totally not cincinnati chili

Why is this post called "totally not Cincinnati chili"? Well, for one, I've never been to Cincinnati nor have I had the real deal. The people of Cincinnati are very passionate about their chili and I certainly wouldn't want to get into fisticuffs over this post. Cincinnati has more chili parlours than any other city in the States and they serve their chili over top of spaghetti or eaten with oyster crackers, raw diced onions, kidney beans and mounds of grated cheese. But the spices here are what makes this chili unique. Chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, allspice all combine to make a winning mediterranian-inspired combination.

To be truely authentic, I would have to finely grind my own meat and then boil, rather than brown it. Also, there would be no kidney beans in the chili, rather, they'd be served over top along with the other toppings. Whatever, this chili rocked. After having his first bowl, Cornelius said that all chili should be served over top of spaghetti and I think I have to agree with him. The chili alone was good, but over top of thin spaghetti, it took it to a whole new level. And the addition of diced raw onion over top? It was delicious! This will definitely make an appearance again and I can easily see a veggie ground round substituted for the ground beef. Not traditional, but who cares!

My standard chili recipe is here. I used to make it with ground chicken, but now I usually use a veggie ground round instead. It's delicious and it also has cocoa powder added for depth.

totally not cincinnati chili
1 lb ground lean sirloin
1 T olive oil
1 onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 T chili powder
1/2 c water or beef broth
1.5 t cinnamon
1/4 t ground cloves
1/4 t ground allspice
1.5 T worchestershire sauce
1/2 t salt
1/2 t red chili flakes
1/4 t ground chipotle powder
2 T cocoa powder
2 T apple cider vinegar
1 can of kidney beans, drained & rinsed

toppings:
grated cheddar cheese
finely diced red onion
sour cream

Brown ground beef in the olive oil, along with the onions, garlic and chili powder. When meat is mostly browned, add in remaining ingredients except the kidney beans and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer uncovered for about an 1 hour. Add in kidney beans and simmer on low for another half hour. Serve over spaghetti and top with grated cheese and diced onion.

the magical mysterious chimichurri sauce and 2 easy recipes

I've been wanting to try a chimichurri sauce for a while now. From what I had read, it's a traditional Argentinian sauce and marinade for grilled meats, but is used in many Latin American countries. It's traditionally made with parsley or cilantro, garlic, salt, pepper, onion and paprika with a huge glug of olive oil thrown in for good measure. I decided to try my luck with this sauce since I had a very nice looking grass-fed and organic slab o' rib eye in the fridge. But I didn't want to only try it out with meat. Surely, this chimichurri would be great as a salad dressing too! So I improvised with what I had and made a very delicious and maybe not so traditional take on this Argentinian classic.

The sauce itself was really easy to prepare. I just gathered the ingredients together and whizzed them up with my immesion blender. In less than a minute, I had a heavenly scented sauce that tasted like the heat of summer. It's a really fresh-tasting condiment that tastes as green as it looks (in a very, very good way!)

chimichurri sauce
1 bunch parsley
1 bunch cilantro
4 cloves garlic
1 hot pepper, de-seeded
lemon zest & juice of 1/2 lemon
large pinch of salt
1 - 3 large glugs of olive oil
1 shallot, roughly chopped
water, if needed to thin things out

Whizzz up all ingredients in a blender. Taste and adjust seasonings & measurements if necessary. Done. Makes almost a cup of sauce.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

So while the main reason for the making of the chimichurri was as a marinade and sauce for the steak, I had sauce left over and decided that it would make perfect salad dressing. I was right. Once, the dressing is prepared, the rest of the salad is a breeze. I decided to peel the carrot into ribbons and it was a nice touch, though you could easily dice them for a different texture.

chimichurri chickpea salad
1 can of chickpeas, drained & rinsed
1 carrot, peeled into ribbons
1/2 green pepper, diced
1/2 spicy red pepper, minced & deseeded
1/4 c chimichurri sauce (recipe above)

