This is really more of an “instructional” than a recipe, as chili can be made so many different ways. But no matter how you make it, chili is only as good as the basic ingredients you use and the techniques you use to prepare them and add them to the mix.

Unless I am making chili for the Congressional Chili Cook-Off, which I did once for two different members of Congress (one of whom actually won the contest with my chili), I make chili according to a fairly simple procedure.

The best way to start is with 3 pounds of market ground beef and 1 pound of flavorful sweet or hot sausage. Brown all of the meat well in small batches and drain each batch thoroughly. (With beef from Angelic Beef, you may need a little oil in the pan.) Drain off any fat in the pan and add about 3 tablespoons of fresh oil. Sauté your diced vegetables in the oil till soft.

For the amount of meat suggested, I use 1 medium onion, 1 small bulb of fennel, 1 small green pepper, 2 jalapeño peppers and 3 cloves of garlic. Dice the onion, fennel and green pepper and finely chop the jalapeños and garlic. (The amount of seeds you include will affect the hotness of the chili.) Add the browned beef back to the pan and stir in one large can of diced tomatoes and about three cups of good-quality beef broth or, better yet, your own beef stock made from market soup bones.

Add 1 tablespoon each dried oregano, basil and ground cumin and 2 tablespoons of your favorite chili powder. Bring to a boil over medium heat; lower the heat to a simmer and cook the chili for 45 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste and add additional herbs or spices as desired. Add additional broth if needed. Stir in 2 cans of good-quality drained and rinsed beans of your choice and simmer for another 15–30 minutes until thickened. Improve on this by using some of Heritage Farm’s dried beans, rinsed, soaked and precooked — canned beans, even the best, add a sweetness that is unnecessary.

This chili has a great flavor and consistency and only gets better when reheated. It is good for Cincinnati chili when served over some pasta with grated cheddar cheese and chopped green onions.

Visit our markets this Super Bowl weekend for these special deals from our vendors.

Both Markets (Oakton and Prince William County)

Betty’s Chips and Salsa will offer a special on chips and salsas and will send a new item for your big bash: queso dip, either vegetarian or with chorizo. Two bags of chips, two salsas and a guacamole for $20 — a $25 value.

Uncle Roger will bring both cheese and rich French baguettes in addition to his line of gluten-free and sugar-free baked goods.

Oakton

For your dining pleasure as well as party fare, we are thrilled to welcome Blue Dog BBQ for their first appearance this Saturday. They will bring pulled pork, chicken and brisket. Mike and Deborah have wowed our clientele at our Prince William County Sunday market over the last four weeks. They make all their own sides from old family recipes, and they even grow and smoke the chipotle peppers that they use in their dry rub. And they are a lovely couple to boot, with a precious little baby.

The Finger Buffet will offer several sweet and savory platters in three sizes. Give your Super Bowl party some international flair this year with a selection of appetizers.

Your choices:

• Samosa Platter (comes with tamarind chutney)
• Empanada Platter (choice of Beef Picadillo, Spicy Chicken, or Coconut Cinnamon)
• Puff Platter (choice of Mushroom, Artichoke, Apple, or Chocolate)
• Phyllo Platter (choice of Spinach Spanakopita, Sundried Tomato, or Roasted Garlic Tiropita)

Small platter (25 pcs.) — $45
Medium platter (50 pcs.) — $85
Large platter (100 pcs.) — $165

To order, please contact Nancy at (703) 944-6802.

Prince William County

Cakes by Shelby will have cake pops representing Giants and Patriots helmets. Last time I spoke with her, she was trying to figure out how to make them look like footballs. But we will forgive her if she can’t pull that one off — at least until next year!

Directly from Blue Dog BBQ, here’s the latest: “We’re offering special order Wings and Wing Platters served fresh to order on Sunday. We’ll also offer a free side with every 2 lb. order of BBQ.” Please call ahead to order at (703) 542-3638.

Heritage Kettle Korn will offer $1 off their large bags of kettle corn.

In a very old city near the boot-heel of Italy called Matera, this is a very old method of making lamb stew. According to the May 2010 issue of Saveur Magazine, this can also be cooked under a pastry crust, which of course would undermine its name. To make this even more scrumptious, make a beef stock from Angelic Beef soup bones and substitute it for at least half of the water.

• 3 lbs. boneless, trimmed lamb shoulder, cut into 2” cubes
• 2 lbs new potatoes, peeled and cut into 2” pieces
• 1/3 lb. pecorino cheese, cut into ½-inch cubes
• ¼ lb. piece soppressata or spicy salami, cut into ¼-inch cubes
• 2 tsp. crushed red chili flakes
• 4 sprigs thyme
• 2 carrots, cut crosswise into ¼”-coins
• 1 large onion, roughly chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• ½-head curly endive or escarole, roughly chopped
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Combine ingredients in a 5-quart Dutch oven or heavy saucepan with 2¼ cups of water. Cover pan with aluminum foil and then with the lid. Cook over medium-low heat, shaking pan occasionally, until tender and the juices have slightly thickened, about 2½ hours.

