Beans, Beans, the Frugal Fruit

You may be hearing more about eating within a budget in the next few months. Over at Belly Timber it is indeed on the menu.
In fact, living frugally is all the talk nowadays.
Well, we here at I'm Mad and I Eat are nothing if not early adopters.
Only around here, it's known as "eating leftovers."
I hate wasting food, and it's fun to devise new ways of turning a dish that had a distinct personality yesterday into an entirely new beast today.
It's even more fun when some of the food is free.
I had two kinds of cooked meat in the fridge, gifts from two different people. Together these two meats would provide the synergy for a great pot of white chili.
I have to share the basics with you, but (yawn, heard this before?): "This Is Not a Recipe Blog."

PROCUL HARUM CHILI (A Whiter Shade of Yum-O)

OK. In a pot, cook presoaked white beans (I used Great Northern) with a bay leaf or two and a pork bone if you are so lucky to have one that you have trimmed off the free slab of pork roast, in water just to cover. A little salt. Cook to near-tenderness; check the water level (it can dip down slightly toward the end, but I like mine a little soupy). Remove the bone at this point.

Meanwhile, in a sauté pan, toast some dried herbs and spices over medium heat until they smell fabulous, a minute or so. I used oregano, thyme, cumin, chili powder (just pure, ground, dried chiles, not that flavored mess from the chain market), and — a pinch of Chinese 5-spice powder. (Trust me. Don't overdo it, but do it.) The spice flavors are allowed to be a little potent at this point; they will be absorbed by the beans later.

Now add some olive oil to the spices in the pan and stir; toss in chopped onion, minced garlic, chopped green pepper (one with a little heat would be good) and chopped, de-husked tomatillos. A little salt. Cook gently until you have a smooshy, gooey mess (it's important to get the tomatillos to melt down), but with still-discernable pieces of vegetable.

Next, stir the vegetable-spice mixture into the beans. Let the whole mess simmer gently until the beans pick up some of that flavor. (I just turned off the heat, covered it, and left it alone for an hour or so.)

At mealtime, cut up the free meat. Mine was sausage and pork, and since it was already cooked, all I wanted to do was heat it, not vaporize it. Add the meat to the beans, warm gently, check seasonings (I added some habanero powder) — and eat.

The two must-haves in this dish are the tomatillos, for the smooth, almost slippery texture they add — the mouth-feel is pure, frugal luxury — and the 5-spice powder for that kick-ass je ne sais quoi. I liked it a lot.