Excerpted from Crescent Dragonwagon’s Bean by Bean.

It was my pleasure to have poet/caterer/yoga teacher Lisa Esposito in the class I taught on culinary memoir in Key West in the winter of 2008. It was also my pleasure to have her heartwarming, exotic black bean chili at a chili-cornbread reception held in my honor the night I arrived at the Studios at Key West. How good a writer is Lisa? Let’s just say that she made the mouth of this long-time vegetarian water with her remarkable description of carnitas, tiny pork squares cooked, as I recall, in rendered pork fat. And how good a cook? Let’s just say that I went back for thirds of this rich, smoky, dark chili the night of the party, and took some leftovers home to the studio where I was staying.

I remain grateful to Lisa for the recipe. Its technique and flavors are one of a kind, as is the language with which she gave it to me—and now, generously, to you. Oh, and those toasted pasilla and New Mexico chiles . . . wow! They are the huge difference-makers here. Thanks, Lisa!

Please note this recipe calls for Lisa’s Black Beans, so you need to get ’em going before you begin the recipe proper. Lisa does mention that “Canned beans work just fine, but if using them, add an additional 2 tablespoons coriander and 3 tablespoons cumin to the chili.” Do this when you add the first go-around of spices to the onions and potatoes.

Lisa Esposito’s Soul-Soothing Vegetarian Black Bean Chili

Ingredients

• ½ cup mild vegetable oil, such as canola, corn, or peanut
• 1 large onion, coarsely diced
• 3 medium-size russet potatoes, peeled, rinsed, and finely diced
• 8 pasilla chiles (see Note), stemmed, seeded, and broken into pieces
• 8 dried New Mexico green chiles (see Note), stemmed, seeded, and broken into pieces
• 1 tablespoon kosher salt
• 3 tablespoons ground coriander
• 2 tablespoons ground cumin
• 4 cups canned diced tomatoes (preferably fire-roasted), with their juice
• 5½ cups Lisa’s Black Beans (recipe follows)
• Chili Fixins
• Coarsely crushed yellow corn tortilla chips, for garnish (optional)
• Minced fresh cilantro leaves, for garnish (optional)

Instructions

1. Place the oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and heat until “fragrant and rippling.” (I told you Lisa was a poet. I love “rippling”!) Add the onions and potatoes, reduce the heat to medium, and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are translucent and the potatoes are easily pierced with a knife, about 15 minutes.
2. While the onions and potatoes are cooking, toast the chiles: Place a dry, heavy skillet over high heat, add the chile pieces, and toast, stirring often, until fragrant, about 10 minutes. (If you love chile as much as I do, you will find the aromas intoxicating.) Remove the toasted chiles from the pan and place them in a bowl. Add hot water to barely cover, and let them soak until softened, 15 to 20 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, back at the onion-potato mixture: Once the onions are translucent and the potatoes tender, add the salt, coriander, and cumin and stir to coat the vegetables with the spices. Sauté for about 1 minute, then add the tomatoes and black beans. Stir to combine and let cook, halfcovered, giving the occasional stir, for a few minutes while you return to the chiles.
4. Remove the softened chiles from their soaking liquid (reserve it). Transfer them to a blender or food processor with a bit of their soaking liquid and puree them to a nice, smooth, fairly thick consistency, about that of, say, ketchup. Stir this puree into the pot of chili and reduce the heat to a simmer.
5. Cover the chili and let it cook on very low heat, stirring occasionally, until the flavors have mingled nicely and the potatoes are very, very disintegratingly tender, about 1 hour. Serve immediately, hot, or make it in advance and enjoy it the next day, when, impossible though it is to imagine, it’s even better. Pass the Fixins alongside, and, if desired, garnish as Lisa does: with a good sprinkle of crushed-up tortilla chips and chopped cilantro on top.

Serves 8 to 10 with Fixins

Note: Dried pasilla and New Mexico chiles can be found in the Mexican foods section of many supermarkets, in natural foods stores and specialty foods markets, and at www.thechileshop.com.

Lisa’s Black Beans

You can prepare these beans a day or two before the chili if you’d like, storing them, covered, in the fridge. They’re also good in and of themselves, or as a base for most Southwestern dishes and many curries.

• 2 cups dried black beans, picked over, rinsed, and soaked overnight
• 2 tablespoons ground coriander
• 3 tablespoons ground cumin
• 2 tablespoons salt

1. Drain and rinse the soaked beans, then place them in a large, heavy pot and cover with cold water to a depth of 3 inches. Bring to a boil over high heat, reduce the heat to medium-high, and cook, half-covered, until the beans begin to get tender, about 1 hour.
2. Add the coriander, cumin, and salt, and cook until the beans are tender and the liquid has become dark and fairly thick, 1 to 1¹/₂ hours more. The bean liquid will thicken more as the beans cool.

Makes 5½ cups cooked beans (sufficient for one batch of chili)

About the Book:

Has there ever been a more generous ingredient than the bean? Down-home, yet haute, soul-satisfyingly hearty, valued, versatile deeply delectable, healthful, and inexpensive to boot, there’s nothing a bean can’t do—and nothing that Crescent Dragonwagon can’t do with beans. From old friends like chickpeas and pintos to rediscovered heirloom beans like rattlesnake beans and teparies, from green beans and fresh shell beans to peanuts, lentils, and peas, Bean by Bean is the definitive cookbook on beans. It’s a 175-plus recipe cornucopia overflowing with information, kitchen wisdom, lore, anecdotes, and a zest for good food and good times.

Consider the lentil, to take one example. Discover it first in a delicious slather, Lentil Tapenade. Then in half a dozen soups, including Sahadi’s Lebanese Lentil Soup with Spinach, Kerala-Style Dahl, and Crescent’s Very, Very Best Lentil, Mushroom & Barley Soup. It then turns up in Marinated Lentils De Puy with Greens, Baked Beets, Oranges & Walnuts. Plus there’s Jamaica Jerk-Style Lentil-Vegetable Patties, Ethiopian Lentil Stew, and Lentil-Celeriac Skillet Sauce. Do the same for black beans—from Tex-Mex Frijoles Dip to Feijoada Vegetariana to Maya’s Magic Black Beans with Eggplant & Royal Rice. Or shell beans—Newly Minted Puree of Fresh Favas, Baked Limas with Rosy Sour Cream, Edamame in a Pod. And on and on—from starters and soups to dozens of entrees. Even desserts: Peanut Butter Cup Brownies and Red Bean Ice Cream.

Buy the Book

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