The Cunning Whisk

As you may have noticed, I’ve been on a bit of a soup kick lately. Now, chili isn’t really soup, but I consider it to be close enough. Of course, a gentleman once told me that close is kind of like kissing your sister: It feels nice, but it don’t mean anything.

This chili is an amalgamation of several recipes. It’s part Paula Deen, part various other recipes I found scattered about. Most of it was common sense. The spices really took some work, however. In the end, I opened up Excel and made a list of every spice in all the recipes. Then I pulled some things down from my cabinets and started playing with combinations. I think the final result works well, though.

You could definitely go vegetarian with this. Replace the chicken broth with vegetable stock. Either substitute ground tofu for the turkey or simply add in a pound of dried kidney beans and maybe a 1/2 cup of chopped celery. Of course, then you would have to call it “Three Bean Chili.”

Ingredients:

• 1/2 lb. dried Navy beans
• 1/2 lb. dried Great Northern beans
• 4 c. chicken broth
• 1 c. water
• 4 Tbsp. butter
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1 lb. ground turkey
• 1/2 c. fresh cilantro, finely chopped
• 1/2 tsp. white pepper
• 1/2 tsp. black pepper
• 1 tomatillos, finely diced
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 lg. yellow onion, finely chopped
• 4 oz. green chiles, finely chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/4 tsp. dried oregano
• 1/4 tsp. dried thyme

Directions:
Pick over beans and rinse well. Put beans in a large pot. Cover with about 8 cups of cool water and both bay leaves. Bring to a rapid boil for two minutes, then cut heat to low, cover and let simmer for an hour.

Drain beans and bay leaves well. Replace pot on stove and empty in chicken broth and 1 cup of water. Turn heat up to medium and let it cook uncovered while you preform the next several steps.

Here is where our preparations may vary. I have a Slap-Chop. I love it. I don’t normally use it unless I really want to pulverize something, or unless it’s an onion. I keep my onions in the freezer because it cuts the amount of fumes in my eyes and it also makes finely mincing it easier. When I make White Bean Chili, I pulverize the onion, and also re-chop the canned chiles. I like the texture. Very finely hand chopping the onion and using the canned chiles as-is won’t change the flavor one bit.

Mince the garlic, onion and chiles. Also, dice the tomatillos rather small. In a saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat so it doesn’t burn. Sauté the onions, chiles and tomatillos, adding garlic as the onions begin to turn translucent. Garlic burns pretty easily, so keep your eyes open. Add sautéed mixture to pot and reuse the pan to cook the ground turkey. Stir the turkey constantly to keep the chunks very small.

After adding the turkey to the pot, pour a little bit of the stock from the pot into the pan and deglaze if necessary. Return to pot and add in all remaining ingredients except cilantro. Lower the heat on the pot to simmer and cook covered, stirring infrequently, for at least an hour.

Remove a large ladle full of the chili and either mash all the beans heartily with a fork or puree in a food processor. Add this back to the pot, stirring into the whole thoroughly to thicken the liquid. Cook for another half hour. Fish out the bay leaves.

Before serving, roughly chop cilantro for garnish.

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Mom found a recipe on an old Southern Living insert and decided to have some fun with it. We’re not terribly patient people, so the fact that the soup was supposed to be made in a slow cooker had to be dealt with. Also, we had a lot of leftover ham I diced and froze a few weeks ago. When she was finished, it tasted exactly like a loaded baked potato — only soupish. Give it a try. Not much was left by the next day.

Ingredients:

• 5 lbs. russet potatoes
• 1/2 bundle of green onions
The Romans believed chives could relieve the pain from sunburn or a sore throat.
• 7 c. water
• 7 tsp. chicken bouillon
• 1/2 c. butter
• 1 tsp. garlic salt
• 2 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1 1/4 tsp. pepper
• 2 c. cooked ham, diced
• 1 pt. half-n-half
• 1 1/2 c. cheddar cheese, shredded
• 3 Tbsp. dried chives, chopped
• 12 slices cooked bacon

Directions:
Peel potatoes and cut them into 1/2 inch cubes. Combine water and bouillon in a large pot and bring to a boil. Add in potatoes, butter, garlic salt, salt, pepper and ham. Roughly chop green onions and add to pot. Simmer until potatoes are tender. Mash a large ladle full of the potatoes and return to pot, stirring so that it thickens the soup.

Add in the half-n-half, cheese and chives. Crumble the bacon into the mix. Stir until cheese is completely melted and remove soup from heat. Serve warm.

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