Chili – Cook-Off 15

[Daniel]

Markin,

Awesome recipe.. Thanks so much for posting it..

I followed the recipe besides adding a little more cumin and some corn flour to thicken.. I roasted 20 poblano peppers, added 2 pounds of cubed pork tenderloin and covered with liquid that was soaking the peppers... It was great..

Garnished with shallots,cilantro, cheese, and creme fraiche..

I like this better then last nights chili,, Spicy, great fresh flavors, the pork was perfect..

Edited October 27, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[Chris Amirault]

How long did you cook the tenderloin, Daniel?

[snowangel]

How long did you cook the tenderloin, Daniel?

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I'd be most tempted to use bone in country-style ribs (boned, cubed, but bones added to chili to be fished out later) or a nice butt than tenderloin. But, what do I know?

[Chris Amirault]

How long did you cook the tenderloin, Daniel?

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I'd be most tempted to use bone in country-style ribs (boned, cubed, but bones added to chili to be fished out later) or a nice butt than tenderloin. But, what do I know?

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Yeah, that's why I asked. If it was a pretty quick chili, then I think tenderloin might work ok. But butt or shoulder if it's going to cook for a while.

[Daniel]

I cooked the tenderloin for 40 minutes.. Then added the peppers for another 30 minutes.. I made it after work.. Started at 6 was eating by 730.. The meat was really tender.. And I used a loin of pork not tenderloin sorry....

Edited October 27, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[bloviatrix]

I made my first pot of chili for the season about 2 weeks ago. The weather had just changed, and it was so satisfying. I don't have any formal recipe for my version....

Cook 1 pound of black beans according to Russ Parson's method and add to water a smashed clove of garlic and sometimes one or two chipotles

Brown 1 pound of ground beef and set aside. Sweat diced onions, green peppers and garlic until soft. Add chile powder, cumin, and either ancho powder or pasilla powder (or a mix of the two), and sometimes pureed chipotle in adobo. Return meat to pan. Add cooked beans and diced tomatoes. Simmer away.

We have quart left in the freezer that we'll probably pull out over the weekend. We tend to eat it over rice. But I want to try some of the recipes referred to here.

[fifi]

. . . . .

Cook 1 pound of black beans according to Russ Parson's method and add to water a smashed clove of garlic and sometimes one or two chipotles

Brown 1 pound of ground beef and set aside.  Sweat diced onions, green peppers and garlic until soft.  Add chile powder, cumin, and either ancho powder or pasilla powder (or a mix of the two), and sometimes pureed chipotle in adobo.  Return meat to pan. Add cooked beans and diced tomatoes.  Simmer away.

. . . . .

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It sounds like you have this chili thing down to a fine science.

Someone above mentioned mixing cubed and ground beef. My dad experimented with that using the basic Pedernales River recipe. He was able to blend the best of both worlds. Then he started sneaking in some of the ground turkey in his endless quest to find a use for it. That worked pretty well, too actually.

I have been a long term fan of Chile Pepper Magazine. If you go back and look at some of the chili cook-off award winners, they seem to have a common element of adding beef bullion as cubes or other sorts. I have to admit that I have never tried it but I do find the commonality curious.

[bloviatrix]

. . . . .

Cook 1 pound of black beans according to Russ Parson's method and add to water a smashed clove of garlic and sometimes one or two chipotles

Brown 1 pound of ground beef and set aside.  Sweat diced onions, green peppers and garlic until soft.  Add chile powder, cumin, and either ancho powder or pasilla powder (or a mix of the two), and sometimes pureed chipotle in adobo.  Return meat to pan. Add cooked beans and diced tomatoes.  Simmer away.

. . . . .

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It sounds like you have this chili thing down to a fine science.

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From October through April there is always chili to be found in the house. It's really one of those perfect foods.

[TongoRad]

fifi:

I have been a long term fan of Chile Pepper Magazine. If you go back and look at some of the chili cook-off award winners, they seem to have a common element of adding beef bullion as cubes or other sorts. I have to admit that I have never tried it but I do find the commonality curious.

I think this goes to the old eatin' chili vs. competin' chili thing. Perhaps somebody with more recent experience on the competition circuit can verify this but it used to be that competition chili generally has more of a concentrated flavor punch and is a lot saltier that you would normally make it for yourself because you have a very limited window of opportunity to impress the judges. In that context the addition of boullion cubes seems to make sense, to me at least.

