Chocolate and Chili – Melting Like the Ring In Mount Doom

A friend of mine once told me about putting some a little chocolate in chili and I have been doing it ever since. Now I think it is best to use dark chocolate which has less sweetness to it, but I sometimes also use dark milk chocolate because I do not mind just a touch of sweetness to my chili. If you don’t like any sweetness, cocoa works well too. Just don’t overdo any of it.

I made a huge pot of meat chili and a large pot of almost vegan (the milk in the chocolate nixed that) chili this weekend which both turned out pretty decently. In truth I also tried a touch of cinnamon in these which worked out, but I only added a very little bit. To round out flavor picture, I like to add some ground cumin (in addition to that which is in the chili powder), some fresh green chilies (at the begining with the meat), and some black pepper, along with all the traditional stuff like onions and garlic and diced tomatoes, which I like to liquify and use lots and lots of. I was hoping to use soaked dried beans to cut down on the salt, but did not get around to soaking an pre-cooking them in time. So instead I emptied all the cans of black beans and dark red and light kidney beans and pinto beans into a large container and rinsed them several times. It worked out well.

I am sorry all you readers out there could not enjoy the chili, but I hope you enjoy the pictures. I was reminded about the movie version of The Return of the King and Mount Doom as the chocolate floated on top of the bubbling chili like the Ring on the burning lava..it was there for a while and then melted and sank under.

at trader joe’s

at trader joe’s
i feel the energy
of people getting deals
the sense of making steals
and living to tell about them
(that’s half the pleasure)
like walmart after thanksgiving
but without obesity

i check out
and in my heart I feel
the insidious energy
of scorn

__________
caveat: I really don’t have much against Trader Joe’s. In fact, I admire its business model almost as much as its distant relation Aldi’s, which I adore. I appreciate the fact that they seem to be doing something in the effort to raise meat more humanely, if I am not mistaken. I appreciate the energy of its employees, one of whom very kindly brought a whole case of the infamous three buck chuck to an event of mine. I even really like many of their products. I don’t know, I suppose it is really only the way some followers of the cult of Giuseppe talk that sometimes gets under my skin

How ‘Bout Them Apples?