fifi

Bwaaahahahaha! Another eGull caught in our web! Smithy, I have to say that I have never done a whole chicken but your rendition sounds truly inspired. I am going to have to try that. Actually, for this dish, I prefer the chicken to be cooked to falling off the bone. But then... I am usually doing just the thighs. And lately, I have been able to get skinless/boneless thighs so there isn't even a bone to fall off of. They do get to that melting tenderness, though. I can see how that could be distressing when serving a whole chicken that you want to make a presentation of. My "video mental moment" is of a chicken being gently lowered out of the pan onto the platter, ceremoniously carried to the table, and upon depositing it on the table, it collapses in a heap.

And let us not forget that sodium feast of a block of Velveeta and a can of Ro-Tel, nuked and served with chips! Yeah... I have used the black beans with jalapeno as well. I am having a senior moment on whether it is Goya or Ro-Tel but something tells me it is Ro-Tel. I don't think I have seen the Goya beans in flavored combos like that.

SSB picky question... How much did you cook in how big a pot? Does this mean that I have to go buy another crock pot to get a smaller size so I don't have to cook a vat of grits? I find that if you don't have enough mass in a crock pot, the cooking rate is unpredictable. Well... I guess I could cook up whatever it took, cut the leftovers in cubes, throw it over the balconey and watch the mallards and gulls fight over it.

I am thinking that the addition of chocolate to "traditional" chili is a segue from the moles. Hey... It is really good there, why not in chili? Keeping in mind that the origin of chili is probably from the cattle camps in northern Mexico and what is now Texas, it began as a very simple dish... beef, onions (probably wild onions of some sort on the trail) and chile peppers. Then the Chili Queens in San Antonio took over in the mid 1800's and developed it into an art form. While I am not hung up on the "traditional" simple dish, I do make it from time to time. It is surprisingly good and more complex in flavor than you would guess. But... we can't resist tinkering. I happen to think that the chocolate tinkering is a good thing. But, I think I will draw the line at sprinkling it with chocolate chips. Famous Amos' Toll House Chili???... Get a rope! But, if some brave eGullet soul tries it, I would love to hear what they think. Andie... Any recipes you can gather will be cherished, I am sure. Please hold onto them (after sharing ) for when RecipeGullet is back on line.

I am another Goya brand bean user. They are my usual source of beans for bean salsas. Those are a favorite of the whole family. they can be used as a dip, a side, or a "topping" for fish or a pork chop. That goes for anything from a black bean/mango to a Texas caviar style salsa and everything in between. The Goya brand just seems to hit the right texture... firm yet tender. I also favor having the garbanzos on hand for hummus. I also surrender to canned creamed corn for the old standy-by Jiffy mix corn "souffle". I do usually use the frozen corn kernels, though. Then there are the tomato products. There are some things for which there is no substitute for Ro-Tel. And, I would rather have some good canned diced tomatoes rather than tasteless fresh. (I am not a raw tomato eater but I do use them in cooking.) Canned hominy is in my cupboard for some of those salsas and posole. Those dishes are usually on a whim so I rarely have time to go to Fiesta Mart for the fresh (frozen actually) pozole. (And... BTW... is it spelled with an s or a z? ) I keep little cans of chopped green chiles on hand... ditto for pimentoes, even though those are in jars. A review of my pantry says that is about it. I find the quality of these products are acceptable and sometimes very good. Having those available lets me come up with something really good where if I had to do everything from scratch, it wouldn't happen at all. Unfortunately, a lot of other vegetables are low acid and so have to have acid added (usually citric) to have an acceptable time/temperature processing method. That is why I think things like green beans, asparagus (ugh) are just not acceptable. For those types of things, I head for the freezer case if fresh isn't available.

I am kind of following the rest of the crowd here. I don't find unsweetened chocolate or cocoa powder that unusual in chili recipes. It rounds out the flavors nicely but you probably wouldn't know it was in there if not told. But little puddles of melted chips on top... ick. Then, if you have a nice red grease slick on top of that chili it gets even worse to think about.

Boy... Are you in for an adventure. Congratulations! I will give you some advice in the food department... A typical mom will be past the nausea after the first three months. Notice that I said typical. Neither of my two pregnancies were typical. With the first, I never had morning sickness. Then at about month 4 or 5, I developed a real aversion to messing with meat at all. I couldn't stand to even be around raw meat. For some stupid reason, veal was off the menu. I couldn't even get near that stuff, cooked, in a restaurant. And I am a confirmed carnivore and adored the veal picata at the little Italian place around the corner. But I did devlop a craving for anisette snowballs and watermelon. With the second, I had a little morning sickness but go over that. Then I developed the oddest cravings. I was after savory dishes with a sweet note. (I hate that, usually.) Then there was the pickled jalapeno binge, stuffed with tuna and sharp cheddar. That went on for about 3 weeks, giving way to avocado sandwiches. Well... I think you see where I am going with this. Until you see how this develops, I would warn against making vats of anything. You are sure to make a vat of chili when, all of a sudden, the thought of chile peppers or beef or whatever will suddenly become a ghastly thought.

