success!
our previous attemps to make vegetarian chili have ended in tomato-bean-soup pots of disappointment, but tonight we found success at last with the classic red chili recipe in our new favorite cookbook: Passionate Vegetarian, by (i’m not making this up) Crescent Dragonwagon. it has about 1000 receipes, all veggie and most with vegan options.
even our meat-eating friends, who expressed great anxiety about the use of ground tofu in place of beef concluded that it was excellent. beany, but with good fake meat texture, nice and thick, and most importantly, spiced correctly. this first round required a $25 investment in new spices, but in the future it can be made for the cost of a couple of cans of beans and tomatoes and a few fresh veggies. topped with cheese, onions, cilatro, and sour cream and served with cornbread, it was an excellent way to hide indoors from the record-breaking cold (eight below! my car wouldn’t start this morning!)
The Best Veggie Chili
(adapted from Neo-Classic Red Chili in The Passionate Vegetarian, by Crescent Dragonwagon)
3 cans beans (I like to get a variety, like 1 each of black, pinto and kidney)
1 16-oz can chopped tomatoes in juice (i think i used a larger-than-16 oz can last time, and it was nice and tomato-y, but had to cook down longer)
1/4 cup tomato paste
2-3 quarts veggie stock
2 large onions, chopped
2-3 green bell peppers, seeded and chopped
1 ancho chili
1 jalapeno chili
1 10-oz package fake ground meat (I usually get Smart Ground)
1-4 TBS olive oil
cooking spray
fresh ground black pepper
2 bay leaves
1 TBS cumin seeds
1 TBS hot chili powder
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp sweet Hungarian paprika
1/2 tsp dried oregano
cayenne pepper to taste
3 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 tablespoons Pickapeppa sauce (it’s sort of like spicy A-1)
1.5 tsp soy sauce
salt to taste
Toppers:
Grated cheddar and jack cheese
Diced green onion
Sour cream
Chopped cilantro
Tabasco sauce
Corn chips or cornbread
Directions:
Measure out and combine the following spices: cumin seeds, chili powder, ground cumin, coriander, paprika, oregano, and cayenne.
Place beans, bay leaves, ancho, jalapeno, and lots of black pepper into a large stew pot. Add enough veggie stock to cover the beans by 1.5 inches. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer for a few minutes.
In a large skillet, heat olive oil. Add onions and saute 3-4 minutes. Stir in bell peppers and saute another 2 minutes. Add the spice mixture you made earlier, cook for 2 more minutes, stirring to coat evenly. Add the minced garlic and cook for 30 seconds more. Remove from heat and scrape into the simmering beans. Deglaze the pan with a bit of the cooking liquid and scrape it back into the stewpot.
Add the tomatos, tomato paste, pickapeppa, soy sauce, and salt (it will need quite a bit). Simmer at least 30 minutes.
Just before serving pick out the bay leaves. Mash a few ladles-full of beans against the side of the pot to help thicken.
— reveals that this project is much more challenging than i thought it was going to be. the needles are tiny, the yarn even thinner, and, being cotton, is prone to splitting. also, the lace pattern makes it virtually impossible to recover after a dropped stitch. after four hours invested, i have almost 2″ of lace. on the other hand, it was snowing out and my first saturday off in ages, and spending the afternoon curled up with a cup of coffee, knitting and half watching the olympics wasn’t so bad.
so i didn’t find out about the 
alyson and tony’s daughter, ruby, was kind enough to try out a pair of the alligator mittens i’ve been knitting for christmas gifts. when asked if they were alligators or crocodiles, she got very quiet for a moment, then responded “alligator!” with admirable conviction, and bit her father’s nose with a mitten-clad hand for emphasis. let’s hope that all the kids that are getting mittens this year like them that much – i’ve been knitting a pile of alligator mittens since July (and i still have two more pair to finish on the plane tomorrow).