Chili with Red Wine, Cocoa and Coffee

Hi there!

I had my last lectures before Easter and now only two exams are left and a dissertation to write over summer.
At the beginning it was weird, but now I am enjoying being able to work from home, since that way I can do things where I have to pop into the kitchen every few hours. Plus I can have for lunch whatever I want to have without it having to be portable or easy to prepare!

During this past week I've been having different red and green smoothies (not as creepy as it sounds!) followed by bread rolls made from my Crusty Potato Bread dough* with butter and Orange Jam.

*For making rolls, instead of shaping bread loaves, divide the dough into 6 pieces per loaf, form into rolls (like small bread loaves). Proceed as with bread. Bake at only 220°C for 21 minutes. 

My smoothie week mainly originated from me having bought a bunch of beetroots last Friday and having the stems leftover from that. They looked far to nice to throw them out so I made smoothies with them, including banana, orange and some other things, which turned out surprisingly nice!
I hadn't been looking up recipes and just threw in random leftovers. And ... well, since I am not the most experienced smoothie person sometimes these creations turn out pretty weird I have to admit.
But I think I might stay hooked onto my smoothie-part of lunch for a little while longer. Usually I just have carrot and apple with my baked goodies or carrot and apple salad.
...A difference between carrot and apple and carrot-apple-salad? Uh, yes...there is a small difference even if it might not be apparent at first sight. Believe it or not ;-)



Here in England, we still have days where it's drizzling - or pouring - outside. Then it feels chilly inside to me if there hasn't been any sun all day to warm up the house.

On days like that I tend to make the dish, which this post is about:
A chili with red wine, cocoa powder and a dash of coffee.

Sounds unhealthy? Three vices combined in one dish? Red wine, chocolate and coffee?
Well, it is not as bad as it sounds - in fact I would still think it is quite healthy ;-)
... After all the alcohol evaporates, the cocoa powder only has the good parts of the chocolate without all the sugary stuff in it and there's only a spice-sized amount of coffee.
Sooooo... I hope I have convinced you!!!

My housemate claims that this is one of her favourite dishes out of those I've made for her so far, so I hope that you might like it as well :-)

Chili with Red Wine, Cocoa and Coffee

Time:
approx. 40 minutes without considering the beans
+ 20 - 50 minutes for cooking the beans if using dried ones
+ 6 hours for soaking of the beans (if using dried beans)

This recipe is an adapted version of this Bean Chili with Walnuts & Chocolate by Green Kitchen Stories.

for	2	4	6	people (without rice)
	2/3 cup	1 1/3 cups	2 cups	uncooked, dried beans (any dark colour)
	½ cup	1 cup	1 ½ cups	cooking water from the beans
	1 tbsp	2 tbsp	2 tbsp	olive oil
	½	1	1 ½	onion(s)
	1	2	3	garlic clove(s)
	½ tsp	1 tsp	1 ½ tsp	cumin, whole seeds
	¼ tsp	½ tsp	¾ tsp	chili flakes, to taste
	½ tsp	1 tsp	1 ½ tsp	paprika powder
	½ tsp	1 tsp	1 ½ tsp	oregano, dried
	1	2	3	carrots/parsnips/medium sized potatoes
	1	2	3	celery stalks
	1*400g tin	2*400g tin	3*400g tin	cubed tomatoes
	¼ - ½ tsp	½ - 1 tsp	¾ - 1 ½ tsp	salt
	¼ cup (+)	½ cup (+)	¾ cup (+)	red wine
	¼ - ½ tsp	½ - 1 tsp	¾ - 1 ½ tsp	coffee powder, ground (instant granules or normal)
	1 tbsp	2 tbsp	3 tbsp	cocoa powder

• If you are using dried beans, like I did:
• Soak the beans in plenty of water for about 6 hours. Then drain, rinse, cover with a lot of fresh water and cook. Do this either in a pressure cooker (for 16-18 minutes on the highest setting) or in a normal pot (for about 40 minutes). Do not add salt, as otherwise the beans will not soften. When straining after cooking keep some of the water.
• You can do this while you prepare the remaining ingredients and start cooking.
• You can also use canned beans. Then you should have about three times the volume of beans, since they triple in volume when being cooked. Strain and rinse and use fresh water instead of bean cooking water.

• Finely chop onion and garlic.
• Cut carrot/parsnip/potato into 1cm cubes. Cut the celery into pieces of about ½ cm in size.

