I made a large batch of the chili a couple of weeks ago, and both Carlo and I loved it. It is so filling, full of flavour, and is obscenely good for you since it is crammed full of veggies and beans. You could eat it just plain, but I think it tastes best over some brown rice or couscous, and then topped with tons of chopped red onion, avocado, sour cream, and a few tortilla chips thrown in there as a little guilty indulgence. We ate all of the first batch and then I made it again the following week, which never happens. Neither one of us complained about eating so much of this chili, which I think stands as a pretty good testament to just how delicious this chili is. I dare you to try it and see what you think! This chili recipe makes enough for 8 meals at 95 cents per serving, toppings extra.

Winter Vegetable Chili, adapted from Food and Wine, February 2010
1/4 cup olive oil
2 onions, chopped
4 medium garlic cloves, grated or very finely chopped
2 large red bell peppers, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 pound butternut squash, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
1 pound carrots, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
2 tablespoons chile powder
2 tablespoons ground cumin
salt
1 28-ounce can peeled whole tomatoes
2 canned chipotles in adobo, plus 2 tablespoons adobo sauce
1 1/2 cups water, plus more water as needed
1 cup frozen sweet corn
1 15-ounce can red kidney beans, drained

In a large Dutch oven, heat the oil. Add the onions and garlic and cook over high heat, stirring, until they slightly softened, about 3 minutes. Add the bell peppers, butternut squash, and carrots and cook, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are lightly browned in spots, about 5 minutes. Stir in the chile powder and cumin and season with salt. Cook for 1 minute.

In a blender, puree the tomatoes and their juices with the chipotle, adobo sauce, and water until it is very smooth. Add the mixture to the casserole along with the frozen corn and kidney beans and bring to a boil. If the chili is too thick, add more water as needed and stir it in well. Cover the pan partially and let the chili simmer over a moderate heat until the vegetables are tender, about 20 minutes. Season with salt. Serve the chili with brown rice, chopped red onions, cilantro, sour cream, avocado, and tortilla chips.

One of the three dishes that he made in the class was this Pineapple Fried Rice, which is a great way to use up leftover rice (or if you are us, we now make extra rice so we can have leftovers for fried rice). Whenever I had previously attempted to make fried rice at home, my rice would always get smushy and not taste anything like it did when I ordered it in restaurants. Rice made the day before or a few days before is the key to any successful fried rice recipe as the rice grains have dried out a bit and hold up better when recooked. Cooking the fried rice over a high heat is also important–I get a bit scared by high heat sometimes and its oil splatters, but it really does get the job done and best mimics the power of restaurant woks.

I love the sweetness of the fresh pineapple against the saltiness of the soy sauce and bacon. This recipe is just a guideline for how to make the fried rice, so be sure to keep on tasting it throughout the cooking process and adding a bit more fish or soy sauce until it tastes just right to you. You can also throw in other meats or veggies into the rice as well if you want. This recipe makes enough fried rice for 4 side dishes at 96 cents per serving.

Pineapple Fried Rice, from Jet Tila at Wazuzu, Wynn Encore
3 tablespoons vegetable cooking oil
3 to 4 garlic cloves
1 tablespoon ginger, peeled and grated
3 tablespoons shallots, diced
1 egg (optional)
4 ounces bacon, diced
4 cups day old rice
2 to 3 tablespoons fish sauce
1 to 2 tablespoons soy sauce
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 1/2 cups pineapple, diced
2 to 3 green onions, chopped
2 teaspoon white pepper
3 tablespoon cilantro leaves, chopped

Pour the oil into a large skillet or wok and swish it around until all of the cooking surface is covered. Pour out the remaining oil and heat the wok over a high heat. Add the garlic, ginger, and shallots and cook them until they are light brown. Add the bacon and cook until the pieces are slightly crisp, around 1 minute. If you want to add an egg to your fried rice, crack it open while cooking the bacon and mix it around until the egg becomes scrambled.

Fold in the day old rice using the back of your spoon so you don’t break the rice grains. Add the fish sauce, soy sauce, sugar, and curry powder, and continue to stir the rice for about a minute. Stir in the pineapple and incorporate it well into the fried rice. Cook the rice for another few minutes, folding all of the ingredients into the mixture. Add the green onions and white pepper, and check your seasonings to see if you need to add more fish or soy sauce. Serve the fried rice with a sprinkle of chopped cilantro on top.

