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If you want to celebrate the Obama way today, you might want to cook up a big pot of presidential chili. Although it is not quite as renowned as Hillary Clinton's chocolate chip cookies or Lady Bird Johnson's lemon cake, Obama's chili recipe has been all over the internet. It's got a few surprise ingredients. Red wine vinegar, OK...but turmeric? Really? Really? We will just have to trust our new commander-in-chief on that one. Finish the meal off with Michelle Obama's cobbler which uses an entire stick of butter. Go Michelle!
The Obamas have asked the resident White House chef, Cristeta Comerford, to stay on. What will she be whipping up in the kitchen besides chili? According to a variety of sources, President Obama enjoys Chicago Pizza, Italian food, Mexican food, bacon, pancakes, and in New Orleans legend Leah Chase's opinion, way too much hot sauce. One thing that will definitely not be on the White House menu is beets. Just as George Sr. famously eschewed broccoli, Obama's got a thing about beets. In fact, the blog Jezebel went on a little rant last November about Obama's picky eating habits.
While the chili simmers, enjoy this unaired episode of Check, Please! from 2001, back when Obama was a state senator. The discussion is a review of Dixie Kitchen and Bait Shop in the Hyde Park neighborhood of Chicago. According to the LA Times Blog, The Big Picture, "the episode never aired, in large part because, as program creator David Manilow put it, the prez-elect was too thoughtful and articulate to pass for an amateur. 'It was unbalanced, to put it charitably,' Manilow says."
Recipes for chili and cobbler after the jump!
Obama Family Chili
1 large onion, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
Several cloves garlic, chopped
1 T. olive oil
1 lb. ground turkey or beef
1/4 t. each cumin, turmeric, dried basil and oregano
1 T. chili powder
3 T. red wine vinegar
Several tomatoes, depending on size, chopped
1 (15 oz.) can kidney beans
Saute onions and bell pepper until softened, add garlic and cook 30 seconds longer. Add ground meat and brown.
Whisk together spices and add to mixture. Stir in vinegar and tomatoes and let simmer until tomatoes cook down. Add beans and cook a few minutes longer.
Serve over white or brown rice. Garnish with grated cheddar cheese, onions and sour cream.
Michelle Obama's Apple Cobbler
Filling:
8 Granny Smith apples, peeled and sliced [or a bag of frozen peeled apples]
1-1/2 to 2 cups of brown sugar
1-1/2 teaspoons cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup white flour
Mix these ingredients together in a bowl and let it sit in the refrigerator overnight so the spice goes all the way through the apples.
Crust:
3 sheets refrigerated pie crust
1 stick of butter
Preheat oven at 325 degrees. Butter and flour the bottom of a large baking dish. Roll out three pie crusts real thin -- as thin as possible. Layer the bottom of the pan with 1-1/2 of the pie crusts and prick a few holes in it. Pour the apples with the liquid into the pie pan. Dot 3/4 of a stick of butter around the apples. Use the final 1-1/2 pie crusts to cover the apple mixture entirely (let the pie crust overlap the pan).
Pinch the edges of the dough around the sides of the pan so the mixture is completely covered.
Melt final 1/4 stick of butter and brush all over top of crust.
Reduce the oven temperature to 300 degrees. Bake at 300 for up to 3 hours -- that's what makes the crust flaky, like Barack likes it. Put the cobbler in the oven and go for a walk, go to the store, or do whatever you have to do around the house. Start looking at the cobbler after two and a half hours so it doesn't burn.
Serve anytime.
