Rosemary Chili – What?

Dehydrated COOKED Pinto Beans

This idea came to me after I made some Sicilian-styled spaghetti sauce suggested by my friend Joyce at Octoberfarm.com. It was absolutely delicious and, as usual, I had leftovers. What to do - what to do? The small problem was that I didn't have enough to actually make a meal for two people; but, I did have enough to act as a base for a different dish. Shades of Wendy's! (They make their chili from leftover burgers.) "Let's make a chili," I said to my dog, Angel, who amiably wagged her tail and make me feel terribly smart.


Now, if you took a peek at Joyce's recipe, you know she starts by steeping her Rosemary in a quart of warm water for a couple of hours. Boy, is that a great step. I hope you try it. The only difference between her recipe and mine for the spaghetti sauce was that I didn't have two pounds of ground beef on hand, so I ground up two pounds of top round steak.


To make my chili, I added one small can of tomato sauce to the one and a half cups of leftover spaghetti sauce, one small can of kernel corn, a tablespoon of tomato paste, and a cup and a half of dehydrated cooked pinto beans. [NOTE: it's worth repeating that I used dehydrated cooked pinto beans and not simply dehydrated beans. If I had just used the dehydrated beans, I would've had to soak them overnight and then cook them before adding to my chili. Because the pinto beans had already been cooked before being dehydrated, they rehydrated during the cooking.] But, because of adding the beans, I had to add an equal portion of liquid and used a cup and a half of leftover Rosemary water. The Rosemary Chili was born!


Everyone who tried it at Midtown market said they enjoyed it and, of course, added that they would have never thought of doing it, that way. Frankly, neither would I, had I not had the leftover Sicilian spaghetti sauce. Thank you, Joyce, for opening a whole new culinary door for me.