perfidy

As I noted earlier this week, one challenge when cooking vegetarian is in making your dishes as good as a meated counterpart. In some cases, this requires rethinking what the dish needs. In the case of chili, Southwestern-style bowls of red (or green! Don't forget green!) are right out because the flavor of those recipes derives entirely from beef and chiles. So when putting my veg chili recipe together, I chose to adapt a Cincinnatti-style recipe instead. Aside from overturning the faintly absurd Texas chili prejudice against beans, Cinci chilis typically contain a number of spices not present in more traditional recipies. Since the point of a chili is to achieve gigantic flavor this is clearly the right place to start.

The final result is actually a little more of an American curry than a strict chili. Before my gentle readers retch into the nearest trashcan, let me explain. Unlike Southwestern-style meat chili, which achieves depth of flavor by using several kinds of chile peppers and good meat and cooking them together for hours, good veg chili has to get the same results by layering subtle flavors on aggressive flavors until they all meld into a whole, much as good curry does. It still tastes like chili. In fact, I'm so proud of this recipe that I hereby assert that if made properly with good ingredients, it's the best meatless chili you can make.
Cincinnatti-style Vegetarian Chili

1 pound (about 3 cups) pinto beans, picked over and rinsed.
2 cups finely chopped onion
2 cups finely chopped bell pepper (chile peppers of any variety may be substituted for part of total)
6-8 cloves minced garlic
1-2 chopped canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (optional)
4 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2-3 tablespoons chili powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon cocoa powder
1 1/2 teaspoons ground coriander
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon crushed saffron threads
(optional additions- red pepper flakes, cayenne pepper, Dave’s Insanity Sauce)
6 ounces malty beer (Dos Equis, Tecate, Negro Modelo, Sam Adams, Harp)
1 28-ounce can whole tomatoes, crushed in their juice
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1/3 cup pearl barley
salt

In a large stock pot, put beans on to cook in 10 cups water. Bring to boil and reduce heat to simmer. Add 1 tsp salt. Cook gently until tender. Drain beans and reserve the broth.

In another large stock pot, sweat onion and bell pepper in vegetable oil with a little salt over medium heat until onion is translucent, about 10 minutes. Add garlic and chipotle pepper and cook 3 minutes more.

Add all the herbs and spices and cook 3 minutes more, stirring frequently.

Add tomatoes, beer, beans and barley. Add enough bean broth to cover everything well. (Reserve remaining broth to add if necessary.) Taste for seasoning.

Reduce heat to a simmer and cook partially covered for at least 1 hour, preferably for 2-4. Cover if liquid reduces too much. Add corn about 1/2 hour before finish.

This chili is rather spicy at first thanks to the chipotles, but calms down significantly after a stay in the fridge. Naturally, it's better the next day.