Murgh Makhani (Butter Chicken), from Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s The River Cottage Meat Book

1 1/2 pounds boneless chicken breasts

For the Tikka Marinade:
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons plain yogurt
1 tablespoon lime or lemon juice
2 tablespoons garam masala
2 teaspoons chile powder
2 teaspoons ground mixed spice (some mix of cinnamon, allspice, cloves, nutmeg, and ground ginger)
2 teaspoons ground fenugreek
golf ball-sized piece of fresh ginger, grated
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 to 2 tablespoons peanut or vegetable oil
2 to 4 green chiles, finely chopped

For the Tomato Sauce:
1 28-ounce can chopped tomatoes
small nugget of fresh ginger, grated
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 to 3 small green chiles, finely chopped
5 cloves
1 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup water

For the Makhani Sauce:
1/2 cup butter
2 teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons tomato puree
4 teaspoons honey
2/3 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon fenugreek
1 tablespoon lime juice
1 teaspoon black pepper

Mix together all of the ingredients for the tikka marinade and then add the chicken. Let the chicken marinate for at least 4 hours in the fridge, although overnight is preferable if possible.

Take out the marinated chicken from the fridge and grill it when you are ready to make the curry. We put our chicken on the bbq, but you can easily cook it on a griddle, or even roast the chicken breasts in the oven.

Put all the ingredients for the tomato sauce into a pan and bring it to a boil. Reduce the heat and gently simmer the sauce for 20 minutes until it has nicely thickened. Rub the sauce through a sieve and set aside the strained sauce.

To complete the sauce, melt the butter in a large pan, add the ground cumin, and let it sizzle gently for a couple of minutes. Add the reserved tomato sauce, and bring it back to a gentle simmer and cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomato puree, honey, cream, fenugreek, lime juice, and black pepper, and continue to simmer, stirring gently, for about 5 minutes, until the sauce is rich, thick, and creamy. Finally, add the cooked chicken, mix and heat through, simmering for a final 5 minutes.

Serve the curry with plain white rice and lots of naan bread to soak up all that creamy sauce.

This Jamie Oliver recipe for goulash isn’t really like any authentic Hungarian goulash that I have tasted, but the combination of all of the peppers and the smokiness of the paprika with melt-in-your-mouth tender pork make for a delicious dinner regardless. Plus your kitchen will smell incredible for the three hours that the goulash is transforming in your oven. This goulash recipe makes enough for 8 dinners at $3.06 per serving.

Spicy Pork and Chilli Pepper Goulash, adapted from Jaime Oliver
2-3 lbs pork roast or pork shoulder off the bone, in one piece, skin off, fat left on
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
olive oil
2 red onions, peeled and finely sliced
2 fresh red chillies, deseeded and finely chopped
2 generously heaped tablespoons mild smoked paprika
2 teaspoons ground caraway seeds
small bunch of fresh oregano, leaves picked
5 bell peppers, best if you use a mixture of red, green, and yellow
1 jar of roasted red peppers, drained, peeled and chopped
1 14-ounce can of plum tomatoes
4 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1 pot of sour cream
zest and juice of 1 lemon
small bunch of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped

Preheat your oven to 350¬?F. This recipe calls for a deep, ovenproof dutch oven that you first heat up on the stove over a medium heat to brown the pork. I found my pork loin roast on sale at Whole Foods for $5.99 a pound, and it was a really nice piece of meat.

Score the fat on the pork roast in a criss-cross pattern all the way through to the meat and then season the pork generously with salt and pepper. Pour some olive oil into the dutch oven and let it heat up. Add the pork, fat side down, and cook it over a medium heat for about 15 minutes until the fat renders out and the pork forms a nice browned crust. Turn the pork over halfway through the cooking process so the other side can brown, and when it is finished, remove the pork from the dutch oven and set it aside.

Add the onions, chilli, paprika, caraway seeds, oregano, and a good pinch of salt and pepper to the pork drippings in the dutch oven. Turn the heat down and gently cook the mixture for 10 minutes, then add the sliced peppers, roasted peppers, and canned tomatoes.