[Daniel]

Is this a chili cook-off our a chili talk off ... Lets see a little less talkie and a little more makie over here..

Edited October 27, 2005 by Daniel (log)

[TongoRad]

Is this a chili cook-off our a chili talk off ... Lets see a little less talkie and a little more makie over here..

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Daniel-

you must know that about 1/3 of the fun of chili is in talking about it. Another 1/3 comes from the eventual fisticuffs, and the remaining 1/3 comes from the actual eating of it.

I must say, though, that I find your zeal to be infectious ( I mean that sincerely) and will be making something this weekend and will try to borrow a digital camera to document whatever it turns out to be.

Edited October 27, 2005 by TongoRad (log)

[Daniel]

I was totaly kidding, Chili really is one of those social things.. The great thing about chili is how easy it seems with the few ingredients used, but the combinations are limitedless.. Give two people the same ingredients and you will get two different tasting recipes..

And I would like to add another 1/3 of making chili.. So we will actually call it a 1/4.. The trash talking aspect

[helenjp]

Oh, I made ours! I used pretty much the "Work in Progress" recipe, using beef and some lean pork spare rib chunks (or what passes for that in Japan).

I made the chili beans separately.

It was an interesting experiment. I thought I had far too much chili for our boys, but making it with much more meat and much less onion and tomato worked well - the chili heat just gets sucked up by the meat, it seems.

I used a Shuttle Chef pot overnight, then reheated and set it in the container again all day. The meat was melting tender, and the sauce colored up deep red despite the smaller amount of tomato.

[mizducky]

Doing some more poking around the net, I found two very intriguing chili recipes using lamb:

New Mexico Chili with Lamb

Zuni Green Chile Stew

Hitting the supermarket later in the day, I stumbled upon some lamb neck bones for a ridiculously cheap price. So I think there's some kind of lamb chili concoction in my near future.

[Chris Amirault]

Ellen, those look great! Juniper berries in that Zuni stew -- that's a surprise! Which do you think you'll make? The second one almost seems more like a pozole than a chili. Whatever that means...!

[MarketStEl]

Okay, true confessions:

Beans: My local supermarket (a Super Fresh, one of the A&P-family [Tengelmann] chains) has a store brand of canned chili beans ("America's Choice") that is quite good. I've been known to use these undrained, as they come in a fairly well spiced liquid. I think they are kidney beans, but they look smaller than kidneys to my eye; maybe they are pinto beans? Will investigate further.

Cooking method: Chili is one of those foods that are made for a Crock-Pot, and I give mine a steady diet of it. Since slow cooking is a form of braising, using cubed beef should work out just fine. I'm about to do the big grocery run after I finish this, so I now have something to look for on 9th Street. Say--if I use raw beans, would it be necessary to soak them first for chili? Mightn't they cook from their raw state in the sauce?

Cumin: It just doesn't seem right without it.

Thickness: I generally prefer a nearly-pasty consistency, IOW, very little liquid left. This requires a method other than a Crock-Pot, however. I've made a conscious trade-off in favor of the set-it-and-forget-it effortlessness of slow-cooker chili. Besides, it fills the apartment with that wonderful smell for much longer. I guess I could use less liquid in my recipe.

I promise I will have product to share with all of you sometime in the coming week.

[TongoRad]

I went through my freezer yesterday and discovered that the chuck that I thought was in there turned out to be a brisket instead. Not that I blame her mind you, but my wife immediately informed me that if I made chili out of her brisket she would kill me dead. So it looks like the chile verde that I alluded to way back in the beginning of the thread is off the table for now. I did find some ground beef in there, though, so a ground beef and beans chili it will be, and I'm kinda jazzed about it to tell the truth. I will make sure to take note of my measurements and post a recipe when I'm done.

Good luck and happy cooking, all! I look forward to seeing more entries soon.

[mizducky]

Ellen, those look great! Juniper berries in that Zuni stew -- that's a surprise! Which do you think you'll make? The second one almost seems more like a pozole than a chili. Whatever that means...!

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Yeah, I'm not totally certain even the Zunis think of that stew as "chili" as such--notice that the recipe's title carefully calls it "green chile stew." But it's got enough things in common with other New Mexico green chilis that I figured it was at least a near relative.