Both of these stocks are adapted from Gourmet Magazine. For many years the magazine included a page at the end called the Last Touch, which always had a theme-directed collection of short recipes. The January and February pages were devoted to white sauces and brown sauces and included the basic stocks that would be needed for the sauce recipes than followed. These two stock recipes are the ones I have used for more than 40 years, and they produce great stocks with minimum effort. Especially in the winter, I usually have one or both in the fridge or freezer all the time. I adapted the recipes somewhat, but I left in the quaint language.

White Chicken Stock

In a 5–6 quart kettle, combine a 4-pound fowl with the giblets, if you like, with 3 quarts of water and bring the water to a boil. Reduce the heat to low and skim the froth that rises to the surface. (This is necessary only if you need a very clear broth for aspic or a clear soup.) Add one large onion with two cloves stuck in it; 2 leeks, split and washedl 2 carrots, cut in big chunks; and one stalk of celery, sliced into 3 pieces with some of the leaves. Add a small handful each of fresh thyme and flat-leaf parsley, one bay leaf and a clove of garlic. Simmer the stock, continuing to skim if you wish, for two hours.

Remove the fowl from the kettle and remove the meat in large pieces and return the carcass to the kettle. Simmer for two hours longer, adding some boiling water if necessary to keep the ingredients covered. Strain the stock in a colander lined with cheesecloth and press the solids. Let the stock cool on the counter and refrigerate. The fat will come to the surface and can easily be removed when you need to use the stock.

Stock will keep for some time sealed by the fat; if you are not using all of the stock for a recipe, save the fat, return it to the pot and reheat before cooling and refrigerating the remainder. This applies to your beef stock, too.

Brown Stock (Beef Stock)

In a large baking pan, spread out 4–6lbs of beef shanks and/or meaty soup bones, two large onions and one carrot, all cut into large pieces. Brown meat and vegetables well, turning occasionally, in a preheated very hot oven (450°). Transfer to a 6-quart kettle. Deglaze the roasting pan with 2 cups cold water over high heat, scraping up the brown bits, and add this to the kettle along with 3–4 quarts of cold water, 2 stalks of celery, some fresh thyme and parsley, and a bay leaf. Bring to a boil while skimming the froth and then simmer, uncovered, for 5–6 hours or until reduced to about two quarts.

Strain the stock. If you use meaty bones and want to use the meat in soup or a meat pie, separate the large chunks of beef from the bones after two hours and then return the bones to the stock for the remaining two hours.

I went to a meeting last week — and I am not afraid to admit upfront that I do not normally like meetings — but this one intrigued me enough to draw me to the Arlington Central Library last Thursday morning. It was the first organizing meeting for a Northern Virginia Food Coalition, which would begin to identify food challenges and health problems in our area and advocate for solutions.

The meeting was well-attended by people who can make a difference, and we briefly discussed many issues facing anyone who buys or grows food in this area. However, I came away with one nagging concern for the future of this effort. There was much talk about making food more affordable, but for the kinds of food we should be eating, our food is very affordable and comes pretty close to representing the time, labor and expertise that goes into its production. It is the food we should not be eating that is subsidized to the extent that we are paying for contrived convenience rather than real food.

We need to educate people to buy more locally produced food at prices that represent the true cost of production. We need to change our eating habits and stop buying fast foods, convenience foods, sweetened foods and even in some cases fortified foods and just return to buying real food.

We also need to put food costs into perspective. We do not need to spend money on packaged snacks and bottled drinks, and if we could begin with cutting those out, we would see our grocery bills reduced considerably. This goes for all income groups — in fact, the poor spend more of their food dollar than the better-off on food that is not good for them. We can achieve this re-education through social-welfare programs, workplaces, schools, community organizations and even social media.

What I will not support is an effort to encourage small farmers to donate more food or discount their products for any particular group. I do support gleaning for food that may be left in a field or that cannot be sold the next day by a farmer at a farmers’ market. I would work to encourage more donations of healthy foods from grocery stores, at least while we work on more access to local produce and products. But establishing the value of improving our health by what we eat should be the goal.

If anything, we need to think about ways to better define the costs and benefits of real food with real flavors from real farmers and how those costs and benefits compare to those derived from highly processed food products.

Not surprisingly, I arrived at a contrarian position: If advocates for healthier foods are asking farmers to charge less or to give away their food, we are not on the right track. Maybe I am slowly learning a new perspective — working with farmers will do that to you, I guess! There is an answer out there, and I am happy to have the opportunity to work with folks who are capable of finding it and initiating programs. Many at the meeting are doing that already. I’ll keep you posted; you can count on that.