Just a tip on the peppers. Before rehydrating, I cut them open with scissors, cut the stem out and shake out the seeds. It is just easier to do in the dry state. Then, I put the strips of pepper in a bowl, pour near boiling water over them and let sit for about 20 minutes. Chili is an endlessly fascinating dish. Even the simplest is surprisingly good.

Thanks andie... That method is pretty much what I did, several times, altering syrup strength, watching temperature etc. BUT... I didn't dry the strips first. And I didn't make the first pass in a light syrup. I would love for pepper strips to come out with a texture like the cherries. Cherries have a somewhat similar cell structure so it must be doable. I did save the syrup! But... boy was it hot! I gave it to an asbestos mouthed friend. That really surprised me since I had seeded and sliced out the membranes.

I think it has something to do with the sweet/salty pairing that we see in other cuisines. While I don't normally like the intrusion of sweet in otherwise savory foods, I still remember snitching the pieces of pineapple (canned, of course) off of the ham and enjoying the sweet/salty/fatty succulence of those pieces of pineapple.

I remember my grandmother using her ducks and geese to eat the bugs in the garden. She had to fence them out until the plants got up to a size that they wouldn't eat but when they were let in, they were efficient bug eaters. The ducks gave us eggs for omelets and those egg whites made the best meringue. For some reason, though, she never raised chickens. I don't recall ever eating duck or goose either. I think they were her pets.

Onion sandwich... Slice onion very thin. Pile onto a good white bread slathered with mayo. Salt and pepper. Drink a cold beer. Nap. There is a sleepy making quality to raw onion that is enhanced by beer. This combination makes for the most satisfying nap. Please do not waste sweet onions by cooking them. Sweet onions = raw. Stronger onions actually cook up sweeter.

I can only add my experience. In the 50s we always had a ham in the fridge. The cycle was like this... Mom would buy a whole ham. That would typically be from Hormel. At least this was what I remember from the wrapper. The ham would go into the oven, with brown sugar, cloves and maybe some pineapple. The ham was the center of attention for one meal. Then it went into the fridge to be sliced on for sandwiches or an addition to breakfast. After a month, it was whittled away to a ham bone. Then it was the basis for a big pot of navy beans. This cycle went on month after month. I do remember mom discussing alternate brands of ham but she always went back to that Hormel ham in a black wrapper. I have no idea what difference that made.

Oh dear... More doubt. Maybe there was some cane syrup in there. We always had a can of Steen's around and it was certainly the preferred syrup for pancakes. Hmmmm... I am beginning to wonder if the mystery of Aunt Minnie's pecan pie will ever be solved. Brooks... New Mexico??? Who woulda thunk it. I wonder if the trees are mostly along the Rio Grande as it winds its way into parts of New Mexico, formerly Texas. I am beginning to think that the conjunction of pecan trees and the growing of cane is what led to the creation of this regional marvel. So... how the hell did Karo syrup, made from mid-west corn for chrisakes, get in there? And when did corn syrup intrude on this regional classic? Was there a "recipe on the label" phenomenon to market Karo syrup? edit to add: Does anyone know when Karo syrup came on the market?

OK... Further discussion puts some doubt on the use of Karo syrup in Aunt Minnie's recipe. We are now suspecting that she used Imperial (Sugarland, TX) light brown cane sugar. Research continues.

Well, as a kid in the late 40s early 50s, the definitive pecan pie for me would have been the one made by my Great Aunt Minnie. She was a phenomenal cook. In the late 20s early 30s, she was widowed but was left with quite a legacy. She owned the hotel, a restaurant, the cotton gin, and a goodly part of the rest of the town of Brookshire, Texas. Her cooking was so well known, especially her pies, that she would provide pies and other goodies to the Southern Pacific passenger trains as they made their way east and west. She had a staff of helpers but was always in the kitchen supervising every step. My sister is frantically searching our late mother's notes and "archives" to see if she can find anything definitive on Aunt Minnie's recipe. We don't remember that it was anything remarkable. We think it was the typical recipe with the Karo syrup. But then she always had her little techniques and was very picky about the pecans. They had to be those little native pecans that came off of trees along the Brazos river. We had a cousin that had a bunch of acreage that had the Brazos as one boundary. When pecan season was upon us, the whole family would head there and camp out. The guys would fish for catfish, the ladies would pick up pecans, and we slept in the back of the pick-up trucks. Then the job of shelling those little bastards commenced in the evenings. Aunt Minnie wouldn't truck with those larger, easier to shell hybrids. She called them "sawdust". On her visits to my grandmother, I can still hear her chiding my dad. "Now Eddie, you are going to have to be more careful. You know that I don't allow any broken halves in my pie." So... Maybe it was the pecans. Her phenomenal pie crust probably had something to do with it as well. I can still see those huge flakes and feel it melt in my mouth. No, I think it was the pecans. The flavor screamed of pecans, even through all of that sweetness.

