Chili-Fritoque

Sort of a precursor to nachos, chili-fritoque is a great appetizer made with broken tortilla chips, chili con carne and pinto beans, topped with cheese and jalapeños.

Pronounced free-TOKΕ-ay, this dish is found on the World War II–era menu of the Original Mexican Restaurant in San Antonio. It was founded in 1899 and sadly closed in 1960. (There another restaurant by the same name now used by permission of the Farnsworths, the restaurant’s owners.) 

The original recipe included just beans but there was also a version called chiltoque with chili con carne instead of the beans. You know I had to take it one step farther and use both. As I was writing up this post, I google searched Chili-Fritoque and I'm not the only one who made this good decision.

Personally, why would anyone order just beans and cheese or just chili and cheese when you could add all three to this tasty corn chip dish? 

Chili-Fritoque

The recipe is adapted from The Texas Cookbook by Arthur and Bobbie Coleman, published in 1949.  For the chili con carne, homemade is always better than canned. I use this recipe here: Classic Chili con Carne. An oldie but goodie. 

Ingredients

2 cups or 360g cooked pinto beans (canned are fine but rinse them!)

2 cups or 540g chili con carne

2 cups (or more) broken tortilla chips (I'm a fan of more.)

2-4 small dried red chili peppers

1 cup or 113g grated cheddar or American cheese

For serving: sliced jalapeños 

Method

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C. 

Use a coffee grinder or mortar and pestle to grind your dried chili peppers finely.

Mix the beans, chili con carne and ground chili peppers together in a large bowl. 

If you are baking all the chili-fritoque servings at once, mix in all the broken tortilla chips. 

If not, separate the mixture and the broken chips and only mix the chips into the portions that you are ready to bake and serve. Place the chip/mixture in individual baking dishes.

Divide cheese evenly, sprinkling a fair share over each one. 

Bake in your preheated oven just long enough to melt the cheese and heat the beans and chili through, about 10-15 minutes. You can broil right at the end if you’d like the cheese to brown a little. Top with a few slices of jalapeño. 

Serve with extra chips and a spoon for scooping, if desired. 

Enjoy! 

Tomorrow is National Corn Chip Day so my Sunday Fun Day friends and I are sharing recipes that will help you celebrate this foodie holiday. Check out the links below: 

• Chili-Fritoque from Food Lust People Love
• Frito Corn Salad from Amy's Cooking Adventures
• Onolicious Furikake Chex Mix from Culinary Cam
• Slow Cooker Cheesy Chicken and Frito Casserole from Karen's Kitchen Stories
• Spicy Korean Chicken Fritos from Palatable Pastime
• Vegetarian Mexican Tortilla Soup from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Vegetarian Nachos from Mayuri's Jikoni
• Walking Tacos/Tacos in a Bag from Sneha's Recipe

 

We are a group of food bloggers who believe that Sunday should be a family fun day, so every Sunday we share recipes that will help you to enjoy your day. If you're a blogger interested in joining us, just visit our Facebook group and request to join.

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Bourbon Baked Beans #BloggerCLUE

Tangy, spicy, rich, and loaded with bacon, these bourbon spiked baked beans are the perfect side dish for a barbecue or even to serve as the main course with a loaf of crusty bread.

I must confess that here in Dubai, we don’t grill as often during the summer as we do the rest of the year because with temperatures that soar into the 120s°F (49-50°C) the last thing we want to do is light a fire and stand over it. But an assignment is an assignment and this month’s Blogger C.L.U.E. theme is “barbecue and grilling.” So I headed over to learn more about Lisa, the talented writer, photographer and cook behind Authentic Suburban Gourmet and poke around in her blog, as instructed, to hunt for dishes that fit our theme. A search for the word “grill” turned up eight pages of recipes! Clearly this bonafide Bay Area foodie, as Lisa refers to herself, is keen on grilling everything from peaches to cauliflower to flank steak. I was just about choose one of those lovely dishes and take one for the team when that same search for “grill” revealed this flavorful baked bean recipe with barbecue sauce. Sure, I'd have to turn the oven on, but that’s why, on the eighth day, God created air conditioning for the great indoors.

