Mrs. Booth's Famous Chili

My mother is a fantastic cook. But it wasn't always this way. I don't know if she liked to cook when I was growing up. As a mother to two finicky young eaters, cooking was about getting something on the table. There's little I remember about what we ate day-to-day. I know there were a lot of Spaghetti-O's (Sorry, Mom!) and once in awhile this thing she called "quiche" which is nothing like quiche, really. I vaguely recall her filling a Pillsbury pie-crust with eggs, shredded white cheddar, and cream cheese. It was okay.

I couldn't have been less prepared for the first time I tasted Mrs. Booth's Famous Chili, which has since become My Mother's Famous Chili. Mrs. Booth, our next door neighbor, invited us over for dinner one evening when I couldn't have been older than eight. The interior of their home was starch-white and pristine, full of modern furniture and glass cabinets that housed collectible porcelain dolls. In the kitchen, the smell of cumin and savory beef billowed out of a crockpot, and the windows dripped with condensation. A plate of Pillsbury crescents had been deconstructed and reborn as pastry twists, sprinkled with chili powder. There was a large bowl of sour cream and a second filled with a pile of orange grated cheese. She told us to dig in and help ourselves.

I didn't feel up to it at first, but my parents gave my sister and I that look. The "don't you dare embarass us in front of company" look. Too proud to back down, I helped myself to a bowl that spoiled me on any other kind of chili forever. It was so hot and spicy my knee-jerk reaction was to cry, but the brown sugar and chili spices urged me on. I know children have very particular tastebuds but this chili was so packed with flavor from the peppers and tender beans and honest-to-god good ground beef that I was flown light-years ahead to the adult table where food was better than I ever could have imagined. This chili promised good, exotic things to come.

Mrs. Booth sent us home with the recipe, and every year since when the mercury drops (or maybe just afternoons where we wished it would), mom puts her soup pot on the burner. When I moved and set up my own kitchen, I took this recipe with me. I do a few things differently, but in the spirit of Mrs. Booth's original designs. I serve mine with a little creme fraiche dotted w/ chopped chives. I use a mix of dried beans and soak them the night before. A friend taught me to simmer my own beans so I can imbue them with even more flavor (bay leaves! celery!). It doesn't take that much more time, and if you simmer them when you're having your coffee, it really isn't an energy-zapper at all. Make this on a Sunday when the house is freezing. Start in the late morning so it can simmer all day. Call your friends over for a chili party. Have someone bring some cornbread and someone else bring the beer with lime.

Mrs. Booth's Famous Chili

Ingredients For the Beans:* (See below)

2/3 cup dried pinto beans

2/3 cup dried kidney beans

1 carrot, cut in half

1 celery, cut in half

1/2 white onion

2 cloves garlic

3 sprigs of marjoram

Ingredients for the Chili:

2 Tbs. olive oil

3 lbs. ground beef

1 28 oz. can crushed tomatoes

2 large yellow onions, diced

1 green bell pepper, diced

1 anaheim chile, seeds removed, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

3 Tbs. ancho chili powder

2 Tbs. dark brown sugar

1 Tbs. crushed red pepper

3 Tbs. red wine vinegar

1 tsp. ground cumin

salt & pepper to taste

Ingredients For The Toppings:

1/4 cup creme fraiche

2 tbs chopped chives

1/2 cup shredded cheddar

*NOTE: If you prefer to use canned beans, substitute those suggested above w/ a 15.5 oz. can each of kidney and pinto beans. Use the beans & their liquid.

Directions:

1. DO AHEAD: Soak the beans with enough water to cover overnight. In the morning, drain them and transfer to a medium-size sauce pan. Cover with water, add to this the onion, carrot, celery, garlic, bay leaf, and marjoram sprigs.

2. Bring the beans to a boil, then simmer uncovered for 2 hours over low heat, adding 1/2 teaspoon salt after the first hour. If the water goes too far below the beans, add more. Test the beans for doneness by scooping up a small spoonful and blowing on them. If the skins peel away, they are done. Discard the carrot, onion, celery, and bay leaf.

3. To make the chili, heat the olive oil in a 4 quart, heavy bottomed dutch oven over medium heat. Add the ground beef to the pan, stirring to brown, about 8-10 minutes. When all of the beef has been carmelized, drain off the excess fat.

4. To the pot add the undrained kidney and pinto beans, tomatoes, chopped onions and peppers, garlic, chili powder, dark brown sugar, crushed red pepper, red wine vinegar, cumin, salt and pepper.

5. Cover and simmer the chili for at least one hour, stirring frequently to prevent burning. The chili improves if simmered for 2-3 hours, and tastes even better the following day.

