These vegetables are so beautiful that you buy them on a whim, promising yourself you'll use them. But the first beautiful item is replaced by the next beautiful item and another promise. So when I realized I had a few items in my fridge I'd temporarily forgotten about, I chastised myself and went looking for a recipe that would use them to their full potential.
I've lately been boiling all the mountains of green beans I'd purchased in delicious leftover pho' beef or chicken broths for a side dish, but after cooking up a whole bunch of chickpeas, freezing them, and realizing that they were taking up way too much room in my freezer, something had to be done that would combine my beans, zucchini and frozen chickpeas. So I turned to Judith Finlayson's aptly-named slow-cooker cookbook, "Delicious and Dependable," and it sure was. You don't have to make this recipe in a slow-cooker. A big pot on the stove is absolutely fine. Just let it cook for about 30 minutes at a simmer instead of turning on the slow-cooker. Then when you add the corn and zucchini at the end, just 5 minutes of more cooking is fine.
I settled on "Two Bean Chili with Zucchini". I chose it because I had all the ingredients, from the perfect number of dried ancho chilies to the can of tomatoes (San Marzanos) in my cupboard, to the frozen corn kernels also taking up way too much space in my freezer when fresh corn is coming into season, and of course I had all the dried spices. It's rare that a lack of spices is my recipe downfall.
I've had ancho chilies since I made the Santa Fe Sweet Potato Soup recipe from the same book, and it was phenomenal. Since then just the thought of ancho chilies has made me happy, and I think they can do no wrong. I am, unfortunately, not above such wrong-doing. When you use dried chilies you have to soak them in boiling water for about 30 minutes. While you do this you need to make sure the chilies are completely covered by the water. If an end sticks out it'll stay hard and you'll end up chewing your chili pepper. This is very undesirable. So you put a plate on top of the bowl of chilies in boiling water to press the chilies down into the liquid. The problem is you can't really see into the bowl to make sure the chilies are completely covered, and it's not until 30 minutes later when you require the use of your soaked chilies that you realize they're not properly soaked. So be careful. That's about all I can say. Make sure your plate that's keeping the chilies submerged is big enough, but not too big, and the bowl is flat and fairly heavy. You can also try turning the your chilies over in the water after 15 minutes to make sure each side is submerged for at least half the time.
Next, you need to sweat your zucchinis. In Montreal you'd think this would happen naturally...but no, they need to be salted first. Chop your zucchinis into 1/2" lengths (I had no idea what this meant. Cut them lengthwise into 1/2" length and width, making the height the whole length of the zucchini? Length is a very ambiguous term...cut your zucchinis however you please...I like quartering the zucchini length wise, and then chopping along the length of the lengths about 1/2" apart. This is probably about what Judith means, but she doesn't specify to quarter the zucchini first. I didn't think big coins of zucchini would work well in this recipe. I generally think diced vegetables are best for chili but you can get away with less chopping work by blaming Judith's less than clear instructions). So chop them as you see fit, sprinkle them with salt (preferably coarse salt), and place them in a colander. The liquid will drain out of them. After 20 or 30 minutes (whenever it's convenient for you) rinse the salt from the zucchini and pat them dry with paper towel. Rinsing them won't make them soggy again that quickly, so don't worry. You need the liquid out of them to sauté them properly. If you don't sweat them they'll get mushy in the skillet. This way they'll brown up nicely and be more meaty.
While the zucchini are sweating, chop a bunch of onions and garlic. It really doesn't matter how many. A lot is great. Now you need to wait for your zucchinis to sweat. If you're sweating, not the zucchini, get some ice for yourself and a glass of water. You should not be a puddle by the end of this recipe, and slow-cookers heat up your entire home.
Heat a little oil over medium heat and then add the zucchini. Stir until they brown on all sides. Then move them to a bowl and let them cool before refrigerating. Now sauté the onions and garlic in the leftover oil in the skillet. Let them soften for a good 5 minutes at least. Crunchy onions are no good in this recipe. Then in went the spices: oregano, salt, pepper, and cumin. They got cooked for 1 minute to coat the onions and garlic, and then in went the tomatoes and green beans. I just rinsed the green beans in advance and cut the really long ones, because the recipe said they could be up to 2" long! Like the zucchini I thought this was too big, so you could cut them into 1" lengths, or whatever length you prefer. It's kind of funny, though, struggling to eat long green beans with a spoon.
Now the recipe messed up. Editors, what happened?? I went to all that trouble of soaking the ancho chilies and there is no indication in the recipe of when to add them! Here I am looking around my kitchen thinking I've added everything, when I spot the bowl of chilies. When do they go in? They definitely go in before the slow-cooker gets turned on in the next step. So I shook my head, drained the chilies, removed the seeds, diced them, and added them to the pot (quickly! because I didn't want too much liquid to evaporate).
The tomatoes were coarsely chopped already, so the whole mixture just needed a little stir and it came quickly to a boil. Then into the slow-cooker it went and I mixed in 2 cups of chickpeas. The recipe says romano or pinto, but with beans I'm generally not too fussy. Chickpeas do taste a whole lot different, but they weren't going to taste bad.
Then all that was left was to turn the mixture to high for 4 hours in the slow-cooker. 4 hours of eager anticipation. 20 minutes before dinner I added the 1 1/2 cups of corn kernels and the refrigerated zucchini, and turned the slow cooker to high. The amazing thing about slow-cookers is that even though the colour fades on green vegetables, they stay fairly crisp. The zucchini was still firm (not too much, but just right) and the green beans were a tiny bit crunchy. No mushy, over-cooked vegetables. Hurray! I actually picked through my bowl in search of the zucchini, they were so good. It may also have had to do with the fact they were a little saltier than the other vegetables and beans...maybe. Still, this is a great way to get the best flavour out of your vegetables if you're going to cook them. You could also replace the vegetables with other things, like carrots, celery, or peas. With chili, the world is your oyster. Maybe don't add oysters...though worchestershire sauce is a good call because of the tamarind. I have no idea why oysters made me think of worchestershire sauce...hmm...I wonder what oyster sauce would be like...
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