Chili pibil

I had a craving for a chili with a cocoa base, and this hit the spot. It reminded me of cochinita pibil, although it has little in common with it--hence the name.

1 1/4 lb "German" sausage from Whole Foods (prefer Andouille if available)

1 lb fresh tomatoes

1 ripe red bell pepper

1 large Spanish onion, chopped

1 head garlic, crushed

~10 oz dried small red beans, cooked to medium tenderness

~3/4 cup frozen sweet corn kernels

1 tbsp. cocoa

1 tbsp. paprika

Cinnamon (by eyeball--probably <1 tsp)

Cumin (by eyeball--about 1/2 as much as cinnamon)

Olive oil for saute

What I actually did:

1. Shred tomatoes and pepper using a hand grater or food processor.

2. Heat a heavy iron stew pot to med-high.

3. Uncase sausage into pot, and put casings in. Add spices and cocoa; sear. Remove from pot and set aside.

4. Put in olive oil and let heat briefly. Add onions and garlic. Spices had stuck to bottom, so scraped to deglaze with water that onions were casting off. This was a little dicey.

5. When onions were moderately well-cooked, put in tomatoes, pepper, meat mixture and all remaining ingredients. Brought to a simmer, reduced to low and let cook, covered, for 10 minutes.

I served this with shredded cabbage, quinoa and Louisiana Hot Sauce. It was excellent. I'd probably put the spices when the onions were almost finished, so that they could still dry-cook a little bit but not cake onto the bottom of the pan. The corn looked distracting but the added sweetness was pleasant. Perhaps grated carrots could serve the same purpose. I wish I could have made the whole thing a deeper hue of reddish brown.