6. Serve the chili hot with toppings as you wish.

YIELD: 8 servings

Friulian Sourdough-Hazelnut Apple Torte

Not all recipes are created equally. When October's Bon Appetit magazine came my way, I fell so hard for Lidia Bastianch's Apple Torte's backstory that I barely glanced beyond the ingredient list.. The torte comes from Italy's Friuli region, where German and Italian cuisine have coalesced over the generations. How resourceful the peasants of Friuli were to create a torte crust out of stale bread! How quaint and romantic!

Lest this blog be only a celebration of my kitchen triumphs, I submit to you one of my many errors. I'm so sorry to report that this recipe was a complete and total mess. There were so many glitches I was surprised it had made it so far as to snag the cover without so much as a proof here or there. Just goes to show you that you can't even judge anything, even a magazine, by its cover.

It wasn't until college when I began to cook regularly. At first, I relied so heavily on recipes from start to finish that I felt tired at the end of cooking a meal. The more cooking I did the more I allowed my eyes to stray, and to be honest, the better my food began to taste. It may come odd coming from someone who often writes her recipes down, but what these ought to be for the home cook are a jumping off point. Had I followed the original recipe for this Apple Torte to the letter, I might have been down one entire loaf of sourdough and up one hefty headache. Screw that.

As a cook, there is nothing more important than your gut. It is, afterall, where everything ends up. I taste nearly everything as I go to make sure it's coming along. When I make a stuffing, or a dough, or the base of a soup, I often season instinctively and in steps. My hands and eyes can judge whether things are the right color, texture, or consistency. It's so much less daunting than it sounds! By cooking more often, your instincts will develop. A tablespoon becomes familiar in appearance, when pate brisee needs more water or flour you will know this because it will just feel right. If a recipe looks janky and incorrect to you, odds are it is, and better you do what you can to ammend it. Don't lose your cool or throw it away. Stay calm and determine what can be done.

This torte found its happy ending, but not without some huffing and puffing on my end. I used all of the 8 cups of bread crumbs called for, in spite of the original recipe's suggestion you use only 3 cups after the lot has been toasted. When you toast the crumbs, the bread does shrink down some. When my apple slices simmering in hard cider turned into applesauce, I didn't get all weepy. In the end, the torte had a crisp crust thanks to the hazelnuts and sourdough crumbs, and the applesauce filling proved a silky counterpoint to this. It wasn't too sweet or buttery and I used very tart pippin apples in mine because apples in Oregon go gangbusters this time of year. I'm not certain it's something I would go back to again and again (a la David Tanis' Apple Tart recipe) but I do think this torte turned out very close to what Ms. Bastianich might have originally intended. How do I know this? When we sat down to dinner that night, several people (ahem!) helped themselves to seconds.

Friulian Apple Torte with a Sourdough-Hazelnut Crust

Adapted From Lidia Bastianich's Recipe

Ingredients

Apple filling:
2 pounds Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored, cut into 1/2-inch wedges
1/3 cup sugar
1 cup hard apple cider or dry white wine

Crust:
8 cups fresh breadcrumbs made from a large loaf of sourdough bread, ground in a food processor
1 cup hazelnuts
10 tablespoons sugar, divided
4 teaspoons finely grated lemon peel
1/4 teaspoon (generous) salt
3/4 cup whole milk
6 tablespoons (3/4 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
Powdered sugar (for dusting)
Whipped cream

Directions:
1. To make the crust, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread breadcrumbs on a large rimmed baking sheet. Bake until dried and light golden, stirring occasionally, about 20 minutes. Cool completely.
2. Toast the hazelnuts for ten minutes on a separate baking sheet for 10 minutes while the breadcrumbs are toasting. Place them in a clean dishtowel and wrap them tightly. Allow them to sit for a minute or two and rub them together to remove their husks. Allow hazelnuts to cool completely.
3. Finely grind the hazelnuts and 6 tablespoons sugar in processor. Add the toasted breadcrumbs, working in batches if necessary; process 5 seconds. Transfer mixture to large bowl. Stir in 4 tablespoons sugar, lemon peel, and salt. Combine milk and butter in small saucepan. Stir over medium heat just until butter melts. Pour milk-butter mixture over breadcrumb mixture; stir until moistened (dough will be sticky). Let dough rest in bowl until liquid is absorbed, about 15 minutes.
4. Transfer 1 cup dough to floured work surface. Gather into ball; flatten into disk. Press out to 9-inch round; wrap in plastic. It's OK if it crumbles a little. It will help to put the round onto a plate for transfering to the fridge.Chill at least 1 hour for top crust.
5. Transfer remaining dough to work surface. Gather into ball; flatten into disk. Press disk onto bottom and up sides of 9-inch tart pan with removable bottom, pushing crust up to extend 1/2 inch above sides. Cover; chill at least 1 hour.
6. While the dough is chilling, make the apple filling. Arrange the apples in an even layer in a large heavy skillet. Sprinkle with sugar, then pour apple cider over. Cook and cover over medium heat until apples are tender, gently turning apples occasionally 8-10 minutes (for me this took only 6 minutes, so it depends on the variety of your apples). Some apples with fall apart, but this is alright. Uncover; cook until juices evaporate in skillet. Allow the apples to cool completely.
7. Preheat oven to 375°F. Assemble the tart. Fill crust with apple mixture. Place top crust over filling. Fold bottom crust overhang up over top crust edges, pressing together to seal. There will likely be some cracks here or there, but that is alright.
8. Bake torte until crust is deep golden and crust begins to separate from sides of pan (top crust may crack), about 1 hour. Cool in pan on rack at least 2 hours. Carefully remove sides from tart pan. Transfer to platter. Dust with powdered sugar. Cut into wedges. Serve with whipped cream.

