Posole

This one is from April 22, 2005.    If you're a fan of southwestern food, you owe it to yourself to find some posole.  I found it most recently at Rancho Gordo (they also have some really tasty cinnamon sticks, mexican oregano, and chili powder).   It's basically corn treated with lye (think hominy), and it was served on special occasions (read more about it on the wikis).   You can pretty much treat it like the beans in a chilli and you'll achieve a good result, but it really needs to cook on the order of 2-3 hours to fully develop.   Essentially, the kernels "pop" in the pot, which gives them a very interesting texture, and the starch that comes out helps to thicken the stew.

One other interesting property to note...  I believe that the starch from the corn binds to capsaicin somehow, thus reducing the heat that you perceive from the peppers.   If you're looking for a painfully hot dish out of this, you'll have to increase the amount of hot pepper that you put into it more than you normally would.   This version is pretty spicy, but probably not "thai hot".
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3 cups dry posole (soaked overnight)
1/2 large bell pepper, diced (you could use a whole smaller one, but this is what i had)
2 poblano peppers, diced
3 anaheim peppers, diced
4 jalapeno peppers, diced
3 stalks of celery, chopped
4 cloves of garlic, minced
3 small onions, chopped (could do 2 medium or 1 really big one)
5 links hot italian sausage
1 - 7 oz can chipotles in adobo sauce
2 quarts of water
1-1/2 tsp thyme
1-1/2 tsp rosemary
1-1/2 tsp cumin seeds
1-1/2 tsp kosher salt
1-1/2 tsp black pepper
1 small, dried thai pepper (cause that's all i had)
2 T olive oil

i cooked the sausage as whole links in the oil in the pot i intended to cook it all in, with a little bit of water, and the lid on, so it would steam and not burn and stick to the pan, etc. took it out, and put the veggies in the pot and let them saute/cook down while i cut the sausage into disks and then picked the chipotles out of the can and cut them up a little bit. once the veggies were fairly soft, i drained the posole and dumped it into the pot and mixed things up for a bit. then added the chipotles and sausage, and then the water. let that come to a boil and tasted it, then dumped all of those (dried) herbs and spices into the coffee grinder and ground them up to a pretty fine powder, and dumped them in. then i let it cook for 2 to 2-1/2 hours one night, and another hour the next. basically the posole had all popped open, and the peppers' flesh had seperated from their skin completely. served in a bowl with grated monterey jack cheese on top, and a tortilla to push against.