Christine and the Big Scary Kitchen

I’ve lost my voice.

It’s been less than 24 hours, yes, but I love my voice.  I use my voice often.  I need my voice for fun activities, like doing an impression of Toad from the Super Mario Brothers Games or singing Death Metal Karaoke and Metal Rock Band.

Ok, so you have me up against the wall and I will admit– I savagely abuse my voice.

The saddest part of losing my voice is always my laugh.  I laugh a lot.  I laugh loud.  I laugh at almost everything.  I make myself laugh.  Right now, the sounds I make are more squeaks and raspy breaths and it’s really cramping my style.

On the other hand, my father, a retired military man, is a very serious man.  Growing up, my siblings and I always tried to get him to crack a smile or join us in a silly game.  He rarely laughed.  As we got older, suddenly I started finding my dad hilarious and he started laughing more.  Now, talking to him I have more gut busting moments than watching one of my favorite comedies.  I found that his dry sense of humor has not changed, I just grew into it.  It’s a lot like chili.

See, one of the five things my father cooks in our family is chili.  Being the strange man that he is, he claims it’s the best chili ever.  It contains cans of kidney beans, ground beef, chili powder and a secret ingredient I can neither remember nor do I believe it is secret anymore.  It’s a fairly simple recipe with deep flavor and best topped with cheese and served with corn bread.  I remember it was always slightly too spicy.  It takes four hours to make.  Sitting and typing this, I can taste the chili, it’s that ingrained in my memories.

Sometimes, I crave chili, but as I’ve gotten older and more interested in cooking (and maybe once recently I ate chili from the same restaurant twice in two days), I’ve lost interest in chili.  What’s so great about it?  It’s has loads of fat in it and, I say this as a true meat lover don’t get me wrong, it has all that beef that makes you feel gross afterwards.  And then I came across this recipe.

Like my father’s sense of humor, chili can grow up.  It can be a little different, but just as delicious.  It’s a great meal, high protein, and packed with tomatoes.  This is not a traditional Texas chili, but, and I will touch on this time and time again, I don’t think there should be only one way to make a recipe like chili.  There are just too many great combinations.

This is a vegetarian chili.  The espresso powder adds the rich flavor helping with the lack of ground beef.  I really didn’t miss the beef in this recipe.  It’s very similar to a traditional chili recipe in that this chili is best very slowly cooked and is even better as it sits in the fridge.  Also, just a tip, I tried to find the highest quality of canned tomatoes I could find which made a huge difference.  I put some grilled chicken on top, but it isn’t necessary.

Black Bean Espresso Chili
serves four generous portions | preparation time is about twenty minutes and total time about an hour

1/4 cup olive oil
3 onions, chopped
1/8 cup instant espresso powder
1/8 cup ground paprika
1/8 cup  ground oregano
1/8 cup ground cumin
1 28-ounce cans crushed tomatoes
3 tablespoons honey
3 large garlic cloves, minced
6 cups cooked black beans OR mixture of beans OR 3 15-ounce cans of beans
1 1/2 cups of water
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 tsp of pepper
Chili oil to taste
Pinch of ground cinnamon

Heat a heavy pot over medium-high heat. Add the oil. Add onions and sauté until translucent.

Mix in the espresso powder, paprika, oregano, and cumin and cook for 1 minute.  Add tomatoes, honey and garlic. Bring to a simmer. Reduce heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes.

Add the beans, the water, salt, pepper, chili oil and cinnamon. Increase the heat to high and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered and stirring often, for about 30 minutes, or until mixture thickens a bit more.  Serve and enjoy.