YIELDS: 6-8 Servings.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

Cold season is upon us in Oregon. I can't pinpoint why unlike years past Autumn decided to snap so suddenly into place instead of slowly settling over us. Maybe it's been doing so all along and I've been too preoccupied to notice it. One morning last week I looked out the window to find the birch leaves close to completely turned and my radiator rattling with steam. I put the ridiculously giant stock pot on the stove and filled it with whatever I had been saving in the freezer over the summer. This time several duck carcasses, (wings and back bones), and a giant bunch of leeks, thyme, carrots, and celery leaves. As luck would have it, I woke up the next day with a pinch in my throat and a raw nose. The cold my friends have caught and dispatched seems to have claimed me too. Damn!

Lucky for me, Andrew came by with a grab-bag of CSA vegetables, claiming there was so much he didn’t know if he could use it all. He unloaded an overwhelming plenty: one small but gorgeously wrinkled savoy cabbage, ivory turnips, brilliant-colored sweet peppers, a mystery white-fleshed squash, seemingly every sort of braising greens, and an onion so pungent Nancy’s eyes teared up at the first slice. Since it was such a perfect, crisp fall day we decided to make a soup out of the squash and a gratin of the cabbage and greens.

I’ve never met a butternut squash soup I didn’t like, but there’s really only one variation I love. One year for Halloween, a family friend brought over a giant pot of the stuff. Hers incorporated apples, fresh cider, and curry. It was sweet, velvety, with a subtle heat from a dash of cayenne pepper. The turmeric in the curry turns the soup a harvest-moon color and the apple gives the soup a gentle sweetness. For mine, I of course made adjustments. I use hard cider and homemade stock (because I'm a cheap little miser and refuse to let the errant bone or scrap go to waste), a little fresh thyme, shallots, and garam masala in addition to madras curry powder. Sometimes I use several different kinds of squash, in particular I love red kuri & cinderella squash for this. The soup only impoves in flavor the following day.

Butternut Squash and Apple Soup

1 medium butternut squash, diced
1 medium yellow onion, chopped
2 shallots, chopped
1 clove garlic, chopped
3 Tbs. butter
1 Tbs. olive oil
2 carrots, diced
2 tart apples, peeled and diced
3 sprigs of thyme, leaves stripped and chopped
1 bay leaf
1 tsp. madras curry powder
1/2 tsp. of nutmeg
1/2 tsp. garam masala
1 tsp. sea salt
1/2 tsp. white pepper (black is fine, also)
2 cups hard cider
2 quarts of good-quality stock (vegetarian or chicken)
1/3 cup of heavy cream (optional)

Directions:

1. In a large pot with a heavy bottom melt the butter and olive oil together over medium heat. Once the butter has begun to bubble, add the onion, shallots, and garlic, stirring with a wooden spoon frequently until the onions have begun to turn translucent, about 5 minutes.
2. Add the curry, nutmeg, and garam masala to the pot and stir to incorporate. Add the butternut squash, carrots, and apples. Stir again and allow the squash and apple to soften, about 10 minutes. Add salt and pepper to season.
3. Add the cider to the pot, it will steam. Stir once more, then add the stock. Bring the soup to a boil and lower the heat. Simmer the soup for 40-50 minutes, until the squash is very tender.
4. Carefully ladle the soup into a blender (or skip this step entirely if you have an immersion blender--lucky duck!), working in small batches. Return the pureed soup to the pot and season again with salt and pepper if necessary. Add the cream, if using, stir and serve immediately.

Yield: 6-8 servings.