black Bean & Corn Chili

This might be my favorite of all the chilies we've ever made. That's saying a lot because we make chili quite often in the winter & Matt really has a way with it.

This chili just has lots of flavor without being hot (of course Matt added hot sauce to his bowl). I've never used poblano chiles before but I really loved its mild taste. For the corn we used MN sweet corn that I had frozen when it was in season last year. Really, it had the most incredible sweetness & crispness that played well with the other more savory seasonings.

You can serve this chili with any of your favorite toppings. Matt liked it with some mild grated cheese, like Monterey Jack. I liked it with a scoop of plain yogurt (my substitute for sour cream) because it added just a touch of tartness.

Chicken, Black Bean & Corn Chili

1 c dried black beans
2 T olive oil
1 T cumin seeds
2 T chili powder
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 poblano chile, seeded & chopped
2 T tomato paste
20-oz canned fired roasted diced tomatoes (not really exact we used about a can & a half because we had some leftovers. You could just use one can & add more chicken broth if the chili seems dry)
2 c cooked chicken, chopped
2 c chicken broth
1 c fresh or frozen corn

Put the beans & 3 cups water in a saucepan & bring to a boil. Boil for 2 minutes. Remove from heat, cover & let sit for 1 hour. Bring back to a boil, cover, reduce heat & simmer for 1 hour or until beans are almost tender. Add more water if needed during simmering. Drain & set aside.

In a large soup pot or Dutch oven heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the cumin seeds & chili powder. Cook while stirring for about a minute. Add the onion, garlic & poblano & cook until the onion is translucent. Add the tomato paste & stir for about a minute. Add the beans, tomatoes, chicken & chicken broth. Bring to a boil. Turn the heat down to simmer & allow to cook for 30 minutes.

Stir in the corn & cooked until the corn is hot. Serve with your favorite chili toppings.

5 - 6 servings

Spaghetti with Tomato & Olive Sauce

We need a quick meal on Wednesday nights because Matt has a Twin Cities Makers meeting in the evening. This week we decided to use some of the meatballs we had frozen for spaghetti & meatballs.

Matt suggested he make a sauce rather than just buy something in a jar. He wanted to add a little extra flavor to the sauce so he picked up some Kalamata olives at the deli. I suggested we add some of the capers we've had sitting unopen in the pantry to up that briney flavor. I wish we could have used fresh tomatoes but it way too early here in MN so we used the best canned ones we know, Muir Glen fire roasted. This sauce had a really wonderful flavor & was a nice switch from a plain tomato sauce.

We used meatballs in this dish because we had them on hand. We browned them & then let them cook in the sauce as it was simmering. The sauce does not need the meatballs at all though.

Tomato & Olive Sauce

1 T olive oil
12 Kalamata olives, pitted & rough chopped
1 small onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 t dried oregano
1 T red wine vinegar
1 14-oz can crushed fire roasted tomatoes
1 T capers
1 t sugar

Heat olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the olives, onions & garlic. Sauté until the onion is translucent. Stir in red wine vinegar & oregano. Add the tomatoes, capers & sugar. Stir. Cover & simmer for 30 minutes.

2 servings

Indian Pizza

This is not a new dish for us but I thought it was worth reposting, plus we've made a few changes to it.

Matt started with our favorite pizza dough recipe from Wisebread. This time he replaced 1/3 of the all-purpose flour with whole wheat flour. He added a large pinch of garam masala & another of garlic powder to flavor the crust. This created a nice crisp crust though we felt it could use a bit more salt.

For the sauce he used this Indian BBQ Sauce from Bon Appétit. Then he added some grated Monterey Jack, I would have preferred Fontina but the grocery store only had a very expensive one on hand. On top of the cheese, Matt piled some juilienned carrots, sliced zucchini, chopped scallions & some leftover chicken cut into chunks. Such a tasty, different take on pizza.

Chinese Braised Pork Ribs

Last week Allen at Eating Out Loud posted some amazing looking Chinese Braised Spare Ribs & I knew we had to try them. Well, it just so happened I had half a rack of pork ribs in the freezer that needed to be used so they went on this week's menu.

These ribs were amazing! The braising made them fall off the bone tender. The sauce was the perfect balance of sweet & salty & wonderfully lick your fingers sticky. Allen said he felt his ribs turned out good but not great. He mentioned that maybe the sauce needed some hoisin so I added it to my version. We thought it was so good we spooned it over our rice too. Allen used Chinese-style ribs to make his & we just used some baby backs, which worked perfectly. I think the baby back ribs were less fatty as Allen said he skimmed 1/2 c of fat off his sauce at the end & we didn't skim any off of ours.

Chinese Braised Pork Ribs
(adapted slightly from Eating Out Loud)

1 rack baby back ribs, about 2 - 2 1/2 lbs
2 T canola oil
1/2 c soy sauce
1 c sweetened rice wine (we find this in the Asian section of the grocery store)
1/4 c hoisin sauce
1/4 t red pepper flakes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 T fresh ginger, peeled & minced
2 T honey

Cut the rack of ribs into separate ribs. Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a dutch oven. Add the ribs & brown on all sides, about 5 minutes.

Add the remaining ingredients & bring to a boil. Cover, reduce heat & simmer for 45 minutes, stirring from time to time.

Remove lid & let boil gently until the sauce is thickened & coating the ribs, 15 - 20 minutes.

Serves 3 -4 (depending on how many ribs you serve per person.)

We served our ribs with rice & a side of baby bok choy sautéed in a little sesame oil.

Weekly Menu 4/6 - 4/10/09

A lot of people commented they were interested in the Ham, Gruyere & Fig Panini I had on last week's menu. It's actually super simple, a few slices of prosciutto (though any sliced ham will work), top that with a few thin sliced of gruyere & then the thing that makes the whole thing for me, fig spread. Put that all on a good roll, brush with some olive oil & you are ready to cook it on your panini grill of choice.

I adore this fig spread. It's great on cheese & crackers & also on my sandwich for lunch. We can't easily get fresh figs here in MN so this is the next best thing.

On to Menu Planning Monday....

We roasted a chicken on Sunday for dinner so we'll get two more dinner out of it this week plus some chicken salad for lunch, what a deal.

Chinese Braised Ribs - Gonna play a bit with this recipe on Eating Out Loud

Indian Pizza - Using this sauce & some leftover chicken

Pork Chops with Individual Blue Cheese & Greens Tarts

Chicken, Black Bean & Corn Chili - Using more of the leftover roast chicken

Spaghetti & Meatballs with a Tomato Olive Sauce

I'm tried of waiting for spring so this weekend we planted a window sill herb garden for our kitchen.

We needed small planter & couldn't find anything small enough at the garden store. A quick trip to the kitchen section of IKEA provided us with lots of options though. We ended up going with these black ceramic cups, since they don't have drainage holes with added a good inch of small stones to the bottom of each. Right now I have thyme, rosemary & opal basil growing. I'll add some chive but we are currently starting it from seeds in our little greenhouse set up.