Mix up all the ingredients and serve in a pretty dish. Serves 4. Easy.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Okay, now for the main event! If you are a meat-lover, bask in this meaty love, please. If you are not, there's a reason I stuck this at the end of the post! Avert your eyeballs! The secret to a good steak? Start with a good steak! Really, don't buy some cheap-ass cut from your supermarket. Splurge and get one really nice steak, grass-fed organic if you can afford it. You really don't need a steak each...just share one steak. Trust me, with some wine, a nice loaf of bread and a salad, you've got a perfect meal and no one will want for more. But back to the chimichurri sauce for one last time...the quick marinade packs a punch. Reserve some of it to serve as a sauce to drizzle over top. You won't regret it.

chimichurri rib-eye steak
1 T butter
1 rib eye organic grass-fed steak (or other fine cut)
1/4 c chimichurri sauce (recipe above) + extra for serving

Slather sauce over rib eye and let sit for a few minutes. Heat up butter in a cast iron pan. When it's good and bubbly, add steak. Cook on 1 side for 6 minutes. Flip and cook for another 5 minutes. Remove from pan and let rest for 8 minutes (I just made up that amount but it sounds about right). Dig in and serve with remaining chimichurri sauce. Serves 2.

killing me softly: wine-braised short ribs

It's been pouring rain outside all day long. While I would have rather been inside working (although I did manage to do some of that too), I also ran about doing things like renewing my driver's license (I don't drive, but it's nice identification), "rolling off" a bowling game (I'll be away in Portland, Oregon* and need to bank a game for my league), and pick up groceries and wine. My driver's license photo will most likely be horrific, my bowling game was dismal (sorry team!) but I stayed dry and managed to get all the ingredients for some delicious braised short ribs which will be our dinner tonight. Now, this is something I can take comfort in.

Normally, we don't cook with a lot of meat other than chicken or fish, but I'm designing some birth announcements for a friend and we made a deal that included 10 pounds of free-range, grass fed beef along with a cash deal. So I've got short ribs along with a bunch of other stuff in the freezer. I've never had short ribs before but after looking at a lot of recipes, I decided that braising would be ideal. So I browned the short ribs until they were golden and crispy and looked (and smelled) incredible and then worked off the rest of the ingredients. They've been cooking in the oven under a low heat for the past few hours and the smell has been killing me softly. I'm so ready to dig in!

As you can see, I illustrated my meal instead since a big ol' mess of brown wouldn't make the most appetizing photo. But don't let that steer you wrong...this meal is rich and special. Just let that meat fall off the bones and into your gullet. It's good. Reaaallly good. Oh hey, if you are in Vancouver, pick up the Georgia Straight this week cuz there's a big ol' photo of me (along with an interview about Vancouver bloggers). You can find the online version here.

* Oh that's right, I'll be in Portland again! My favorite city ever. So send me your things to do, eat, and all the good stuff. Things will be silent here until mid-next week, so feel free to browse my archives.

wine-braised short ribs
2 short ribs
1 T olive oil
4 shallots
4 garlic gloves
2 large carrots, chopped
4 small potatoes, cut in half
1 large can of tomatoes
4 sprigs of thyme
3 sprigs of rosemary
1 bottle of nice drinking red wine

Preheat oven to 325F. Season the short ribs with salt and pepper and brown in the olive oil in a heavy cast iron pan. Do not skimp on this step, as you really bring out the flavour by browning (I let mine brown for close to 15 minutes). Remove ribs and add in the shallots and garlic and saute for a few minutes, adding in carrots and potatoes. Throw in the can of tomatoes, the bottle of wine and the herbs and bring to a boil, letting the liquids reduce slightly. Put the lid on your dutch oven and place the whole shebang into the oven for the next 3-4 hours or so. Check in once in a while and if you like, you can skim off the fat (and oh, there will be fat!) into a bowl and place it in the freezer so that the fat firms up. Throw out the hard fat, leaving behind the lovely jus and dump that back into the pot. When you can't stand it anymore, dig in!

not a pretty picture

When I was little, I couldn't wait until Christmas or Thanksgiving to arrive. Sure, there was turkey, but I was always more enamoured with the Tourtière, the French Canadian pork pie that my mom always had on the table. My brother, on the other hand, favoured Pate Chinois which translates into chinese pie but really is nothing of the sort. Pate Chinois is really just shepherd's pie with a French Canadian twist (and the twist, I guess, is the funny name). My mom would make Pate Chinois on those cold, blustery days during the winter and nothing seemed to take the chill out of the air like that bright orange casserole pot coming out of the oven.

