A tale of two red beans

Today is Super Bowl Sunday and one of the traditions is to have chili on Super Bowl Sunday.  Because our oldest child is mostly a vegetarian, I decided to make both beef chili and vegetarian chili.  The beef chili was a traditional Chili Con Carne.  About 24 years ago I won the chili contest at our neighborhood grocery store using the following, and every time I make chili I vary ever so slightly from it.  The secret ingredient is definitely the teaspoon of cinnamon:

Chili Con Carne

1 pound lean ground beef
2 15-oz cans red kidney beans
1 medium onion
4-5 cloves of garlic
1 15-oz can tomato sauce
 2 teapoon chili powder
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon hot sauce or cayenne pepper
salt and pepper to taste (I usually don't need this)

Using a little cooking oil or olive oil, saute ground beef, onion, and garlic until cooked.  Add kidney beans and tomato sauce.   Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes.  Add chili powder, cinnamon, and hot sauce or cayenne pepper.  Simmer for another 1 to 1-1/2 hours.  Add salt and pepper if needed.

Top with parmesan cheese, shredded cheddar, and/or sour cream if desired.

The vegetarian version substitutes the ground beef with mushrooms, green peppers, and diced tomatoes.  This time I used sliced white button mushrooms and canned diced tomatoes.

The other red bean dish I made today was a traditional Cantonese red bean dessert soup.  A friend who recently spent several months working in Beijing was over for dinner this past week.  He mentioned that every morning, he buys red bean porridge from a street vendor for breakfast.  That inspired me to make the red bean dessert soup.  I didn't have lotus seeds but had dried orange peel.  Here's the recipe.  It was an interesting harmony and an interesting contrast to have a Chinese dessert made with small red beans and a Tex-Mex American dessert made with the largest of the red beans on the same day.

Here is the red bean soup recipe:

Red Bean Dessert Soup

1 cup small red beans (Azuki beans), soaked overnight and then drained
1/4 cup lotus seeds (optional)
1 dried orange or tangerine peel (optional)
6 cups water
6 tablespoons brown sugar

Boil the water.  Add the red beans, lotus seeds, and orange peel.  Bring to a boil again and simmer for 1.5 hours.  Add brown sugar (may need more or less brown sugar depending on how much water has boiled off.)  The beans should be very tender and the consistency of the soup should be thick.