Chili – Cook-Off 15

[lexy]

This recipe reminds me of a veggie chili recipe that a friend used to make back in the day that used TVP. Anyone use that? Anyone even know what it is? (I know, I'm dating myself...!)

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TVP is Textured Vegetable Protein - it's some sort of soy product. You soak it in water (or stock for more flavour), and use it in a recipe as you would use ground meat. It looks meaty, and sort of approximates the right texture, but I find it pretty tasteless, so I like to use some other meat subsititute unless I'm trying to make something that visually appears to have ground meat in it.

[torakris]

I guess you could call this the Okinawan version of chili....

This is actually called taco rice, but the ground beef is seasoned just like for chili and a lot of the toppings are the same, though I went a bit overboard with the lettuce.

[fifi]

Kristin . . . You just gave me a great idea to stretch that last bit of chili to serve a few. Of course everything is good on rice! I knew that!

[snowangel]

I guess you could call this the Okinawan version of chili....

This is actually called taco rice, but the ground beef is seasoned just like for chili and a lot of the toppings are the same, though I went a bit overboard with the lettuce.

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This would look like an entry to the Composed Salad cookoff as well! Doing double duty, I see!

[misstenacity]

Now, I don't think this actually counts as 'chili', but I'm simmering in the crocky pot right now my first batch ever of MENUDO.

Its stomachy goodness!

Andrea

http://tenacity.net

[prasantrin]

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That looks awesome! Is this the recipe you used? I think I'm going to have to make this soon...it's just turning a wee bit chilly in this part of the world, and that means chili! (And soups, but that's another thread!)

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Let's say I used the above recipe to make chili. But suppose I didn't have crushed tomatoes with puree, and instead substituted diced tomatoes (no puree) and added the whole can (liquid and all). But now, the chili is looking a little more liquidy than it probably should (after having simmered for 90 minutes already). When I add the beans, will that help thicken it? Or should I add something else? Puree some canned tomatoes? Help my chili!

All this is purely hypothetical, of course, lest y'all think I'm one of those people that substitutes everything, then asks, "What did I do wrong?"

But help would be appreciated!!!

(Did I mention I didn't have any oregano, so I put in some sage, instead?)

Edited to ask: Do you skim the grease off the chili, or just mix it all in for that extra fatty flavour? What to do, what to do....

Edited November 6, 2005 by prasantrin (log)

[Chris Amirault]

A few quick thoughts a bit too early in the morning....

You could try ladelling off most of the moisture into a pot with some of the beans, and then gently crush those as you heat them with the liquid. You could also just reduce that liquid without the beans. Fried tomato paste, corn bread, shredded tortillas, even corn flour can be used to thicken up chili, too.

As for the extra fat, that's really about taste -- but if you get your chili to thicken up it'll incorporate instead of sitting atop the meat.

[Chris Amirault]

I wanted to link to the no-soak method for beans, which I'll be using today. Here's a link to Fifi's post about that method: click. I'm planning to add some onion, garlic, pepper, and Mexican oregano to this recipe and doubling it. Results to follow.

I alwo wanted to say that the Time/Life volume on American cooking has a three page section on chili by Dale Brown, which includes the following:

[W]e heard of chili's beginnings in San Antonio and its popularization there in the last decades of the 19th Century. It was made then from such purely local ingredients as chile ancho -- a coarse red pepper looked down upon by the Mexicans to the south -- wild marjoram and tough beef, so tough it had to be chopped to make it chewable.

... [A]s though to imprint once and for all in our mind the idea that chili is an American invention, [our host] took out a Mexican dictionary and proudly translated: "Chile con carne: detestable food with the false Mexican title[.]"

It's hard to tell from a quick googling, but I think that "wild marjoram" is the same as "Mexican oregano."

[schnitzel]

My Chili starts like this:

Had some hot green chiles from the garden so added those for a kick.

Prefer to use beef chuck cut into 1/2" dice but ground will do in a pinch...

No beans.

[fifi]

. . . . .

It's hard to tell from a quick googling, but I think that "wild marjoram" is the same as "Mexican oregano."

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I am going to say that that is a "Yep." Though I don't know how they can call it marjoram. Of course, it doesn't really taste like oregano either. It is close, but no cigar. There was probably wild garlic growing around the area as well. As I said above, the cumin came in with the Canary Islanders.

[Ktepi]

Chili cassoulet!