Earlier this week, I decided to make some Pate Chinois, but instead of using ground beef like my mom always used, I made it with ground lamb. Either works wonderfully for this very down home stick-to-your-ribs meal.

pate chinois
1 T vegetable oil
1 large onion, diced
1 large carrot, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
salt & pepper
1 lb ground lamb or beef
2 T flour
1 beef bullion cube
1 c boiling water
1 T worchestershire sauce
1 can of creamed corn
4 potatoes, cubed
milk & butter
paprika
1/4 c grated cheddar cheese

1. In a large pot, boil water and add potatoes. When ready, mash with milk and butter and season with salt & pepper. Set aside. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

2. In a large oven proof casserole pot, turn heat on to medium-hot and heat oil. Add in onions, garlic, celery and carrots and stir about until onions are translucent. Add meat and brown until no longer pink and season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle flour over meat mixture and stir about well to cook flour. Add in worcherstershire and crumble in a bullion cube and add in 1 cup of boiling water. Stir until a thick gravy forms. Turn off stove.

3. Pour can of corn over meat mixture. Do not mix in as we're going to create layers. Now carefully drop spoonfulls of mashed potato over the corn layer and gently spread about. With a fork, run the tines over the potato to create little rivets which will help to brown the top layer. Sprinkle with paprika and a little grated cheese. Put into a hot oven and bake for 30 minutes or until the cheese melts and gets bubbly and the tops of the potato browns slightly.

ode to joy

If Christmas is anything, it sure is filled with food. For treats to give away, I made 2 kinds of chocolate bark (one white chocolate/candy cane and one vegan dark chocolate/salted mixed nuts), a peanut butter/dark chocolate fudge, a vegan version of Tanvi's chocolate-peanut butter squares, and my friend Kyla's recipe for dark chocolate gingerbread truffles. Yes, I definitely went overboard on the sweet gifts and we still have lots in our fridge to keep us nibbling throughout the new year.

On December 24th, Cornelius and I woke up with Bailey's fever. Bailey's Irish Cream went into our morning coffee and managed to sneak it's way into our waffle batter. Definitely a delicious way to start the day! The rest of the day was spent playing board games and watching movies -- everything from "The Lords of Dogtown" to "The Shop Around the Corner" (my favorite Christmas movie I've decided). Cornelius made me my favorite drink, the classic Canadian Caesar and I made him a blender drink full of strawberries, orange juice, vodka and Southern Comfort. It was time for dinner.

When I was little, my mom would often make boeuf bourguignon for Sunday dinners from her trusty Madame Benoit cookbook. I shamefully do not have any Jehane Benoit cookbooks so my recipe came from another old standby, The Joy of Cooking. This meal is rich and beyond satisfying and made a perfect Christmas Eve meal. I was hoping to serve it with dreamy white beans from the lovely Orangette, but I forgot to soak the beans the night before. Instead, I opted for roasted potatoes sprinkled with fresh thyme. Not a bad choice.

Boeuf Bourguignon
1/2 lb. thinly sliced salt pork (I used bacon)
Peel, add and saute lightly:
12 small onions or 4 shallots
Remove pork and onions from the pan. Cut into 1 inch dice and saute in the hot fat until light brown:
2 lbs. lean beef
Sprinkle the meat with:
1 1/2 T flour
Place it in an ovenproof dish with:
1 t salt
4 peppercorns
1 bay leaf
1/2 t thyme or marjoram (I added a few springs of fresh thyme)
Cover meat with dry red wine and water (3/4 part wine to 1/4 part water).
Cook covered in oven for 1 hour. Place the pork and onions on top and contiue to cook for another hour or until the beef is tender. Or simmer the beef covered on top of the stove for about 1 1/2 hours in all. Add 1 c sauteed mushrooms and heat through. Adjust seasonings if necessary.

*Before I added the mushrooms, I added a bunch of baby carrots cut in half. Sometimes a bit of veg is necessary!