What We’re Cooking This Week: Chili With Eggplant

Once upon a time, my high school cafeteria served chili on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and a few young hippies sat together to eat bowls of it. We’d talk about Star Trek and how to avoid getting drafted, and wipe up the last of the barely spiced, tomato-y chili with those soft, buttery Parker House rolls that only the lunch ladies knew how to make. We called ourselves the Tuesday-Thursday Chili Club.

That cafeteria chili, a soupy bowl of kidney beans, canned tomato purée and ground beef, bore little resemblance to the chili consumed by the Indigenous peoples of Central America. The 16th century Franciscans described game stews flavored with what’s been called the mother of all chiles, the tiny but very spicy chiltepín. Spanish colonialism brought cattle to what we call Mexico, and air-dried salted beef called tasajo became the go-to meat in carne con chile.

While beans have been flavored with chiles for centuries, narrow-minded proponents of so-called Texas-style chili insist that true chili contains only beef. Like all arguments over what’s authentic when it comes to food, this one is stupid.

(An aside on chile vs. chili: What people call the fruits of the Capsicum family varies significantly depending on geography. I use the Spanish word chile to refer to the dried version, either whole or powdered, and the English chili when I mean a bowl of something mostly flavored with chile.)

Anyway, the aging members of the TTCC still get together occasionally. For the most part, our taste has improved, and we’d all rather eat chili that tastes better than the cafeteria’s version. A couple have stopped eating meat, but it’s not that hard to make a spicy bowl of beans vegetarian.

Recipe

1 eggplant, cut into bite-sized pieces

2–3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 teaspoon kosher-style sea salt

1 onion, chopped

1 jalapeño, chopped

4 cloves garlic, finely chopped

1-inch piece of fresh ginger, finely chopped

1–2 tablespoons chile powder

1–2 teaspoons ground cumin

1–2 teaspoons dried oregano

3–4 roma tomatoes, chopped (1 14-ounce can)

¼ cup cornmeal

½ cup water or vegetable broth

2–3 cups cooked beans, preferably small red or pink beans

Juice from ½ lime or 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar

Grated cheddar cheese, sliced green onions, and tortilla chips to serve.

Cook the eggplant in the olive oil and salt in a Dutch oven or deep skillet over medium-high until it starts to brown, about 10 minutes. Add the onion and jalapeño and cook for another 5 minutes, then add the garlic, ginger, and spices; cook for another few minutes. Add the tomatoes and cornmeal along with the water. Add the beans, let the mix come to a boil, then cover and reduce the heat to a gentle simmer. Cook for another 30-45 minutes, remove from the heat, and stir in the lime juice. Taste and add salt if needed.