FolkFoods Veggie Crumble Recipe Rocks!

Crisp Fall Air Calls for Chili!

Happy Fall everyone! I am writing this note two days before the last Farmers’ Market of this season! It is amazing to think about how far we’ve come, and amazing to imagine all of the plans that we have. Truthfully, I can’t even believe that we made it through all of the markets, which were amazing! And a lot of fun. Shana and I have talked about how the best parts of the entire experience were hearing people’s feedback, seeing repeat customers, and sharing time with all of the market vendors. Farmers’ Markets are wonderful; we are definitely going to miss all of the bountiful, fresh and delicious foods. We hope to maintain relationships with many of our new friends and are excited to keep the FolkFoods ball rolling.

A little comment on that: we are committed to the future of FolkFoods. We are right now working on production efficiency, finding a good layout and design person, web designer, and market/distribution person. It is all coming together. Any ideas that you all have, please do share! But more on the business when I write again (I look forward to having the time to begin writing at least weekly again after this weekend!)

For now, if you’ve been to the market in the last few weeks you may have noticed that we have been selling cups of the best darn Veggie Chili in the world. It really is, I am not exaggerating. Alas, I can not take credit for it (other than the fact that it uses our Veggie Crumble.) As the Fall drew closer, Shana and I were talking about how we could finish off the Market season with something new to keep people excited. We also wanted to highlight the Veggie Crumble because we have temporarily run out of the packages of Veggie Patties for sale (we are still doing sandwiches with them – the soon to be famous Ruby and the beloved Benny, and the On The Rise Bakery still has them on their menu, so don’t despair, friends!) Anyway, as we were talking, we found a crumpled note deep in our mailbox, a note that we hadn’t noticed ever before. Below is a copy of that note.

We hope that you will try out this recipe and share it with others. I think that it would make the old man proud!
(I have added some comments in a different color)

O.K., so I am sitting here in the mountain cabin, anticipating the arrival of the North winds. I remember the cold artic-like nights and frigid days. Hot coffee alone doesn’t help to start the old bones to uncurl. I rack what’s left of my mind and kinda remember an olde recipe. I rummaged thru the spice rack, veggie corner and see that all ingredients are available to fend off the future cold. Did I mention that I was going to cook a chili? No? Well that’s what I’m doing. . I recall that on one of my journeys to the south, I met a young couple, patty people or something. They were passionate, informed and had a lot of hair between the two of them. I bought some of their products and thought that they might fair well in a chili. Well, I found the Veggie Crumble and their Master Sauce. FolkFoods, yup that was the name. Nice folks too, they were. (Quiet yoda)

So here it is, Poppi Neshky’s New York Red Hot Chili. Try it and have fun, change it if you must and enjoy.

Ingredients:
· 1 large Vidalia onion or 2 medium onions (I actually used sweet yellow onions)
· 2 Italian frying peppers or 1 large green or red bell pepper (I used 2 small red and 2 small green Italian peppers and I roasted 1 of each of them)
· 4 to 5 cloves of garlic (I have to admit that I used almost an entire head, but it was a small one)
· 24oz of Veggie Crumble
· 40 oz of canned pureed tomatoes
· 30 oz of diced tomatoes (canned or fresh)
· Veggie soup stock- 1 cup
· 1 teaspoon of Master Sauce(add more to taste )
· 1 tablespoon of oregano(Mexican if you have it , make sure to grind it fine )
· 1 tablespoon of paprika (sweet or hot your call)
· 2 tablespoons of cumin(ground )
· 2 tablespoons of mild chili powder
· 1 tablespoon of chipotle powder
· 1 tablespoon of green chili powder (I couldn’t find this)
· (I added about ¼ a small bar of 70% dark chocolate)
· (I also added about ¼ tsp fresh ground cinnamon – not enough to make it cinnamon-y, but just enough to bring out the tomato flavors more strongly)
· (I was feeling frisky and added about a ½ tablespoon of maple syrup – it worked out well!)
· salt and pepper to taste
· 2 -15 oz cans of red kidney beans drained and rinsed
· 1 cup of corn niblets (optional) (I didn’t use this because I didn’t have any corn and I wasn’t liking yellow that day.)

Method:
1. Onion/ peppers/garlic can be diced, minced, rough cut (I prefer diced for better blending of stuff)
2. Take big chili pot/kettle and add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and on a low flame, sauté onion/peppers/garlic until liquids start to ooze out.
3. Add all the spices above including the FolkFoods Master Sauce.
4. While that is happening take a sip of your favorite libation.
5. Add salt/pepper here.
6. Add 1 cup veggie stock here.
7. Take another sip and stir to blend, keeping a low flame.
8. Add all of the tomatoes here and stir around, smiling.
9. Heat all of this through until your kitchen starts smelling real nice, you start feeling really good and the sauce just begins to bubble.
10. Stir FolkFoods Veggie Crumble into pot, after 3 minutes, check the consistency (you might need more liquid, if so add water beer, wine or veggie stock. You might want it thicker and meatier, if so, than add more FolkFoods Veggie Crumble.
11. Cook for about 10 minutes on low flame.
(12. Add maple syrup, chocolate, and (taste first) more FolkFoods Master Sauce.)
12. Cook for another 10 minutes stirring often. Add the beans stirring gently. Cook for about 25 minutes.

Ready to serve. You can serve it alone (for the purists) or over rice with mild cheese, oyster crackers, or diced sweet onion. Goes well with cold beer, red zinfandel, shiraz, iced tea, etc.

Poppi Neshky