A Taste of Home…

Last week it was chilly and wet, colder than it had been in awhile… lows in the upper 30s…highs in the 40s (Fahrenheit…still haven’t gotten used to conversions to Celsius yet). We had eaten out a lot and didn’t really want to go out and walk around in the cold and wet, so we planned a few days of meals at home.  We had had gnocci with pesto one night, leftover soup, and a ready made meat dish another night.  We decided we wanted to have something homecooked, warm, and comforting, but maybe a little lighter. 

We decided on vegetarian chili.  I know… I know!  I can already hear it, especially from the Texas delegation… “WTF –  vegetarian Chili?  That isn’t Chili!”  Even worse than the beans/no beans debates.  But hey, it is chili to us and we like it!  We use an assortment of beans (Kidney, pinto, and black beans… no problem, they have those here). We add a small can of corn (shoe-peg is my favorite…but good luck with that in Italy)! We also add sauteed onions, bell peppers, and sliced/minced mushrooms (gives it a meat-like consistency), along with some minced garlic. We’ve found red and yellow bell peppers…huge, beautiful, tasty peppers!  But, no green ones.  We also of course have access to amazing tomatoes and tomato products…they are so flavorful it is hard to describe!   Now, let me tell you what we don’t have access to, or as yet have not found, chili powder. That ingredient is kind of important if you are going to make chili.  We have looked up recipes online and we might be able in the future to concoct a facsimile of American chili powder, but currently it is out of our reach.  They do have other pepper flakes and ground peppers, but they don’t provide the flavor characteristic of chili, but we did use them to provide some heat.  They also have Tabasco sauce…pretty much everywhere.  We also were able to find some cumin powder ground up and placed in a cellophane bag by the spice vendor in the big market we frequent.  So, we were set!

Now when I say, “We,” I really mean Steve.  I do know how to cook, and in the past, the chili was one of the dishes that I would take the lead on.  However, Steve does most of the cooking now and I was taking a nap (rainy afternoons are just conducive for those) when he started cooking.  He woke me up and I could smell something good cooking, but it didn’t “exactly” smell like chili!  Steve started explaining to me about his adventures in the Kitchen.  He had chopped up the vegetables, sauteed them, added the beans, corn, and started adding the spices…salt, pepper, ground peppercino (mostly just heat), and then he started to add the cumin…

Now I have to explain something here.  Steve and I have a difference of opinion on cumin.  I love it!  He hates it.  When I make chili, I add a healthy amount…not crazy, but maybe a tad more than the recipe calls for.  Steve usually adds more chili powder (a lot more) and maybe even cayenne to increase the heat, but hardly any cumin.  So, he opened up the cellophane bag and started sprinkling a little into the simmering pot. Hold Up! Steve, has really strong olfactory powers and realized almost instantly that what he was smelling was definitely NOT cumin…It was Licorice! Thank God he was making the chili and not me!  I would have ladled a tablespoon or more of cumin in there and it would have been inedible!  Like I said, it smelled delicious, but not quite like chili!  I could barely taste the licorice flavor though it had a faint scent.  Steve struggled to eat his bowl of “chili.”  But on a cold, wet day, we managed to keep our tummies warm and have a “Not quite like Home” home-cooked meal!

Ciao for now!