I've joked around with my wife about how I was going to open a food cart devoted to vegetarian Cincinnati chili and I would make a whole range of varieties, Indian, Mexican, Chinese, etc. Well, I thought I'd start with Trini style. I think this cuisine can provide some great, unique flavors.
The first ingredient has to be green seasoning (Green Seasoning). This is classic Trini ingredient, a lot like herbal curry. I have a ton in my freezer, so I am ready to go.
One trick that I use over and over with Trini cooking is caramelizing some sugar. It takes some patience and skill, but it is cool and adds some nice flavor. You could probably replace with brown sugar if you aren't adventurous.
Trini food tends to be really hot and I'd love to toss in a bunch of scotch bonnets, but my wife would kill me. My chili powder is already hot, so I just left it out.
In Trinidad they tend to use pigeon peas instead of lentils, so I made this switch.
I switched out some coconut milk for broth. One can might be too much, but might as well use it all up. I thought this would be a good Caribbean touch for extra creaminess.
The vinegar switched out with lime juice and hot sauce
I was vacillating about adding the tomato sauce, but ended up it in. The flavor was a bit flat without it.
The final dish was good, but very different from Cincinnati chili. It was sweeter from the sugar and the coconut milk which I tried to balance with salt, acid, and Pickapeppa sauce. Cincinnati chili is fairly sweet as well. The chili powder was pretty mild, but the green seasoning came through nicely. The pigeon peas had a nice crunch to them.
I'll have to spend some time thinking about what improvements I might make. I might try a Jamaican version next with jerk seasoning and calalloo and use that result to reflect back on this recipe.
Here is the recipe::
Trini Cincinnati Chili
1.5 Tbsp Pickapeppa sauce or Worchestershire sauce
1.5 Tbsp chili powder
1/4 cup green seasoning
1/2 tsp thyme
2 cloves garlic, pressed or minced
1 Tbsp lime juice
1 Tbsp white sugar
1 lb dried pigeon peas (toovar or toor dal)
1 Tbsp salt
1 1/2 cups veggie broth
1 can coconut milk (about 1 3/4 cups)
8 oz tomato sauce
1 Tbsp hot sauce
1) Rinse the pigeon peas with water to remove any dust. I will fill a pan with peas and water, rub the peas with my fingers, drain, and repeat until the water stays relatively clear.
2) Mix sugar with teaspoon of water and add to a pan
3) Heat until the sugar melts. The water will evaporate and the sugar will melt and start to turn brown. You don't want it black.
4) Quickly add the broth and dissolve the sugar.
5) Add the rest of the ingredients except for the hot sauce and lime juice
6) Simmer unit the peas are soft
7) Mix in the hot sauce and lime juice.
8) Served over pasta with shredded cheese, red beans, and onions.
