Indian Inspired Chili

It seems wrong to put two chilis so close, but this one should taste pretty different. At a family gathering a while ago, I tried out this Indian-inspired chili on my Ohio relatives. My family thought it was way too hot, so I tamed it down, blended it with more familiar Cincinnati-style chili ingredients and it was a lot more popular. So this is sweet, but spicy. You can always kick it up a bit by adding more emphasis on the spicy elements.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 3 cloves minced garlic
  
• 2 medium onions, diced small
  
• 2 inches minced ginger root (or 1 tsp ginger powder)
• 4 cardamom pods (Indian food aisle or spice aisle)
• 2 in cinnamon stick
• 1 tsp chili powder (cayenne if you're braver, paprika if not)
  
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp tumeric
• 1 tsp garam masala (Indian food aisle or spice aisle)
• 1 tsp coriander (Indian food aisle or spice aisle)
• 1 tsp pepper
• salt to taste
• 1/2 tsp allspice
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg
• 1 lb ground meat
• 32 oz diced tomato
• 32 oz kidney beans, rinsed and drained
  
• 32 oz tomato puree
• 1/2 c brown sugar

Optional:

• pasta or rice as a base
• shredded cheddar (to top)
• diced sweet onion (to top)

Directions

1. Warm the oil in a large pot. Then sautee the first five non-powder spices. Stir them occasionally until the onions look clear.
2. Stir in all the powdered spices so the onions are nicely coated and cook for another minute or two.
3. Stir in the ground meat and brown it with the spices.
   
4. Once the meat is thoroughly browned, add in the tomatoes, beans and brown sugar. I ditch the bean fluids and keep the tomato fluids.
   
5. Simmer your chili until it is as thick as you like.
6. Especially when you're serving to folks unfamiliar with Indian spices, remove the cinnamon stick and cardamom pods before serving. They won't kill you, but aren't a fun texture when you bite them unawares.
   

Pilgrim's Pie

I made a few modifications to an online recipe to find yet ANOTHER use for our vat of instant potatoes. Pilgrims ate turkey, right? Apologies for the half-eaten photo, I just wasn't fast enough! BTW, my 9-month-old loved picking this up and eating it.

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons cooking oil
  
• 1 pound ground turkey
  
• 3 cloves garlic, finely chopped
  
• 1 medium onion, diced
  
• 3 medium carrots, diced
  
• 1 small butternut squash, diced
  
• 1.5 tablespoons tomato paste (AKA ketchup)
  
• 1.5 cup chicken stock, divided
  
• 1.5 teaspoon dried thyme
  
• 1.5 teaspoon dried rosemary
  
• 1.5 teaspoon dried parsley
  
• 1 cup shredded cheddar
• 4 servings of your favorite instant potatoes (may involve butter and milk)
  

Instructions

Chop all those pesky veggies and set them aside for later. Shred your cheese. Don't worry, this is the most time-consuming part.
Place a large skillet over high heat and with 3 turns of the pan, cooking oil, about 3 tablespoons. Once the oil starts to ripple, add the ground turkey and break it up into small pieces as it cooks, using the back of a wooden spoon or a potato masher. Cook until the turkey is nice and brown, about 8-10 minutes.
While the meat is cooking, prepare your mashed potatoes. Make them just a little more watery than the instructions say.
Add the veggies to the meat and cook until tender, about 5 minutes. Add the tomato paste, chicken stock, spices (be sure to rub them to release flavor before you add them), salt and pepper. Continue to cook for 10 more minutes, stirring every now and then.
Pre-heat oven to 400°F.
While the veggies are cooking, stir about half of the cheese into the mashed potatoes until it's all melted.
Once the veggies and meat are finished, use them to cover the bottom of a large, oven-safe baking dish. Spread the cheesy potatoes to cover the turkey mixture evenly.
Sprinkle the remaining cheese over the potatoes.
Place in the oven and bake until the top is golden brown, about 10 minutes.

Spinach Meatloaf

Get your picky eater to eat his vegetables by hiding them in meat! Another exciting use for instant potatoes.

Ingredients

• 1 lb ground meat (I prefer turkey)
• 1/4 cup instant potatoes
• 1/4 cup milk
• 2 tablespoons ketchup
• 1/4 cup parmesean cheese
• 1 egg
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1/2 onion chopped fine
• salt and pepper to taste
• flavoring (choose an option, both are tasty!)
• option A: 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce & 1 teaspoon cumin
• option B: 1 teaspoon each of sage, rosemary, thyme
• 5oz frozen spinach, thawed and chopped

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F or 175C. Thaw out your spinach by putting it in a colander and running water over it.
2. Mix first nine (9) ingredients and choose the kind of flavoring you'd prefer. Worcestershire goes better with beef, while herbs go better with ground chicken or turkey. Both flavors are tasty and merit trying.
3. Lay out a piece of aluminum foil, wax paper or other disposable flexible surface. Spread the meat mix over the foil to make a 1/2 inch-thick rectangle that should fit into your baking pan.
4. On top of the meat, make a uniform layer of spinach. Ideally, leave a 1/2 inch border of meat not covered by spinach.
5. Use your flexible surface to lift one side of the meat and gently form a roll. You'll likely have to work slowly and peel the meat off the foil a bit as you go. When you get to the end, press the end meat into the roll so in blends into a solid roll. You can also smoosh together the ends a bit to obscure the spinach there. The spinach should now be nicely hidden, visible only in cross-section.
6. If you're really careful with aluminum foil, you can now enclose your lovely meat roll in the same piece of foil, then place in your baking pan. This helps minimize cleanup. Definitely still use a pan, though, to keep the meat juices from oozing out into your oven.
7. Bake the meatloaf in the middle rack for 45 minutes or so (took me about twice that here, but I have no idea how hot my oven is with the goofy tank). This should serve 4-5 people and freezes easily either before or after baking.

Turkey Burgers -- with Instant Potatoes

Yet another use for instant potatoes: a way to stretch hamburger meat a bit further. My picky eater prefers anything with onions and garlic, so you can adjust those ingredients down to your preference. He often doesn't notice that it's turkey burgers, though, because the flavor is sufficiently good. I usually eyeball quantities, but paid close attention today to give a good estimate of quantities. Fresh herbs are always preferable (this group comes in a pack together called "poultry herbs" back home), but dried works nicely too (just rub the dried leaves a bit before tossing them in to release their flavors).

1 lb ground turkey
1 egg
1/2 onion diced fine
3 cloves garlic minced/diced fine
1/2 cup instant potatoes
1/4 cup milk
2 tbsp ketchup
1 tbsp dried rosemary (3 sprigs fresh chopped fine)
1 tbsp dried sage (2 sprigs fresh chopped fine)
1 tbsp dried thyme (1 handful fresh leaves pulled off stalks)
black pepper/salt to taste

1. In a medium mixing bowl, mix all the ingredients really well.
2. Separate the meat into burgers. You should be able to get five (5) respectable sized burgers out of this mixture.
3. I usually store individual burgers in resealable bags in the freezer to offer meal flexibility, however in Grenada the freezer is so humid that the bags quickly freeze to the walls and are difficult to remove. So here I put them in leftover containers, with burgers separated by foil or plastic wrap.