See you at the market!

This recipe from Nourishing Traditions by Sally Fallon was sampled at our Prince william County market Jan. 29. It was made with chicken from Rainbow Acres Farm and soup bones with lots of meat from Angelic Beef.

• 1 whole free-range chicken or 2 to 3 pounds of bony chicken parts, such as necks, backs, breastbones and wings
• gizzards from one chicken (optional)
• feet from one chicken (optional)
• 4 quarts cold-filtered water
• 2 tablespoons vinegar
• 1 large onion, coarsely chopped
• 2 carrots, peeled and coarsely chopped
• 3 celery sticks, coarsely chopped
• 1 bunch parsley

If you are using a whole chicken, cut off the wings and remove the neck, fat glands, and gizzards from the cavity. By all means, use chicken feet if you can find them — they are full of gelatin. (Jewish folklore considers the addition of chicken feet the secret to successful broth.) Even better, use a whole chicken, with the head on. These may be found at Asian markets. Farm-raised, free-range chickens give the best results. Many battery-raised chickens will not produce stock that gels.

Cut chicken parts into several pieces. (If you are using a whole chicken, remove the neck and wings and cut them into several pieces.) Place chicken or chicken pieces in a large stainless steel pot with water, vinegar and all vegetables except parsley. Let stand 30 minutes to 1 hour. Bring to a boil, and remove the scum that rises to the top. Reduce heat, cover and simmer for 6 to 24 hours. The longer you cook the stock, the richer and more flavorful it will be. About 10 minutes before finishing the stock, add parsley. This will impart additional mineral ions to the broth.

Remove whole chicken or pieces with a slotted spoon. If you are using a whole chicken, let cool and remove chicken meat from the carcass. Reserve for other uses, such as chicken salads, enchiladas, sandwiches or curries. (The skin and smaller bones, which will be very soft, may be given to your dog or cat.) Strain the stock into a large bowl and reserve in your refrigerator until the fat rises to the top and congeals. Skim off this fat and reserve the stock in covered containers in your refrigerator or freezer.

Photo by Gudlyf

This chocolate pound cake was sampled at at our Prince William County market Jan. 29 and was made with El Ceibo cocoa powder, which is sold at the market.

• 3 cups flour
• ½ lb. butter or 2 sticks
• ½ cup Crisco
• 3 cups sugar
• 5 eggs
• ½ cup cocoa
• ½ teaspoon baking powder
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.

Mix together with a whisk the three cups of flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt. Bring a cup of milk to room temperature and add the vanilla to it. Cream the butter and Crisco together until light and fluffy — about 5 minutes with a stand mixer — and then beat in slowly, one at a time, the 5 eggs. Scrape the bowl at this point and beat at high speed for just 30 seconds. Then add the flour in thirds, alternating with the milk in two parts. Stir lightly with a rubber spatula to make sure all ingredients are well mixed; stir a little more with the spatula if necessary until no white streaks remain.

Gently pour or drop by cupfuls into a greased and floured 9- or 10-cup tube cake pan; level with a flexible spatula.

Bake at 325 degrees for 30 minutes; cover with foil and bake 1 hour longer.

NOTE: I have found that I do not have to add the foil in my oven; if you decide to forego the foil, check the cake every thirty minutes through the closed door of the oven. After the first 30 minutes, a pound cake should not be disturbed until about 5 minutes before it should be done. Then you can test it with a thin wooden skewer. When it comes out clean, the cake is done.

Cool in the pan for about 20 minutes and then turn the cake out on a cooling rack or flat serving plate. I use a thin chocolate icing or ganache for this cake and sometimes coat the top and sides with chopped pecans.

The Washington Post stopped by our new location in Prince William County and spent a little while with our Demo Diva, Annie Sidley.

A personal chef trained at L’Academie de Cuisine, Sidley, 44, has been working for Smart Market[s] for about two years. The Bethesda resident began as a musician, playing at the market’s other locations in Oakton, Fairfax, Reston and Centreville. When Jean Janssen, the market’s founder, discovered that Sidley was also a chef, “her little light bulb went off,” Sidley said, and the Demo Diva was formed.

Sidley was already committed to buying local and comfortable with cooking in less-than-ideal conditions, having spent “half of my life living on a boat.” So, cooking outside under a tent didn’t faze her.

“I like the idea of being challenged,” she said.

Read the full article on the Post’s website, and come by the market to see Annie and all of our vendors if you haven’t already!

