Chocolate Cherry Chili

 



It is supposedly summer here in the Midwest, however  the weather would imply it's winter in Oregon. It's unseasonably been rainy and chilly for the last week, and when people have sincere cabin fever and very low stores of Vitamin D, we need to get our pale butts outside into the sunlight desperatley. However, the first day of summer was only a week ago, so I'm willing to give ole' Mother Nature a break, as long as it gets beautiful and stays that way for at least 3 months ASAP. So at a time where you'd normally be disgusted at the thought of turning on the oven, I decided it was a good day to make chili in June.

Now, when it comes to my cooking/baking style, I'd say I much prefer a well done simple dish to a more exotic dishes with questionable tastes and digestibility, (such as the tempeh corndog that has most likely taken up residence in my stomach for the past four years, eeeeek...) I'm  not saying I don't like different foods, I love trying new things,and when eating somewhere new, I will pick the craziest sounding thing on the menu, and they often turn out quite amazing. But we've all seen the weird for the sake of weird foods, like coming home to your drunken housemate making Ramen noodles with eggs and mayo, or a bacon flavored gelato, (which was truly, sincerely disgusting) And that's exactly what my boyfriend thought I was concocting when I told him we would be dining on Chocolate Cherry Chili last night. It was going to be boring  normal old chili until I spotted the huge bag of bruised cherries I'd bought getting to the questionable stage. I very much so follow the philosophy of  "waste not,want not", so I thought I'd stick a cherry variation on a chili recipe I've often used.
Chocolate Cherry Chili
Ingredients:

-1 pound ground beef or bison
-1 can chili beans
-1 can  kidney beans
- 1 cup cherries, diced
-1 cup chopped diced yellow onion( one large)
- 1/2  fresh red pepper, diced
-2 minced cloves of garlic
-2  8 ounce cans tomato sauce
-1 can whole tomatoes, diced
- 1 can tomato paste
-1 t. salt
-1 t. pepper
-1 T. chili powder
-1 t. cumin
-1 T. basil
-1 T. oregano
-1 1/2 T. cocoa powder
-1 t. cinnamon
- 1/2 t. cayenne
- 1 t. hot sauce, like Frank's Red Hot
Directions:
In large saucepan cook meat,onion, garlic, pepper until soft, drain. Stir in undrained tomatoes, cherries, beans, sauce, and spices, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer, covered 20 minutes, stirring often. Serve warm, with crackers or cornbread. 

 I chose to serve it with crackers, because it is technically summer, and they are quite a bit lighter than cornbread. While I had to adjust it and taste several times during the process, it  turned out delicious! The cherries gave it a sweet mellow taste that added a plethora of body to this already ingredient-heavy chili. My biggest fear was that it would taste too sweet and dessert like, and I think if I would have added more cherries,  it would have surely gone that route. The next time I make this, I think I'll use frozen cherries, because they'll give off more juice, and that should help the flavor permeate the other ingredients.

This recipe can easily be made vegetarian by omitting the meat and using a can of black beans instead. At this point I really hope the next soup I make is a cold one though, or I'm going to move south for real this time!