The only ingredient changes I made to Lisa’s recipe were to start with dried beans instead of canned (but I’ll leave both amounts in case canned is easier for you – just rinse them well) and I added a couple of hot peppers. Because we like that kind of heat all year long. She didn’t say what sort of vessel to bake them in so I took the liberty of inaugurating my brand new bean pot (Isn't it pretty?) and sealing the loose-fitting lid with a flour-water dough.

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups or 315g dried white beans = 4 1/2 cups cooked beans or 3 cans (15 oz 425g) white beans
8 slices smoked bacon
1 large onion
2 hot red chilies - optional
1 cup or 240ml ketchup
1 cup or 240ml traditional barbecue sauce (I used one labeled BOLD.)
1/4 cup or 60ml bourbon
3 tablespoons Dijon mustard
3 tablespoons molasses
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons honey
Salt and pepper to taste

Optional: dough seal for bean pot
1 cup or 125g flour
Lukewarm water to make soft dough (I used about 1/2 cup or 120ml.)

Method
If you are going to cook your own beans, pick through them carefully and remove any stones or small clumps of dirt and any beans that have holes or discolorations. Even the best quality beans might have stones since they are usually sorted by machines and the occasional non-bean gets through. Either soak them overnight in cool water or cover them amply with boiling water in a heatproof bowl and leave to soak for one hour.

After an hour covered with boiling water: All plumped up.

If you are using canned beans, pour them into a colander and rinse well.

When soaking time is over, pour off the bean water and put the beans in a pot, covered with fresh cool water. Bring to the boil then lower the flame to simmer and cook the beans until they are tender. Depending on how old (and, therefore, dried) your beans are, this could take an hour or an hour and a half.

Meanwhile, you can get on with the rest of the dish. Chop your onion finely. Do the same with the hot peppers, if using. Cut the bacon into small strips.

Fry the bacon until crispy. Remove it from the frying pan with a slotted spoon and place on some paper towels to drain. I highly recommend hiding this bacon bounty or you might find it all gone before the beans are tender if you leave it irresistibly, invitingly exposed on the kitchen counter.

Spoon or pour out all but a couple of tablespoons of the bacon fat from the frying pan (I recommend saving the fat in a jar in the refrigerator for another use.) then use that same frying pan to sauté the chopped onions and peppers until they are softened.

When your beans are tender, drain them and preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

Tender beans

Put your cooked or rinsed canned beans in your bean pot or another ovenproof dish. Measure out the rest of your ingredients and add them into the bean pot or dish.

Don’t forget to add in the bacon, onions and chilies.

Stir everything well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

If you are using a casserole dish, bake it in your preheated oven for about 45 minutes.

If you are using a bean pot, you might want to add a dough seal. Simply put your flour in a small bowl and add enough lukewarm water to form a soft dough. Knead it for a few short minutes.

Roll the dough into a long snake that will reach right the way around the circumference of your bean pot lid. Secure it by pressing it to the rim of the bean pot itself. Gently lay the lid on top and press ever so slightly down.

Bake in your preheated oven for about 45 minutes. Let it cool for about 10 minutes and then loosen the dough seal with a pointy knife.

Remove the lid and serve up the bourbon baked beans!

Enjoy!

Whether you are looking for great grilling recipes or dishes to make for a barbecue, our Blogger C.L.U.E. (Cook, Learn, Undertake, Eat) Society has got you covered this month.

• Artichoke and Green Chile Stuffed Mushrooms by Jean from Lemons and Anchovies
• Arugula Salad with Figs, Prosciutto, Walnuts, and Parmesan by Kathy from Bakeaway with Me
• Bourbon Baked Beans by Stacy from Food Lust People Love
• Classic Southern Potato Salad by Alice from A Mama, Baby and Shar-pei in the Kitchen
• Cornish Game Hens with Citrus, Herb and Whiskey Glaze by Kate from Kate's Kitchen
• Crinkle Sugar Cookies by Lisa from Authentic Suburban Gourmet
• Crockpot Chili Dog Sauce by Kelli from Kelli's Kitchen
• Grilled Asian-Style Chicken by Christy from Confessions of a Culinary Diva
• Grilled Chicken Shish Tawookby Sue from A Palatable Pastime
• Grilled Salmon with Mojo de Ajo by Kathy from A Spoonful of Thyme
• Grilled Southwestern Chicken Salad by Aly from Cooking in Stilettos
• Grilled Zucchini with Sea Salt and Lemon Zest by Christiane from Taking on Magazines
• Lemintini by Anna from annaDishes
• Marinated Grilled Flank Steak by Debra from Eliot's Eats
• Oklahoma Spicy Baked Beans by Lea Ann from Cooking on the Ranch
• Spatchcock BBQ Chicken by Wendy from A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Steak Kabobs by Liz from That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Sweet Potato Turkey Burgers by Lauren from Sew You Think You Can Cook
• White Bean Tomato and Basil Salad by Rebekah from Making Miracles
• Zesty Grilled Ham Steaks by Heather from girlichef

