Sunday, October 17, 2010
Chili
I have been volunteered to provide chili, enough for 15 people, at the church Harvest-Festival-in-lieu-of-Halloween. I'm not sure if there is a contest involved or not, but I do want to make it better than just beef and beans and canned Generic Sauce. So, what's your best chili recipe? My ideal is hot, sweet, and Texan; but submit whatever you like. The only rule is that it must not be "vegetarian chili", which is an abomination and a sin against God and man.
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Kitchen Sink Chili
1-2 pounds of stew beef or extra lean hamburger
1-2 cans crushed tomatoes
mushrooms
crushed almonds
Red Kidney Beans
White Kidney Beans
Corn
onions
chili powder (or mix cumin, ground coriander, garlic, cayenne pepper and paprika to suit)
Brown the onions, brown the meat, and fry the mushrooms. Add the other stuff and adjust spicy goodness to individual taste/tolerance. Simmer over low heat for 1-2 hours. Refrigerate at least one night, (two nights brings out the flavors better), heat and serve.
I generally also add a shot of whiskey or some bittersweet chocolate and a chipolte pepper or alternatively use smoked paprika.
Chili recipes are just guidelines after all is said and done.
Depends on size of crockpot. Assume my recipe is talking about a 6-7 qt one.
3-4 lbs. of lean ground beef
Two medium sized yellow onions, finely chopped
2-3 buds of garlic, skinned and crushed
1 big can of smashed/cubed tomatos (often I get the Italian style ones)
1 can of dark red kidney beans
1 can of light red kidney beans
1 can of black beans
1 can of brown beans in tomato sauce
Optionally:
- substitute the brown beans with 1 can of niblets corn
- some chopped celery
- a half a bottle of a lager or light ale
- a hint of lime
- chopped habanero
- chopped jalapeno
- ground up dried mexican chilli
- chopped finger pepper
Spices: Black pepper, small pinch of salt if you think it needs it, ground cayenne pepper, cayenne pepper seeds/red pepper seeds, tobbasco sauce, chilli powder, curry powder, paprika, oregano.
Optional: Super hot sauce of some variety, smokey sauce (liquid smoke), honey (for the sweet), green relish (for the sweet)
General Drill:
- lightly brown the beef with some salt, pepper, garlic powder
- clarify an onion in some butter, add one of the garlic cloves late on
- add the lightly browned meat, finish browning
- drain excess fluids, but don't worry about getting the meat dry, some moisture will only help
- Meanwhile or beforehand, prepare the crock
-- rinse the beans in cold water then dump in crock
-- dump in the tomatos with juices
-- remaining onion and garlic
-- add the meat
-- spices to taste
-- corn if you are adding
-- chopped celery
-- any other optional adders
-- peppers should be added with care, always assume it will be hotter than you taste and note it does get a lot hotter sitting for a day or afternoon and curing as pepper spices come out....
Make sure the crock has fluid up at least 1/3rd of the way. Cook on high for 1 hour, low until the meat reaches 150 degrees (will vary depending on your crock).
Serve with some sour cream and possibly some milk or water to drink, can be also served with yoghurt. Anything that will neutralize any burn.
Best accompaniement is corn bread. Better yet, corn bread with jalapeno chunks in it.
T.
Texas Chili ain't got no beans. And it most certainly ain't got any fungus in it - of any kind.
Pfft.
Try this for a nice 'red', sugar...
2 - 3 lbs. coarse ground beef
(ask the butcher to 'chili' grind a smaller chuck roast for you)
1 TBS vegetable oil(to brown the meat in)
1 TBS Onion powder (to add to the meat)
Put the oil, meat and the onion powder in a cast iron dutch oven. if you don't have one - use a larger stock pot. Mix the meat and onion together and lightly brown meat.
add this when the meat is browned:
1 Can (8 oz) Hunt's Tomato Sauce
1 Can Swansons Beef Broth
Cook uncovered for 30 minutes
then add the following:
1 TBS Light Chili Powder
2 TBS Dark Chili Powder
1 tsp Garlic Powder
½ tsp Salt
½ TBS Ground Cumin
½ tsp Cayenne Pepper
½ tsp Black Pepper
1 cube Knorr chicken bouillon
Measure out all these spices, (except the cube of bouillon just throw that in), into a small bowl and mix them up. They're your first spice 'dump'. Because you can't just throw all the stuff in there and think it'll taste great. It's gotta meld. Amalgamate.
Simmer covered 1 hour
but vent the lid, you dont' want too much condensation getting at your chili.
And finally,
1 TBS Light Chili Powder
1 TBS Dark Chili Powder
1 tsp Paprika
½ TBS Ground Cumin
This is your 2nd 'dump'. Mix these up in a bowl as well.
Add some chicken broth if you need more liquid, it happens. Use Swansons chicken broth. Just keep the can handy in case you need it.
Cover it, vented, and simmer for 30minutes.
I usually make fresh corn tortillas, cut them into triangles and fry them for fresh tortilla chips. But cornbread is the traditional side. With or without jalapeno, cornbread is good. If you put jalapeno in some cornbread tough, seed the damn things.
Whichever you use, I know you'll do well.
Happy Hallo-weenie!
-P
Texas chili is decent, but I prefer the beans and they tend to be healthy.
Not such a big fan of all the bullion and broth either simply for the average salt content of those items (although some people don't worry about that).
And the cornbread is fantastic as an accompanyment. There's actually a few chilli recipes where you cook the cornbread on top of the chili in the pot.
I concur about seeding the Jalapenos or any other peppers you may chop up for adding zing to the cornbread. I also like to add honey to it for a bit of moisture, rather than some of the other alternatives.
The nice thing about chili is every batch can be a new experience. I just made one using kidney beans, romano beans, navy beans, corn, a pile of spices, and a fair bit of red pepper seeds, chili pepper seeds, and chili paste. It has a nice bit of burn to it, but not so much you'll regret it all afternoon, which is about right for something to take for lunch at work.
I have eaten chili made with chocolate, with lamb, with a lot of salt and liquid smoke, and a wide variety of other ways. Some using pork instead of beef. Some hot, some sweet, some savory, usually a mix of those three. We have a cookoff at work every year.
Venison might make an interesting choice for a chili.
I have made one with ground turkey and it was quite tasty.
I do like a Texas chili made with big chunks of beef un-ground (cut somewhat like stewing meat) instead. The Mexicali Rosa's here does a very good bowl.
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