Three Bean Butternut Chili

      One of my co-workers asked to buy a pot of Chili from me this week.  He's vegetarian, so I thought I'd make a 3 bean chili with butternut squash.  It's an experiment, but I think the spices in the chili well lend themselves to the warm flavors of the squash. I am hoping it will round out the flavor and give a little bit of bulk to the chili that is something other than beans.  It's a project that will take at least two days, but a good chili is well worth it.
The day before you plan on cooking you will need to soak your beans
1 cup black beans
1 cup red beans (or kidney beans)
1 cup pinto beans
soak them separately so that they can be cooked separately this way they will keep their color for the most part instead of all turning vaguely brown-grey. Let them soak overnight.  When you are ready to start cook your beans separately in about 3 times as much water as you have volume of soaked beans.  Do not salt the water- it will give the beans a mealy texture.  Cook the beans until they are soft (add more water if necessary), then drain them and set aside. 
      For the Chili saute in a small amount of oil
1 large onion, small diced,
two 4 oz cans diced mild chilies,
1 pablano pepper, seeded and diced, 
2 TBS minced Garlic
 Next go in the spices, you want them to toast them to bring out the flavors so they will go in the pan once the onions and peppers are translucent.  Add
2 TBS Chili powder*
2 TBS cumin
1 TBS smoked paprika
1 tsp coriander seeds
Stir in the spices and let them cook for a few minutes until they become very fragrant.  De-glaze the pan with a bottle or can of beer.  I used an IPA this time, but lagers or wheat beers work very well too.  If you want to keep it gluten free some vegetable stock or just water will work just fine.  Next we add our tomato product.  I like adding several different kinds for the texture and I usually use cans for everything unless tomatoes are in season and cheap.
6 oz tomato paste
10 oz tomato puree
14 oz crushed tomatoes
14 oz  diced tomatoes
2 cups water or vegetable stock.
and a few more seasonings
1/4 cup oregano 
3 TBS salt
1 TBS black pepper 
1/4 cup brown sugar
and
chipotle (from a can) for heat and a little more smokiness.  Use the chipotle at your discretion, if you don't like it too hot just use the adobo (that would be the paste in the can with the peppers, it doesn't have seeds in it).  If you like it a little more spicy start chopping up the peppers themselves (maybe take the seeds out before you chop them up).  Add it a little bit at a time and let it cook some between the additions, as the flavor will broaden and will get hotter as it cooks. 
      Now add your reserved beans.  Stir them in and take the temperature down to low (or move it to a crock pot if you are worried about scorching the bottom).  Let it simmer, stirring it frequently, for at least 2 hours.  The longer it cooks the more those flavors will marry.
      While it is simmering prepare one butternut.  Don some gloves, because butternut leaves a sticky residue on your hands that can be really annoying to get off.  It's not so bad when you are doing just one squash but many more and you will find you hand is green and sticky.  I forgot the gloves once when I was doing a whole case for work and I had to take a green scrubby to my hand to get it off!! Ok, enough of my tangent . . . peel your squash, cut the top off and dice it, then split the bottom section, scoop out the seeds and dice it as well as you can, sorry all of my perfectionists this will not be prefect squares.  (If it really bugs you save the bottom for soup!)  You will end up with about 4 cups of diced butternut.  Toss it in a little oil and roast it in a hot oven (around 450) until it just begins to brown.  We are roasting it so that it maintains it's structure better once it gets mixed into the chili.  Once it is roasty toasty add it to the chili pot and let it cook for at least another 30 min with the squash in it.  As long as it gets at least two hours total you should be in good shape.
     Now you can serve it up as soon as it's done, but remember, chili, like all soups tastes better the next day, so it won't hurt it to sit for a bit.  Once it's hot again I like serving it with sour cream (or Greek yogurt), a bit of cheese, cilantro and some sliced jalapenos. 
      I actually made a double batch with mine, so I could keep some for myself as well as sharing it with the person who originally wanted it.  I like freezing it in little 1 cup portions and saving it for easy healthy lunches when I don't feel like cooking. 

*Make your own chili powder by picking up a blend of dry chilies at the store, get yourself a mix, here is a great site about the flavors and different heat profiles of different dried chilies.  Pull the stems off the peppers and throw them in the blender on high speed in 10 second bursts to start out, then just switch to pulse mode, you don't want to get them too hot or it will ruin the flavor.  Blend them until they become powdery-  you may have some seeds left, which you might want to sift out if you want a milder chili powder.  If you want a finer powder move them to a mortar and pestal and grind them by hand until it is very fine.  Save in an air tight container, this powder will last a long time, so show it some love and make it your own!

