Innovative Gourmet Flavor Combinations: My Prize-Winning "Most Unusual" Mexican-African Chili

Innovative Gourmet Flavor Combinations

Welcome! I've always enjoyed unusual flavor combinations. I am committed to continuing this pleasure, while eating healthy. I hope this blog will allow me to share ideas for eating healthy without losing the excitement of innovative recipes.

I am a follower of the diet plan of Dr. Eric Berg, which in my case means gluten-free, alkaline, low-fat; my health and figure have improved vastly with this. This also fits with raw-food, vegetarian, and Weston Price (nutrient-dense), D'Adamo's Eat Right For Your Type, the Perricone Weightloss Diet, and the proportions follow Barry Sears's 40-30-30 Zone Diet. Organic, ecologic, and local-eating are also guiding principles. (Interesting how they all overlap.)

But looking around the Net, and in books, a lot of what's offered for "gluten-free" eating is versions of baked goods, and imitations of wheat dishes like pizza and burritos. You won't find that here. This site will present a complete re-thinking of how to be "gluten-free".

And followers of chef Michael Roberts and khymos, as well as lovers of Japanese creativeness (as in Iron Chef) should also find gourmet ideas here. The recipes will not just echo American cooking, but present new combinations.

Some of the reasons for this way of eating are: autism, perhaps aspergers, "celiac disease", obesity, perhaps cancer and who knows what else. You won't find the word "disease" used here though. As D'Adamo explains, a large part of the world's population (mostly with "O-blood type") never got the genes to adapt to eating the new foods of wheat, etc that came into the diet during the Neolithic. So don't call it a disease! We are actually an older human type. We're not sick; we just don't have that new-fangled adaption that some folks have. And looking into traditional diets shows that much of the world did not have wheat until very recently, and got along just fine. I know I'm eating quite well. I don't miss gluten at all.

Enough! Welcome to my kitchen . . .

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

My Prize-Winning "Most Unusual" Mexican-African Chili

hamburger - 1/2 lb (or sausage, or any other meat you prefer)

onion - 1/2

garlic - 3-4 BIG + garlic power

pinto beans - 1 can

red pepper seeds - about a tsp

chili - 1 1/2 TB

cumin 1 tsp (or more)(gives curry-ish flavor)

cinnamon

nutmeg - FRESH GROUND (I am a nut for fresh ground nutmeg!)

red wine - as needed to keep the soupy consistency, probably about 1 cup

vinegar - ditto, it also makes the beans taste good

chocolate

worcestershire sauce - a bunch, to taste

italian dressing

the "unusual" ingredients:

cilantro - half a bunch at least

nopalitos (prickly pear cactus, sabra) - preserved in a bottle, from a Mexican tienda)

tomatillos - from my garden

bell pepper

and the "secret" ingredient:

achiote or annatto seeds, from African and Brazilian cooking

(fabulous in Feijoado Black Beans) - you heat the beans in oil,

which turns red as the flavor dissolves into it, then USE THE OIL ONLY

(strain the seeds out, they're hard and unchewable).

This stuff makes beans taste great, a West African secret.