Black beans, fresh rinsed
obsidian jewels,
drop through fingers
feeling for stones.
Pasilla chiles, toasting,
warm the air. Later,
ground and simmered in oil,
they seethe in a mild lava.
Chocolate softens,
flows into the chili—
an ebony swirl
rippling on a midnight sea.
—
This is for Read Write Poem’s What’s Eating You?.
One of my favorite things to cook is The Soup Peddler’s South Austin Chili recipe in his Slow and Difficult Soups. I like the end result, but I love the process of making this chili. The time spent in the kitchen working the ingredients and listening to music while enjoying a beer as the pasillas toast in the oven is sheer joy.
The chili itself is wonderfully rich with a slow chipotle burn, and with the chocolate added it comes off almost like a mole.
12 Comments | Filed under: food & drink and poems and poetry | Tagged: poems, read write poem
This has inspired me to try the recipe, very nicely described..
Thank you. It’s quite good, by the way.
it is an amazing image , I was tempted (though I do not like chili…and I can not imagine it cooked with chocolate)…but it is appetizing in this poem, especially the beans as obsidian jewels…
I must say this poem really engages the senses. I can smell the slowly-toasting chillies and reach to stir the chocolate swirl… lovely.
Beautiful and visual. I’ll have to try adding chocolate the next time I make chili. Inspiring.
The Nobleman
-Nicole
This is such a sensual poem. It was fun getting lost in it. Mmmmmm…
Thanks for you comments. It is a very good chili. It’s the only recipe I’ve come across that uses chocolate and while the finished product doesn’t taste like it has chocolate in it, it adds a richness to it that’s makes the chili unique.
Liked the images of jewels, lava and sea. Amazing what can be done with a recipe.
Thanks, Gordon. And, a good recipe is as enjoyable to make as it is to eat.
I really like how you include all the senses, even in such a short poem, without seeming at all forced. Only taste is left out, and that is what leaves the reader salivating!
throws his words, I hadn’t realized I had left taste out. Interesting.