Pumpkin Walnut Cake

       Halloween is just around the corner, and today I've been wanting pumpkin cake.  Now I've got a wonderful cookbook with all sorts of lovely cakes, but I accidentally left it at my mom's yesterday, and she has been bad about sending me the recipe, so I decided to play and figure one out for myself.  I figured this would best if it was similar to my carrot cake recipe, so I started from there, of course with a few little differences.  First mix together your dry ingredients
1 cup AP flour
1 cup cake flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp cardamon
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
Now in a mixer with a whip attachment add 2 cups white sugar  and  4 eggs.  Mix on medium speed for 3-5 minutes, until the mixture lightens in color.  Then slowly drizzle in 1 cup vegetable oil, and mix on high for 30 seconds to create an emulsification.     Next add a 15 oz can of pumpkin puree,
2 TBS water and
2 tsp vanilla.  
At this point you will add in 3 portions the dry ingredients, and mix until just combines, about 5 seconds each time.  Scrape the sides and add
1 cup chopped walnuts. Mix for another 5 seconds then put in a well greased bunt pan.  Bake at 350 for 35-40 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.  Cool for 10-15 minutes, until it will easily come out of the pan.  You will want to put the frosting on while it is still warm, so that it runs down the sides a bit.
      For the frosting use a hand mixer to mix
4 oz cream cheese
1 cup powdered sugar
2 TBS milk
1 tsp vanilla
Drizzle the frosting over the top of the slightly warm cake and let it drip down the sides.  Super Moist and flavorful. 

      I've been seeing these on Pintrest where you make two bunt cakes and stack them together then frost with orange frosting for a pumpkin cake.  Be sure if you are going to try it with this one that you cake is well chilled, I'm a little scared to do it for myself with a whole cake because I worry that it's just not dense enough, but maybe if you have some mini bunts you should go for it!   Enjoy your treat and HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

Cauliflower Soup

      I was reminded today that one year I informed my mother that I was going to give up cauliflower for lent.  Now obviously this is silly: the point being that you are supposed to sacrifice something, but at the time I thought myself quite smart. You see, if I say I am giving up something that I never eat in the first place then I won't fail. The irony is now I would be hard pressed to give it up, now I would put it up there among my favorite vegetables.  This soup is one of the reasons it got up there. It's just a few ingredients; cauliflower, some aromatics and a few spices.  I usually make mine creamy, but it works great as a vegan soup too.  (it's gluten free no matter what)
      You are going to purée the soup once it is cooked, so you don't have to be very precise with your knife work. I do like to cut fairly thin slices of everything so that it cooks quickly and thoroughly.  Start with a splash of oil in a large heavy bottom pan on medium heat.  Add
1 medium onion, thinly sliced and
1 fennel bulb, core removed and thinly sliced
sweat the vegetables until they become translucent.  Deglaze with
1/4 cup white wine then add
6 cups water or vegetable stock and
1 head cauliflower, cleaned and rough chopped
bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.  Let cook until the cauliflower is very soft (15-20 minutes).  Season with
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/4 tsp fresh grated nutmeg
1 tsp black pepper
2 tsp salt
Use a blender to puree.  For a smother soup pass through a strainer.  At this point I will add a bit of cream, or more water or stock to thin out the soup, about 1 cup. 

      Hope this warms you up this fall!

Tripple Chocolate Cookies GLUTEN FREE!

WARNING! THESE COOKIES MUST BE EATEN WITH MILK!!!
My friends laugh at me a lot.  They just can't imagine how I can spend my whole day at work cooking then come home and do it all over again.  The truth of the matter is that I am really passionate about cooking, and just having and sharing good food.  I ended up unexpectedly being off work today, so I had to bake something.  Not really sure why these cookies came to mind, probably just needed some chocolate, but it was a good decision.
      This is an alteration of a recipe they gave me in culinary school, it's one of the few they gave me that I still use.  They weren't originally gluten free, but making gluten free chocolate baked items it is actually pretty easy.  I look for recipes that have very little flour to start out with because you can substitute coco powder for flour in small amounts.  Too much and it just becomes overwhelming, though I find you can take most recipes, and make it magically chocolate (I'm thinking things like chocolate pound cake) by substituting a portion of the flour with coco powder.  
      To make the cookies preheat the oven to 350 and start by melting
1/2 cup (3 oz) unsweetened chocolate
1 1/4 cup (8 oz) dark chocolate and
3 TBS butter over a double boiler.
In a mixer whip  
3/4 cup sugar  with
 2 eggs until they are light and fluffy then change to the paddle attachment and add in
1 tsp vanilla followed by the melted chocolate mixture.  Next in a separate bowl mix
1/2 cup coco powder (the original recipe calls for 1/2 cake flour, you know if it's just too much chocolate for you)
1 tsp baking powder and

1/2 tsp salt.   Not necessary, but I also usually add 1/2 tsp chipotle powder at this point,  it's nice because it cuts through all of that chocolate, and I fully admit I'm a chocolate and chili fiend.  The coco mixture is added to the mixer and gently beat in.  As soon as it combines add
1/2 cup dark chocolate chips
1/2 cup white chocolate chips
spoon onto a sheet pan and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes.  The warmer they are when they go into the oven the more they spread.  I like to cool them for a few minutes in the fridge before they go in because they stay nice and tall and end up a bit gooier.  After they are done baking let them cool on the sheet for a few minutes then transfer them to a wire cooling rack.