Chili Blanco

"From morning till night, sounds drift from the kitchen, most of them familiar and comforting....On days when warmth is the most important need of the human heart, the kitchen is the place you can find it; it dries the wet sock, it cools the hot little brain."

- E.B.White (1899-1985)

"Food is not about impressing people. It's about making them feel comfortable."
- Ina Garten (1948-)

The idea of making chili has been on my mind a lot lately. My wife and I love Stagg's Steak House Chili. It is a love unconditional. But we rarely keep pre-made food at home, I would prefer to make something rather than buy it. As a culture we are moving further and further away from cooking the basics, forgetting that food always tastes better home-made. The food companies that claim their pre-prepared things are better than you can do yourself are snake-oil salesmen. There's a ridiculous Clubhouse commercial where a woman claims that the brand's Gravy Mix and turkey drippings are better than making it from scratch, how stupid do they think people are? They just spent hours cooking a turkey for loved-ones and they blow off good gravy for powdered? It's sad if people are. This is not to say that there are some products, Stagg's recipe for Steak House Chili for one, that are exceptional. These rare, shining examples are the ones that make me want to cook--to create a version at home that is as good, but most likely better than the dish than inspired it.

On the way to work this morning I could see the trees starting to change colour along the Don valley. The cooler weather and shorter days are coming. During this time of year I can't help but think of all those comforting autumn foods, and the best of all in my mind is chili. Chili is chunky comfort. So I got home and makd a batch of chili blanco (or white chili, also known as chicken chili). As I've been searching through chili recipes trying to find a version close to Stagg's, I've come acros a few for chili blanco. It is one of those recipes that you can taste the dish just by reading the ingredient list and every version tasted good. What makes it such a great and simple recipe is that you use precooked chicken (those rotisserie jobbies you see in the grocery store works great, or that leftover bits from yesterdays roast chicken) and the rest of the ingredients are mostly canned stuff that I usually have in my pantry. So what I give you is the version I came up with, which is made from scratch. And nothing is better than scratch.

CHILI BLANCO
Ingredients
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and diced
1 yellow bell pepper, seeded and chopped
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp minced fresh jalapeño chile
1 1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp ground white pepper
1 can (398 ml) cream-style corn
1 can (125 ml) chopped green chilies
2 1/2 cups low sodium organic chicken broth
1 can (540 ml) navy beans, drained and rinsed
2-3 cups shredded cooked chicken
1-2 cups shredded sharp Cheddar cheese
Sea Salt and fresh ground White Pepper

Method
1. Add onion and cook until tender.
2. Mix in garlic, jalapeño, green chile peppers, cumin, oregano, and ground white pepper. Cook together to let flavours mingle.
3. Add bell pepper, navy beans, cream-style corn, chicken broth. Bing to a boil then reduce heat, cover, and simmer, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes.
4. Stir in chicken. Season with salt and pepper. Stir in the Cheddar cheese and serve immediately. A dollop of sour cream would go down a treat.

To Finish
I topped the finished dish with sour cream and sprinkled over a pinch of Ancho Chili Powder. It serves between 4 to 6.

Bakuteh & Chili Dipping Sauce

I love coming across a dish I've never heard of. More than that, I love cooking a recipe from another country and having my house come alive with aromas unfamilier and beautiful. Aromas that, for others far away, would remind one of the kitchen smells of childhood. That's the magic of cooking, the power to evoke the smells and flavours of others in your own kitchen. Flavour combinations completely foreign but delicious. At the wheel of your stove it takes you only a short time to arrive in Rhône-Alpes, Louisiana, or even Malaysia (as with this dish). When I came across the recipe for bakuteh I mistakenly thought it was a Korean dish called gamjatang (Pork Bone Soup - my mistake will be evident below). Gamjatang is one of my favourite soups of all time, along with French Onion Soup and Japanese Fish Broth. But this is not gamjatang, it is a more herbal dish, less spicy, but just as hearty. I decided that it needed to be tried. After a couple of weeks of reading though the many different versions I came up with this one. There were a few changes that reflected my kitchen pantry such as using ginger instead of dang gui (also known as female ginseng) which I couldn't find. I also used fresh cremini mushrooms in place of dried shitake, because that is what I had.

OK, now the history. Bakuteh, usually translated as pork rib (or bone) tea, is a herbal soup that is very popular throughout Southeast Asia. It is widely believed to have been created in the Klang Valley in Malaysia which is still famous for its many bakuteh restaurants. The story goes that the dish was invented in Port Klang for workers in the early 20th century, "to supplement their meagre diet and as a tonic to boost their health." Traditionally served for breakfast as an "invigorating tonic" to begin their day.

Recipes vary but essentially the dish is made with pork (or chicken in a version called Chikuteh) simmered for a long time in a complex broth of herbs, spices (including star anise, cinnamon, cloves, dang gui, and garlic) and dried shitake mushrooms for a touch of earthiness. Additional ingredients may also include offal, other varieties of mushroom, lettuce, and pieces of dried tofu. The usual accompaniment is rice or noodles, chili sauce to dip the pork in and often youtiao (strips of fried dough) for dipping into the soup. Various kinds of Chinese tea are also usually served with the belief that it dilutes (or "dissolves") the copious amount of fat consumed in this pork-laden dish. The numerous variants of bakuteh reflects geographical location. There are three types of bakuteh; the most common variant is the Teochew style, which is light in color but uses more pepper in the soup; the Hoklo (Hokkien), who prefer saltier food, uses more soy sauce (resulting in a darker soup); the Cantonese, with a soup-drinking culture, add medicinal herbs to create a stronger flavoured soup.

For the BAKUTEH
Ingredients
500g pork ribs, cut into 2' lengths
225g pork loin, diced
3-4 garlic cloves, peeled and lightly crushed
2 cinnamon sticks
5-6 star anise
1-2 tsp goji berries (wolf berries)
12 cremini mushrooms, brushed clean
250 ml dark soy sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tbsp sugar sea salt and fresh ground pepper

Method
1. In a large pot place the pork ribs, pork loin, garlic, cinnamon, star anise, goji berries, mushrooms, and spice bag (see below). Cover with 10 cups of water and bring to a rolling boil.
2. As it heats remove fat and foam that forms from the surface. Stir in th soy sauce, fish sauce and sugar. Partially cover and seduce the heat, simmer for 2 and a half hours.

Season with sea salt and freshly ground pepper.

For the SPICE BAG
Ingredients
5 cloves
1 tbsp dried orange peel ground (recipe follows)
1 tsp each of black peppercorns, coriander seeds and fennel seeds

Method
1. Lay out a square of cheese cloth and put all the ingredients in the middle. Pull the corners together and tie the pouch with some butchers twine or string.

For the CHILI DIPPING SAUCE
Ingredients
Juice of 1 lime
3-4 tbsp Sriracha Hot Chili Sauce
3 garlic cloves
1/2" piece ginger, peeled
2 tsp sugar
1 tsp sea salt

Method
1. In a small food processor or blender grind the first 4 ingredients together, then salt and sugar to taste. Serve in individual bowls for each person.

BAKUTEH & CHILI DIPPING SAUCE
To serve
Divide the loin and ribs between 4-6 bowls and ladle the hot broth over the top. Serve with individual condiment bowls of the Chili dipping sauce for the pork.

N.B.- This is one of those magical soups that is even better the next day, after the flavours have a a chance to get together and cuddle a bit. This is a personal thing, I haven't seen anything online saying this is wrong but I have also noticed that all the pictures I've seen of bakuteh seen very clear (or "tea-like" if you will).