Classic Cassoulet

This classic cassoulet is a hearty, rich bowl of white beans with bacon, sausage and duck confit, the perfect dish on a cold winter's day.

When I started this blog, it quickly became both a place of experimentation and recording old favorites, a creative outlet where I could explore the food options as I moved from Kuala Lumpur to Cairo and then on to Dubai, even as I cooked and reminisced about family recipes. For all the things I missed when left behind, I discovered new options that had not been available to me. 

Two years ago, we were newly in Cairo and I wrote a post about butchering a whole duck, using the breasts for one meal, making confit out of the legs and thighs and then roasting and simmering the carcass for rich stock. Eventually, when my mother came to visit, that duck confit was turned into a classic cassoulet, one of the tastiest dishes ever concocted, but with some of the ugliest photos ever snapped so it never saw light of day in this space. I’ve since made it a couple of times but somehow never got around to posting those either.

When I saw that the theme for today’s Sunday Supper was Beantastic, I knew cassoulet would have to be revisited yet again. The photos still aren’t spectacular but I think the richness of the dish shines through. Cassoulet is meant to be peasant fare but, unless you have a duck you've hunted for yourself to make confit, that one ingredient is kind of expensive to buy. Let me say this, though, it’s totally worth it, not just for what it adds to the cassoulet but also for the extra duck fat you get that sits around the confit duck in the can or jar. Save that stuff! It’s fabulous!

Classic Cassoulet

Apparently the essential ingredients of a classic cassoulet are hotly debated and depend on the region of France. Although all will include beans, the meat that is added varies. Today’s tasty dish is in the Languedoc-style with confit duck and sausage and bacon. It's my favorite. 

Ingredients
1 lb or 450g dried white beans
1 medium onion
2 large onions
10 cloves garlic
7 oz or 200g slab bacon (I like smoked bacon. Some purists say it should be unsmoked. Pffft to them.)
2 bay leaves
Several fresh thyme sprigs
Olive oil
1 1/4 lbs or 540g fresh pork sausage
4 leg/thighs duck confit  - You can make your own. It’s not hard, just time consuming. Or buy the ones in a big can or jar. For this dish, I used these from Rougié.  <affiliate link
Salt
Black pepper

Method
Soak your dried beans overnight or cover amply with boiling water and leave to soak for one hour.

Meanwhile, cut your medium onion into quarters and cut your slab bacon into chunks.

Pour off the soaking water and put the beans into a large pot with the thyme sprigs, the quartered onion, the bacon chunks and one bay leaf. Cover with fresh water and cook until tender over a low fire. Stir the pot occasionally and add more water, if necessary. You do not want the beans drying out.

Drain the beans and bacon and reserve the cooking liquid. You can discard the thyme sprigs and bay leaf but the onion has probably melted away to almost nothing so I wouldn’t worry about it.

Scrape the fat off of the confit duck legs and thighs and save it in a clean jar in the refrigerator.

Slice your other two onions and your garlic and slowly caramelize them in a saucepan over a low heat, with a drizzle of olive oil or, better yet, some of the lovely duck fat you just saved.

If you are just sitting around, waiting on your beans to cook to tenderness, you can wait till the onions and garlic are caramelized and use the same pan to brown the sausage. Or use another pan and get on with it, if your beans are already ready.

When your onions/garlic are well caramelized, eyeball the pan (or the bowl into which you have transferred them to reuse the pan for the sausage) and mentally divide it into three major portions with a little leftover for the final topping.