• Heat olive oil in a large pot. Sauté onion and garlic, as well as the spices, on low heat for about 5 minutes or until the onion has softened. Stir often.
• Add the remaining cut-up vegetables and cook for another 10 minutes until these have softened slightly. Stir often.
• Add cooked beans, tomatoes, (bean cooking) water and salt. Bring to a simmer and let cook on low heat for 25-30 minutes with the lid on. Stir from time to time.
• Add red wine, coffee and cocoa powder. Let simmer for another 5 minutes. Taste and adjust seasoning to your liking.

Serve. For decoration you can use parsley or coriander leaves if you wish.

You could combine this dish with rice or bread, but having it on its own is delicious as well!

** In my photograph I used light-coloured beans, but I'd recommend dark-coloured beans, since they look much nicer in here!
*** Feel free to use other vegetables, such as butternut squash or sweet potato as well.

As always, I would love to hear if anyone has tried this :-)

Ines' Hot Chocolate

Hot Chocolate! This is after my breakfast what I definitely make the most!

As a kid I used to love cold chocolate. Ordinary one. The one where you stir kaba powder into cold milk.

I remember I sometimes took it to school. Besides, on Sundays we used to have typical German Abendbrot for dinner. That means you have sliced bread or different kinds of rolls (pretzel rolls, poppy-seed rolls, ...) and you put butter, cheese and cut sausage (such as ham or salami) and possible pickled cucumbers on them. With that my Dad and I used to share a big jug of cold kaba. The jug was brown stoneware and we used to have two special glasses we always used. We perfected that over time by mixing the drink with a handheld milk frother and later a stick blender. No that's not over the top ... ;)

Well, at some point, when my Mum introduced more healthy eating store-bought kaba powder was banned - I'm not blaming you Mum, that's just a statement ;)

These days I usually make hot chocolate, but my love for that drink hasn't ceased a bit. Maybe my degree of love for hot chocolate is slightly worrying, but since it makes me happy and doesn't have any largely unhealthy ingredients in it I guess the positive happiness effect weighs up for any overconsumption.

The only issue is that I need my Vitamix blender for this ... which is really loud. My housemates always joke about it, but I hope they forgive me for the daily noise ;)

With a high-speed blender you will get a completely smooth liquid in any case. Otherwise I suggest trying different methods as to what works best with what you have.

The recipe can be adapted in terms of spices and sweetness to your liking.

Ines' Hot Chocolate

(my Mum makes a different version)

1	cup
11 g	cashew nuts
17 g	dates
2 tsp	cocoa
1/4 tsp	honey
270 g	water (boiling)
one of the following
1/4 tsp	maca powder
1/2 smidgen	vanilla powder
1/4 smidgen	cookie spice/gingerbread spice
1 smidgen	cinnamon

• If you don't have a high speed blender.
• Soak the nuts in water for a few hours before using, since then your blender will be able to break them up more easily. Drain before use because you want hot water in your hot chocolate. You could also use bought nut milk or milk and heat it up before using. In a high speed blender you don't need to bother with soaking anything.
• Cut up the dates and soak them as well. Only add water until just covered. Use that water, because it will add lots of sweetness.

• Do not use a blender that is totally closed (airtight) because mixing hot water in it will probably cause a problem due to pressure. Check if your blender is able to blend hot liquid and only do this if you are sure that you won't get soaked in boiling water because your blender is leaking.

• The hot chocolate will be much more smooth if a good blender is used, but we also used to make it when we didn't have a high speed blender. So it definitely does work, only tastes a bit different.

• Put all ingredients in your blender and blend until very, very smooth.

Nut Varieties

You could also use hazelnuts or almonds instead of cashew nuts. If using hazelnuts you might need a bit more sweetener, since they do not have a naturally sweet taste compared to cashew nuts and almonds. Their taste matches the cocoa very well, though!

Cold Chocolate

If you do have a high speed blender you can also make cold chocolate by using half ice cubes and half very cold water instead of the boiling water.

• In that case you can add a 5 cm piece of frozen banana to give it a hit of banana taste.

Coconut Cold Chocolate

When you have fresh coconut water and flesh at hand (or maybe one of these packages of coconut water) then add half the water (usually one coconut has enough water for two cups) to the cold water part in the cold chocolate and add some small pieces of coconut meat to the blender as well.

This is really, really good as well!

If you have left over coconut water freeze it in an ice cube tray and do not keep it in the fridge. It goes bad really fast without you noticing until you end up feeling like maybe you shouldn't have used that anymore.