A few years ago, there was this dessert featured in a magazine that included these beautiful red jalapeno strips that had been "candied" as a garnish. I think it was on something like a frozen mango mousse and I think it was in Martha Stewart. The strips looked to have a texture sort of like a candied cherry in that they were stand-up stiff and they were translucent like a candied cherry. I have tried every sort of candied fruit recipe known to man... or, at least, me... and the peppers always collapse into this withered pile of flabby goo. The only thing I haven't tried is pretreating with pickling lime. My dad used to use that to make some incredibly crisp pickles and pickled watermelon rind. Every time I see red jalapenos I sigh for that recipe. One of the most spectacular and delicious desserts I have ever had (and I am not crazy about dessert) was in Akumal Mexico. It was incredibly complex in flavor and we kept trying to guess what was in it. All it was was mango in a blender, sweetened condensed drizzled in to taste, minced haberneros, frozen, served in a big brandy snifter. At the table, the waiter lit some good tequila and dramatically added a dipper of the flaming liquor to each snifter. I am sure that the flavor had nothing to do with the fact that our table was in the sand under the palm trees and the flaming concoction in the dark was so theatrical. Talking with the chef later (when we found out what was in this incredibley subtle and complex dessert ) he said you could use any pepper you wanted. I am thinking that experimenting with adding minced peppers to any number of desserts would be fun to play with.

That is a great site! Thanks for the link. The "Find Organic Food" button has a lot of information on the individual resources. Also, I am going to give Camille's a call and see if I can order up some chickens. I would probably make a day trip of it to go get them.

I have one of the julienne slicers. I bought it for the purpose of making jicama slaws and such. It cuts way too small and was very hard to use. It took a lot of pressure to cut jicama and basically turned it to mush. Since I have wanted a mandoline primarily for thin slicing and julienne, I think I am about to give it up. My new Kitchen Aid food processor has a large size grating disc that makes lovely squarish "straws" of carrot, jicama and such. I am probably going to get the julienne disc and reduce my chances of injury. Thanks for bumping this up, Smithy. I was just talking to a friend the other day about which mandoline he ought to buy. He insists he has to have one. I have looked at the V slicers with the same question, but I have never tried one. It just seems like a bad way to go. I saw something on History Channel (I think) about the different designs that the French tried when perfecting the guillotine... straight, V shaped, slanted. They found the slanted blade to be superior. Can potatoes be any different than necks?

Heh... I can see the headlines now... FIN FISH MARKET COLLAPSES THOUSANDS OUT OF WORK In a rare turn of the market, sales of fin fish have plummeted. While not confirmed, this may have started with a discussion on a food website. Our roving reporter interviewed diners at Legal Seafood as they were sending their swordfish steak back to the kitchen. "I just read that thread here on my Blackberry. It was just too much information." said Joe Bleaux. On an optimistic note, Woods Hole reports that fish populations are expected to rebound.

You are right about the propane. It sinks and gathers. Natural gas is lighter than air and dissapates given an adequate "way out". That is why compressed natural gas is the fuel of choice on boats. I wonder what the availability of CNG is as a "remote" cooking fuel? You can get it for CNG vehicles here, and of course for boats.

Due to the broad interest in this topic, I am moving it from Texas to General Food Topics. Carry on...

Bux... I can't begin to imagine the effort that this took. Does anyone know how long he worked on this? I have visions of bouncing from the old book to the new book just to see what has changed. That is going to happily drive me nuts. Let me add that, for such a deep and detailed subject, I found that his writing style was engaging and, at times, downright humorous. I came to the first book in happy anticipation of the information it contained. I was unexpectedly enchanted by his writing style and besides using it as a reference, I often reread some parts for the sheer joy of the language. I think of him as the Jan Morris of food science.

I will agree with that. In the summer in Texas, however, that remote thermometer lets you sit in the air conditioning and drink beer. Sometimes, even a good shade tree isn't enough. You can still act like you are in control of the situation. You can also dazzle your friends by sounding wise about the 170 stall. "Good grief! It really has stalled." "Gee... The thing is still stuck." "Let's start a lottery on when it starts to move up." These are deep and spiritual conversations requiring another beer.

Great suggestion, sparrowgrass! That will work for anyone here. When I get a chance to make that call in the next few days, I will report what I find out.