The Kitchen Shaman is in the process of moving, and taking a vacation.
I will be back towards the end of January with more recipes, food knowledge, history and information, and stories. Please enjoy reading the other articles on this website, and enjoy cooking.
I’d like to take a few paragraphs to thank all the people who have helped shape the Kitchen Shaman.
First, my partner D’Marie, who encouraged me to write about food when she realized the amount of information stuck up in my brain that could be shared with the world. She has also been the gracious recipe tester, and benefactor of the Kitchen Shaman’s food over the last 8.5 years. She has suffered my failures, and gloried in my culinary triumphs. And has been there every night and day when I come home from a long shift, tired and just wanting take-out, but babbling about everything I learned about food that day. She is also the fabulous editor of Kitchen Shaman, taking my words and shaping them into something that you can understand when you read it. I am deeply grateful for her talents.
Dharma Kelleher of Dharma Kelleher Web Design Studio. She did a bang up job on the banner for the website. I gave her a somewhat thought out idea, and she translated what I saw in my mind onto the web page. Kudos. She helped me get started in wordpress as well, so I could create this pretty nifty little corner of the internet. Dharma also shot the first few KS videos. And she is a staunch supporter of Kitchen Shaman.
Kristin Satkowiack, who responded to my crisis call and helped make the kitchen look really great for the videos. She also came over and took pictures of the food when the other photographer couldn’t make it. She’s a staunch supporter of KS, and has sent many fans over to the Kitchen Shaman Fan Page on Facebook. Thank you Kristin!
There’s my High School and College writing professors who encouraged me over the years. They told me, edit, edit, edit. I used to have a hard time with that. Now, I’ve learned the value of the draft. They always encouraged me to keep writing, and though I did not submit anything I wrote over the years, I did keep writing privately. And when I finally became comfortable putting words together in a coherent fashion, this blog was born.
There are videos on Kitchen Shaman. I’d like to thank both my High School and College instructors in the Video realm. They helped me learn to tell a story through the lens. And then taught me how to shape that story through editing. I am glad that I can bring that skill to Kitchen Shaman as well.
There’s my grandmother Lamby, who is no longer alive but taught me so very much about food and how to make it. My first bread baking lessons were at her side, and vegetable gathering in the garden. And though she never knew it, she played a large part in helping me become a Chef.
My Aunt Mary Alice, who wouldn’t let me put sugar on my grapefruit, but had a huge kitchen built in her house. I did not have the patience to learn from her, but I respected and revered the knowledge she wielded.
There are all my cousins, and extended family, and my family of choice who are supporting this blog, and my culinary endeavors. I hope someday all of you might get to taste my creations as a thank you for believing in me.
And finally, there’s my mom. I loved her. When I got home from school she would be cooking dye for fabric, and it was my responsibility to get dinner started. You try cooking with blue and red next to the soup. Her idea of gourmet was Chef Boy R Dee, and vegetables came from a can. But, she taught me perseverance, and about keeping a dream alive. And though I strayed from the culinary path, really it’s because of Her that I came back. Mom, I’ll always love you.
I thank all the strangers out there that I don’t know who are reading my blog, and wanting more. And though there aren’t that many comments yet, I’m going to keep it up, and someday, I’ll hear from you as well.
I’ve been making Chili in various forms for as long as I’ve been cooking, and that really is quite a long time. In the days before my vegan life, I used choice cuts of meats, and once in awhile scored some great venison. I had to adjust the recipe for use with products like tofu and tempeh. They don’t have the fat that animal product does, so I use a little more oil to sweat the vegetables, and lime juice to deglaze the pan. This recipe is the result of the happy mix between chilis, tempeh, and black beans.
Ingredients
Process
In a sturdy stock pot, heat up the oil. Add the carrots and saute until soft. Add the peppers, onion, and garlic. Add a pinch of salt to the mirapoix. This will allow the sweet flavors of the vegetables to come out. Saute until almost soft, or the onions turn translucent.
Add the tempeh and stir. Add chili powder and cayenne. If necessary add a bit more oil to make the chili powder into a paste. De-glaze with lime juice. Add the beans, stir around some more. Add the vegetable stock.
Cover and cook on simmer for 2-3 hours. Even though the beans are already cooked, the flavor of the mirapoix and stock need to soak into the beans.
Notes
Serve garnished with limes, cilantro, and vegan cheese. (we use daiya)
In the American Southwest, chile peppers flourish between September and October. In New Mexico, they are sold by the bushel, not the pound. Sacks of green, and then red chiles appear in the markets–and for around $20.00 you can take that bushel home.
The chiles being so abundant need to be preserved. Only the most mature plant, the Red Chile (New Mexico, Cayenne), is suitable for preserving. Green chiles are an immature fruit, and carry too much moisture to go through the sun drying process.
The best way to dry chiles is on screens. In the past they were dried on the flat rooftops of adobe houses. After two or so days in the sun, the pods are strung together by the stems, and hung in doorways. This is the Chile Ristra. The chiles need to continue drying in a well-ventilated area. Then they can be used year round to make sauces, added into soups and stews, and ground into chile powder. Dried in this manner, the chiles can last up to two years.
Usually when I research a specific food, I’ll come across some kind of legend or myth about their beginnings. I found only two interesting stories about Chile Ristras. When the Ristra is hung in a doorway, it is an invitation to visitors. Another is that they help provide an abundant harvest for the coming year. There seems to be an older legend that the Indigenous folks of New Mexico hung them on their canoes to ward off evil. I have not confirmed this legend springs from a reliable source.
“Ristra” means “string” in Spanish. Chile Ristra then translates into “a string of chiles.” These days, the Chile Ristra is primarily decorative and is available in just about every kind of ceramic, fabric, plastic, or plaster mold. It is engraved, cast in silver and bronze, and seen in paintings and graffiti. The Chile Ristra, along with cowboy boots and the Saguaro Cactus, has come to symbolize the American Southwest. It is this image of hanging chiles that is largely responsible for the Cult of the Chile Motif.
As you know, I love chiles in all varieties and in almost every kind of food. The Chile Ristra is one of my favorite images, hanging in the lone doorway of an adobe house on a Mesa in the High Desert, with the sun setting and a few wispy clouds in the background. Of course, there is a mountain, off in the distance somewhere, and a shadow figure in the doorway, smoking.