Brown your sausage in a little olive oil or a little duck fat.

Preheat your oven to 350°F or 180°C.

In a cassole or casserole dish, start with a good drizzle olive oil or duck fat, then add almost one-third of the caramelized onions/garlic. Top with half of the cooked beans and tuck the browned sausage into the beans. Sprinkle with salt and few good grinds of fresh black pepper. Add on some more (perhaps almost one-third again) caramelized onions.

Now spoon on the rest of the beans, the boiled bacon chunks and season again with a sprinkle of salt and black pepper.

For the final layer, add almost all of the remaining caramelized onions and top with the confit duck and then the very last of the caramelized onions. Pour in some of the reserved bean cooking liquid to cover the beans and come half way up the duck. Not pictured here but you should: Tuck a bay leaf into the liquid.

Bake in your preheated oven for about an hour or until the duck is lovely, golden and crispy on the outside and the beans melt in your mouth.

Serve with a hearty red wine and some crusty bread to mop up the juices.

Enjoy!

Check out all the Beantastic recipes we have for you today!

Beantastic Beginners

• Avocado Hummus by Our Good Life
• Bean Ragoût and Crisped Mushrooms by Culinary Adventures with Camilla
• Black Bean Chili Nachos by Brunch with Joy
• Chickpea Fries (Panisse) by Curious Cuisiniere
• Five Layer Greek Hummus Dip by Food Done Light
• Pizza Roasted Chickpeas by A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures
• White Bean and Basil Spread by Peaceful Cooking

Bean-a-rific Soups and Stews

• Butternut Squash White Bean Soup by Magnolia Days
• Chickpea and Bean Soup by Momma's Meals
• Classic Cassoulet by Food Lust People Love
• Navy Bean & Kale Soup by An Appealing Plan
• Navy Bean Soup by The Messy Baker
• Slow Cooker Pork and Bean Stew by Nosh My Way
• Kielbasa and White Bean Soup by Cosmopolitan Cornbread
• Spicy Sausage, White Bean and Spinach Soup by Bobbi's Kozy Kitchen

Bean-a-licious Sides

• Bean and Cornbread Salad by MealDiva
• Clams with Black Beans by A Day in the Life on the Farm
• Gluten Free Green Bean Casserole by Gluten Free Crumbley
• Gold Rush Baked Beans by Lifestyle Food Artistry
• Maple Brown Sugar Baked Beans by Carrie's Experimental Kitchen
• Pinto Beans With Cornbread Croutons by Nik Snacks
• Whiskey Bacon Baked Beans by Sew You Think You Can Cook

Incredi-bean Main Meals

• Arugula Tomato and Beans Flatbread by Family Foodie
• Bean and Bacon Tacos by Jane's Adventures in Dinner
• Beefy Lima Bean Casserole by Cindy's Recipes and Writings
• Colombian Red beans - Frisoles Antioquenos by Palatable Pastime
• Italian Beans and Greens by Simply Healthy Family
• Honey-Lime Black Bean and Sweet Potato Tacos by The Chunky Chef
• One Pot Tuscan Style Garlic Herb Pork Chops by Hezzi-D's Books and Cooks
• Orecchiette with White Beans and Swiss Chard by Delaware Girl Eats
• Skillet Black Beans and Pork by Cooking Chat
• Ultimate Chili Stuffed Sweet Potatoes by Pancake Warriors
• White Bean Ragout, Frisèe, and a Fried Egg by The Wimpy Vegetarian

Amaze-beans Sweet Endings

• Chocolate Covered Espresso Bean Bark by Love and Confections
• Flourless Almond Joy Cookie Dough Ball by Cupcakes & Kale Chips
• Flourless Mocha Brownies by That Skinny Chick Can Bake
• Gluten-Free Black Bean Brownies by Wallflour Girl
• Gluten-Free Donuts by NinjaBaker
• Pecan Praline Black Bean Brownies by Rhubarb and Honey
• Soy Awesome Cookies 2.0 by What Smells So Good?
• Strawberry Coco-Cacao Bean Smoothie by Dandelion Greens
• Sweet Bean Pie by Shockingly Delicious
• Vanilla Bean Creme Brulee by Noshing With The Nolands

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