What's On Your Plate???

[Litos]

 

[Litos]

dinner last night...

after the picture, i poured the milk and then chopped up a banana and put it in there....

delicious, ya´ll.....

 

[Pyu76]

 

[kronin323]

To bean or not to bean? That's a question...

Do you prefer your chili with or without beans?

Lots of regions put beans in their chili. And really, if you research the origins of chili, it started with beans.

But here in Texas we do things differently. A proper Texas chili has NO BEANS. I'm not saying whether that's good or bad; it just is what it is.

I remember having an argument about this with a co-worker a few years ago. He's the sort of guy who will hang onto an argument to absurdity. Being from the Northeast, he was firmly in the "with beans" camp and just refused to concede that Texas-style was no beans.

He crossed the line into absurdity when he started talking about how, when he came down from the NE, he brought a "sphere of influence", which surrounds him. I countered that the "sphere" was of limited size.

He went on to say that his sphere went on in every direction infinitely, then elaborated that it "looped" back around:

"If I go far enough this way", gesturing to his left, "then I come back that way", gesturing from his right.

"And if I go far enough that way", gesturing in front of him, "then I come back this way", gesturing towards his behind.

So I asked him, "Does that mean you can go f*ck yourself?!?!?"

 

[kronin323]

Last night at Torchies Tacos. The one on the left is called the Dirty Sanchez - scrambled eggs and a fried poblano chile, guacamole, escabeche carrots and shredded cheese. The one on the right is called the Trailer Park - fried chicken, green chile, lettuce, pico de gallo, and cheese; you can "get it trashy" by subbing chile con queso for the lettuce, but I didn't... Both with a poblano cream sauce:

And they were:

 

[kronin323]

To bean or not to bean? I don't bean...

I love a good Fall chili. And though it takes a long cook time, it's easy to do - you just buy a chili seasoning packet / package, some meat, maybe some beans (uggh...) and follow the directions.
And it will come out as good as the canned stuff. Maybe even a little better...

But why bother with all that work to get similar results as the canned stuff? It's easier and cheaper to just buy it out of the can...

I typically only cook chili once a year. But I've spent about 15 years refining my recipe. I would call it "award winning" because I have won some chili cookoffs, but they were all small-time getogethers against a bunch of amateurs who didn't know what they were up against; I haven't competed at a professional level...

I have never shared my recipe with anybody. But I'm about to share it with all of you, on a public forum anybody can read. So enjoy...

(I'll try to note things can be done more simply for those of you not looking to make as much of an investment. Please bear with me because this will take multiple posts...)

 

[kronin323]

PREP PART 1 - fresh vegetables (clean your cutting board and sharpen your knife...)

Chili is called chili because the main seasoning is chili powder. Which is a powdered chile. The main strategy of a chili that stands out is to replace chili powder with a combination of chiles; the more you use, the more complex the flavor. Let's start with some fresh ones:

Red bell pepper, green bell pepper, Hatch green pepper, poblano pepper:

Remove stems, seeds, and membranes:

Then chop them up:

Same thing with a couple of sweet onions:

And some garlic:

(To simplify, exclude the fresh chiles but not the onion and garlic)

 

[kronin323]

PREP PART 2 - dried chiles (the most labor intensive part)

This is the MOST IMPORTANT way to increase the quality of your chili. If you don't want to do all this, just instead use about 4 TB chili powder. And enjoy can-grade chili...

Here are four different dried chiles. The two on the left are just to add some variety and complexity to the flavor. The two on the right are the important ones - ancho chiles at the top and chipotle peppers at the bottom:

If you have a limited selection, the anchos are the most important to replace the chili powder. The chipotles are also very important. If you can't find them dried, you can use canned chipotle peppers in adobo sauce but you're much better off with the dried ones (BTW, chipotle peppers are smoked red jalapeños).

Mine are from a bulk bin. If you have that opportunity, smell them as you select them. The best have a rich aroma; the lesser ones, minimal smell. Chipotle peppers will have a nice red color and veins. The ones available to me for this batch were not as good; they had the veins but not the color or a strong aroma:

Slice the dried peppers in half lengthwise then stem and seed them. IMPORTANT - after this step, your fingers will be covered with capsaicin, the thing that makes peppers hot (and is used in pepper sprays). WASH YOUR HANDS THOROUGHLY before scratching your nose, rubbing your eyes, or, most importantly, taking a piss. You will live to regret it otherwise...

Cover the deseeded and destemmed chiles in cold water, bring to a simmer, then simmer 10 mins. This is to rehydrate them:

Pour everything (including the simmer water) into a blender and puree:

 

[kronin323]

COOKING PART 1 - getting started

Mix the chopped fresh chiles, onion, and garlic with 3 - 4 lbs ground meat in a large pot. Which meat? Traditional chili is beef. But I have found turkey is actually better. It goes against all my instincts, but blind taste tests have proven the turkey chili is more tasty; I think it's because of the grease. The catch is you can get beef coarse ground, which is better for chili, while turkey is normally only available normal ground. Don't use the lean stuff; 80/20 for beef and 85/15 for turkey.

At this point, mixing in liberal amounts of Worcestershire sauce and Cholula hot sauce increases flavor and chile count, but detracts from the "from scratch" aspect...

Brown until meat is cooked and vegetables are softened:

Now normally one would drain the grease. I do not, for reasons explained later...

Add two cans of tomato sauce. For this batch, I did one can sauce and one can fire-roasted diced tomatoes:

And a large, fresh diced tomato:

Mix...

Then add the pureed dried chile blend and mix. Now we're getting some proper color...

Then mix in these seasonings:
2-3 tsp salt
1 tsp garlic powder
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp oregano
2 tsp paprika (also a chile)

Don't forget some fish sauce...

 

[kronin323]

COOKING PART 2 - maintenance

Cover and simmer over low heat. Total cook time should be a minimum of 3 hours but does better with 5 or more...

Every half hour, check on it:

Do you see the dark red oily stuff around the edges, especially to the lower right in that pic? Spoon that stuff out. This is why I didn't drain the grease earlier - this chili is going to be plenty spicy. This is how you control it.

The capsaicin is absorbed by the grease and you're spooning out pure chile oil. You don't have to, but seriously, you really should or the end result will be too spicy to properly taste. Stir well after spooning out the extra heat.