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A Slow Simmer for the First Cold Weekend 🌶️
Published about 19 hours ago • 2 min read
Hi Reader,
There’s a moment every fall when The One and I stop pretending dinner can still be tomatoes, something grilled, and a devil-may-care splash of olive oil. The house gets chilly. The windows are shut earlier. And suddenly I want a pot on the stove. A big pot. Something burbling away for hours, fogging the windows and making the kitchen smell as if I’ve been terribly industrious when, in fact, I’ve mostly been wandering past the stove and lifting the lid. That’s the beauty of chili and beans. You do not have to stand over them. Yes, there’s some chopping and browning at the beginning. You may have to remember to soak the beans. (And if you forget? Welcome to my kitchen.) But after that, dinner mostly takes care of itself while you read, rake leaves, watch a movie, or engage in my preferred autumn activity: announcing every twenty minutes that I think it’s getting colder. And unlike those lovely, fleeting summer dinners, a pot of chili gets better overnight. The flavors deepen. The beans turn creamy. The broth thickens. Tomorrow’s bowl may even be better than tonight’s. Now that is my kind of cooking.
Notes from the Bean Pot
Brown boldly. Whether you’re using beef, pork, turkey, chicken, or chorizo, give it enough room and heat to develop real color. Gray meat has never made anyone rush to the dinner table.
Cook the beans all the way through. Go gently, and give them longer than the package says. A bean with a chalky center has not had enough time.
Heat is not flavor. Chiles can bring smoke, fruitiness, earthiness, and fire. Build those flavors first; scorch everyone’s tonsils only if that’s your intention.
Salt, taste, simmer, repeat. Long-cooked dishes change as they burble away. What tasted timid an hour ago may be just right now, so keep tasting before reaching for more seasoning.
And make more than you think you need. Chili, braised beans, and bean soups are unapologetic leftover food. Tomorrow, when all you have to do is reheat a bowl and tear off a hunk of bread, you’ll feel absurdly pleased with yourself.
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Why, hello! Leite's Culinaria is the James Beard Award-winning site that helps home cooks and bakers put dinner on the table and laughs in the kitchen. Hungry for more? Join 40,000 food lovers and subscribe.
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