• 1 pound of sausage (chicken, pork, beef) (cut into slices)
• 1 medium granny smith apple diced
• 1 medium white potato diced
• 1 leek (cleaned and thinly sliced)
• 2 cups fresh spinach
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2–3 T butter
• 1 t dried sage or 1 T fresh sage
• 1 t chipotle or cayenne powder

Melt 1 T of butter in pan and sauté the leeks and sage over medium heat so that they don’t burn. Add potatoes and cook for 5 minutes before adding the apples. Add sausage and cook for about 5–7 minutes more. Add white wine and reduce until it evaporates. Add spinach and cook for 1 minute. Turn off heat and add salt, peppers and remaining butter.

I promised I would talk a little more about the chicken that is available in the grocery store and at farmers’ markets, and I hate to tell you this, but chicken is fast going the way of eggs and milk.

Commercially-raised chickens barely resemble — in looks, taste or texture — the real thing. I know that as a child in Harrisonburg, Va., I probably ate only farm-processed chicken. In fact, though we did not live on a farm, I have a rather traumatic memory of seeing my father swing a chicken to kill it at the farm of one of my many farming relatives. And the fresh milk I drank was brought to town straight from the cow by one or more of those same relatives. The vegetables and eggs arrived the same way — at the door, delivered by the “lady man,” called that because he used that same term for all of his female customers.

We enjoyed this luxury because we lived in a small town in the middle of dairy and small-farm country; most of those farmers were Mennonites, as were many of my relatives on both sides of my family. In short, I grew up eating and drinking real food straight from the farm, and I did not know that there was anything different in the store. In the early ’50s, there probably wasn’t that much difference between real food from the farm and what we bought in our small-town grocery store. But now, there is a significant difference between small-farm-raised meat and produce and what we buy in the average grocery store — and even to some extent in the stores that devote more space to “natural” and “organic” foods. Mainly because those terms can be deceptive.

Take chicken: Chicken that is sold as 100 percent natural is nothing like the chicken available at the farmers’ market — and probably not what you think you are buying. Much of this “natural” chicken is enhanced both before and while it is processed. During processing, chickens from most of the major processors are pumped with salt and water. Un-enhanced chicken or “real” chicken will have 45-60 mg of sodium per four-ounce serving. Plumped chicken has 200-400 mg. The chicken did not need all of that salt to grow and mature, and you don’t need it either.

This 100 percent “natural” chicken will also probably contain additional water and sometimes carrageenan, which helps the chicken hold the water. Since those additives are both found in nature, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has taken us into new definitional territory by declaring that processed chicken can still be all-“natural” if these things are added after the chickens are dead!

Not to mention that you are paying for all that water, salt and carrageenan — you might want to refigure the price per pound on the package. The website of the Truthful Labeling Coalition can enlighten you even more. This is a site supported by chicken producers who do not use these additives.

There is also the matter of genetically engineered fowl. I read recently an opinion column by Matt Ridley in The Wall Street Journal that lauded the fact that we have such chickens and that they grow much faster, which means good things for the environment. Ten years ago, a study done at North Carolina State University found that 85 percent of the “improved” weight gain was attributed to genetics and 15 percent to the feed. But the scientists are surprised that the chickens keep getting bigger, and they don’t know exactly why. It seems that it may be due to genetic mutations. We are so worried about genetically modified fruits and veggies, but do we know anything about what this engineering does to the chicken as a food product? And do hormones have anything to do with this?

One last scary point — that feed that chickens are eating in many, though not all, commercial chicken houses contains arsenic, which could be the underlying reason for the fact that the average American (who now eats more than 90lbs per year of chicken) is routinely exposed to an average of five times the Environmental Protection Agency’s recommended safety limit for arsenic. People who live in areas where chickens are raised on this feed are also exposed through the soil around them, the air they breathe and the water they drink. And it has been documented that people who work with the feed have health risks from the exposure. I learned this by reading an article by Doug Gansler, the attorney general of Maryland, who wants arsenic banned from chicken feed, as it has been in Europe for more than 10 years.

And I don’t even want to talk about the conditions under which these animals are raised, which leads to the need for serious administration of antibiotics. We also ingest antibiotics when we eat chicken from a commercial grower.

But you don’t have to do that; you have alternatives right here is suburban Washington, D.C. Shop at a farmers’ market near you and learn to love a real all-natural chicken that will not make you or anyone else sick and will only make you smile. The roaster we prepared for the holidays from Sally Holdener’s Rainbow Acres Farm in Prince William County, Va., was the prettiest chicken I have ever seen. It was roasted to a beautiful bronze turn in about an hour’s less time than a commercial chicken and was wonderfully moist and full of flavor. And everything about it was REAL!

My best friend’s Mom used to say that food is cheaper than medicine. She said it best — and that was fifty years ago.

Use chicken from the market in this week’s recipe, Roasted Coriander Chicken Thighs with Bacon, Sweet Potatoes and Turnips.

See you at the market!

Photo by kusabi