What I'm probably going to do is a hybrid of these and other NM green chili recipes I've found from random Googling. From these recipes here, I'm taking the inspiration to use lamb as the main meat. From others I've seen on the net, I'll be taking the idea of using potatoes instead of beans.

Say--if I use raw beans, would it be necessary to soak them first for chili?  Mightn't they cook from their raw state in the sauce?

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I am far from anybody's idea of a chili expert, but if I were using dried beans I'd cook them separately first, then add them to the chili to cook some more (bearing in mind the earlier discussion that the acidity of tomatoes would keep them from breaking down into mush). However, if you're doing this in a crockpot with a lot of liquid, that probably would be enough time and moisture for uncooked dried beans to cook ... so I dunno.

[fifi]

Cooking method: Chili is one of those foods that are made for a Crock-Pot, and I give mine a steady diet of it.  Since slow cooking is a form of braising, using cubed beef should work out just fine.  I'm about to do the big grocery run after I finish this, so I now have something to look for on 9th Street.  Say--if I use raw beans, would it be necessary to soak them first for chili?  Mightn't they cook from their raw state in the sauce?

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Beans should be pre-cooked. If you have tomato product in the chili, or anything else acidic for that matter, your beans won't cook up right. Then you get into the situation where you don't know how much liquid you would need to cook the beans. My true confession is that, if I am using beans like in Whacked-Out Chili, I use a good brand of canned. Goya seems to do a good job of cooking beans without them getting mushy.

[little ms foodie]

we've got a spicy pork chili from Gourmet magazine on the menu for Tuesday.....we are making it on Sunday though to give it time to get really good!

[Jake]

Made chili last night using 1/2 inch cubes of sirloin. First time I'd done it this way, really prefer the texture. No recipe just used the usual onions, garlic, tomatos dried pasillo and guajillo chilles, some unknown chile powder a friend picked up in Mexico for me and a bit of chipotle powder for some smokiness. Also added Mexican oregano and some finely chopped cilantro. I was cooking some black beans separately for something else, so I threw a few of those in at the end too. Served with crema, chopped onion and cilantro. I will definitely use cubed meat in future, I really prefer the taste. I personally prefer my chile without beans, but throw them in for my other half. This one was really good, smoky and quite spicy. Had another bowl for lunch today...

[Chris Amirault]

Jake, how thick was it? I definitely lean on the spackle end of the spectrum, though I can appreciate the benefit of drippy juices soaking down.

People, we need more photos!!

[gourmande]

Doing some more poking around the net, I found two very intriguing chili recipes using lamb...

Phew!!! Someone else mentioned lamb first. I was afraid to post this earlier, but one of my favourite chili recipes (I use the term loosely) includes lamb, chick peas, toasted ground coriander and fresh mint.

Back in the day, we'd have après-ski chili nights, and one weekend, a friend brought her lamb chili that wowed us all! I've been attempting to replicate it ever since...

I plan on making a ground beef version tomorrow and for the first time, I may even take notes as to actual ingredients and quantities...

[Chris Amirault]

Phew!!! Someone else mentioned lamb first.  I was afraid to post this earlier, but one of my favourite chili recipes (I use the term loosely) includes lamb, chick peas, toasted ground coriander and fresh mint. 

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OK, I'm going to pick up the gauntlet here. How is this chili? It sounds like a wonderful braised lamb stew. Are there actual chilis in it?

I mean these questions in the friendliest of ways, of course!

[gourmande]

Phew!!! Someone else mentioned lamb first.  I was afraid to post this earlier, but one of my favourite chili recipes (I use the term loosely) includes lamb, chick peas, toasted ground coriander and fresh mint.

OK, I'm going to pick up the gauntlet here. How is this chili? It sounds like a wonderful braised lamb stew. Are there actual chilis in it?

I mean these questions in the friendliest of ways, of course!

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Well, to begin with it involves ground lamb rather than cubed (which is what I associate more with stew), the "chilis" or peppers I have used in various incarnations include the sweet red and yellow varieties along with fresh hot Thai peppers, and/or smoked paprika or dried chipotle... as I said it's a work in progress so to speak (the original recipe was never divulged), but it absolutely is an interesting twist on "chili"... and YES, quite good.