Place the pork back into the pot in the middle of the peppers and then pour in enough water to just cover the meat. Add the vinegar to the pot, and bring everything to a boil on the stove top. Put the lid on top of the dutch oven, then place it in the preheated oven for 3 hours.

The meat is cooked when it is very tender and you can break it up easily when pulled apart with two forks. When the pork is cooked, remove the meat from the stew and shred it with a couple of forks. Place the shredded pork back into the goulash and dinner is almost ready to serve. Taste the goulash and season with extra salt and pepper as needed.

To make a nice condiment for the goulash, stir together the sour cream, lemon zest, and most of the parsley in a little bowl. Squeeze in some fresh lemon juice until you get a nice lemon-y taste.

Serve the goulash over cooked rice, and top each dish with a sprinkle of chopped parsley and a big dollop of the lemon sour cream.

This one takes a little while, and calls for some preparation. The best thing to do is get all of your ingredients ready before you start cooking (what fancy chef-type people call Mise en place, but I refer to as “my meeeeeez”). That will make the whole process smoother, and give you time to enjoy the nice bottle of Rioja (or 3) you bought to go along with the paella. When in Spain, right?

Here’s the recipe:

1 large head garlic, with excess outer skin rubbed off
1 2/3 cups canned chickpeas (reserve the liquid)
about 5 1/2 cups broth, preferably a mixture of chicken and beef broths
1/4 teaspoon crumbled thread saffron
1/2 pound Spanish chorizo (We had a couple of different kinds, courtesy of further La Tienda birthday presents)
8 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium potato, peeled and cut in 1/4-inch slices
2 medium tomatoes, cut in 1/2-inch slices
sea salt
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1 medium green pepper, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 medium to large tomato, skinned, seeded, and finely chopped
2 tablespoons minced parsley
1/2 teaspoon sweet paprika, preferably Spanish smoked
3 cups of Arborio short-grain rice

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F. Place the whole head of garlic in a baking dish and bake while preparing the rice.

Mash 2/3 cup of the chickpeas through a strainer into a saucepan. Combine the broth and about 1/2 cup of chickpea liquid to make 6 cups. Pour into a saucepan, stir in the saffron, and keep hot over the lowest heat.

Heat a paella pan or 15-inch greased, shallow fireproof casserole dish. Add the chorizo and brown lightly on both sides. Drain on paper towels, remove to a warm platter, and drain off any fat in the pan. Heat the oil and slowly fry the potatoes, turning once, until brown and cooked through, about 5 minutes. Drain the potatoes on paper towels and transfer to warm plate.

Raise the heat, add the tomato slices, and saute 1-2 minutes, turning once. Remove to the platter. Sprinkle the tomatoes and potatoes with salt to taste.

Add the onion, green pepper, and minced garlic to the pan and cook slowly until softened. Stir in the chopped tomato and parsley, and cook slowly for 5 minutes. Add the paprika, then stir in the rice, coating well with the pan mixture.

Pour in the hot broth and the remaining 1 cup chickpeas. Bring to a boil, taste for salt, and boil about 3 minutes to reduce the liquid–just enough so that the garnishes will sit on top. Remove the whole head of garlic from the oven and place in the center of the paella pan. Arrange the potatoes, tomatoes, and sausages attractively over the rice.

Bake about 15 minutes until the rice is almost al dente. Remove to a warm spot, cover with foil, and let sit for 5 minutes.

This recipe feeds 6 people at $2.32 per serving. And for $2.32, you get a whole lot of awesome per serving. I really love this dish — it’s great when it’s straight out of the oven, and it is excellent for leftovers. One sticking point might be finding the chorizo. It’s important to get Spanish chorizo, not Mexican chorizo. If you can’t get your hands on that, the spiciest Italian salami or pepperoni you can find will work, or in a pinch, Italian sausage.

Here’s your Rioja: if you’ve got a Fresh & Easy in the vicinity, get some of their Reflexion Rioja Reserva. It’s $9.99, and it’s got 90 Parker points. Can’t beat that, at least not until we can find some O. Fournier Urban Uco in Vegas… if you don’t have Fresh & Easy, I’d recommend Las Rocas Garnacha. Or, hell, Sangre de Toro. Get in the spirit!