Visitors with Vegetarian Chili and Cornbread

Over the weekend several people have arrived to visit various flat-mates of mine. We had some random beans in the cupboard (they looked a little like pinto beans, but I'm not convinced that they are) that I've been meaning to cook up, so I took advantage of a "slow" morning to get those going. With cooked beans, the obvious dinner meal was chili. With the vegetarian leanings of our flat, it ended up being a meatless chili.

Roughly, here's the recipe I followed (keeping in mind Israeli ingredients):

Veggie Chili

6 c. cooked beans

1 large can tomato something (mushed tomatoes is what it looked like)

1 small plastic container of tomato sauce

1 c. sliced green olives

4 tomatoes, blanched, pealed, and chopped.

2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp chili powder (if you have it)

1 tsp hot paprika (in retrospect, maybe I'll add less of this. It seems to be quite a bit warmer than I expect)

1/2 tsp coriander

1 tsp salt

1 tsp oregano

...whatever spices you feel like adding...bay leaves are good...

water (enough to make it your preferred chili consistency)

Chop up:

2 medium onions

6 cloves garlic

2 bell peppers

1 hot pepper

Saute the onions and garlic until getting browned. Add the peppers and cook a little longer. Add to bean mixture.

Fry 3 eggs, chop up, and add to bean mixture. Cook over low heat for a few hours. Test for flavor and add spices accordingly.

And then, what better to serve with chili than cornbread? Fortunately, we had cornmeal in the house. I roughly followed the same recipe that I follow at camp, but had to adjust amounts somewhat. I think this is roughly what I did:

Cornbread

2 1/2 c. flour

1 1/2 c. cornmeal (maybe a little more?)

1 tsp salt

1? tsp baking soda

1 cube butter, melted

1 1/2 c. sugar

3 eggs

1 1/2 c. buttermilk (or milk with vinegar...)

Mix. It made one 8x12 pan and 9 muffins for me. Bake at about 160C for, oh, 20-30 minutes. Tasty. :)

Apparently I made enough for 9 people to eat...and to have left-overs for the rest of the week. (Or at least a good portion of the week.) I still struggle with estimating amounts sometimes. *sigh*