Bear with me if the photos don't work at first, I don't believe I've posted images here before and might get it wrong.

Like I said above, what I had in mind with "chili cassoulet" was something which would come out with deep flavors, something rich. I was figuring on a lot of smoked flavors originally -- chipotle, smoked pork -- but scaled that back.

Some of the ingredients --

Not pictured: lots of stuff that wouldn't fit there, actually, and of course all the meat.

I precooked 8 oz. of Mexican-style chorizo (no lymph nodes), 8 oz. of skirt steak roughly chopped, and 2 pounds of chili-grind chuck, and combined those with a couple handfuls of smoked pulled pork from the butcher.

Cooked a few strips of jowl bacon, reserved them, and sauteed two bell peppers, two onions, one Anaheim chile, and one cayenne chile in the bacon fat. (Note: this is a lie. I ate the bacon and cooked more later. I was supposed to reserve it, though.) Cut the skin off the block of jowl and tossed that in with the mixed meat.

Ground some spices -- the grains of paradise and cumin pictured there -- and added them, along with Mexican oregano, smoked bittersweet paprika, coarse paprika, a pinch of cinnamon, a bulb of roasted garlic, and half a cup or so of strong demiglace, to a box of Swanson's beef broth, simmering it until the demiglace melted. I didn't have any homemade stock -- any time I do have it, I make demiglace.

At first I layered things (meat, veggies, pinto beans, repeat x2, pouring the broth over at the end) --

-- and then I realized they weren't going to fit, and I've have to sacrifice layering in favor of the larger cook pot:

Those chunks of pork really needed to be buried further down anyway.

Cooked it most of the day. About three hours at 300, two hours rest, two hours at 350, and then topped it with a layer of crushed Fritos (thank you, Linda) and baked it for another 40 minutes or so at 400.

The final product, minus two servings. See that orange grease pooling up? Yeah you right.

We had it with Boulanger bread on the side, shredded Tillamook cheddar and chunks of queso fresco, and caipirinhas. And although I've frozen a third of it, I think it's gonna be lunch all week.

[fifi]

Oh my . . . Words fail me, Bill. That looks just gorgeous. Did the smokiness of the smoked meat come through?

I have got to try this. Or at least some version of it.

[lperry]

Chili cassoulet!

Ground some spices -- the grains of paradise and cumin pictured there -- and added them, along with Mexican oregano, smoked bittersweet paprika, coarse paprika, a pinch of cinnamon, a bulb of roasted garlic, and half a cup or so of strong demiglace, to a box of Swanson's beef broth, simmering it until the demiglace melted.  Those chunks of pork really needed to be buried further down anyway.

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Would you mind explaining the flavor of the grains of paradise? I've never tried them, but the name makes them sound awfully tempting.

Thanks

-Linda

[little ms foodie]

Let's say I used the above recipe to make chili. But suppose I didn't have crushed tomatoes with puree, and instead substituted diced tomatoes (no puree) and added the whole can (liquid and all). But now, the chili is looking a little more liquidy than it probably should (after having simmered for 90 minutes already). When I add the beans, will that help thicken it? Or should I add something else? Puree some canned tomatoes? Help my chili!

yes the beans with thicken it up quite a bit, also the remainder of the simmer time should do it too. Can't wait to see the results!

[Ktepi]

Oh my . . . Words fail me, Bill. That looks just gorgeous. Did the smokiness of the smoked meat come through?

I have got to try this. Or at least some version of it.

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The smokiness is right about at what I would have called a compromise level -- smoky enough for me to pick it up, unsmoky enough that my ex who doesn't like too much smoke flavor (especially if it isn't barbecue) wouldn't have a problem with it. I should probably have put more smoked pulled pork in it, but it's a new addition to the butcher's, and wound up being so good I wanted to save more of it for sandwiches.

I forgot to mention that I garnished it with bacon, but you can see that in the photos -- and the bacon definitely brings out the smoke flavor, as I'm noticing from today's baconless leftovers.

(And I figure most people don't know what jowl bacon is, since I didn't before moving to Indiana, and even most people I know here don't know what it is until I tell them: it's just what it sounds like, bacon made from smoked pork jowl instead of the belly, and it's amazing. It's sometimes skinned if it's sold sliced, but when it's whole, it comes with the skin on. It looks incredibly fatty, but comes out very crisp and rich. It, shagbark hickory syrup, and Montmorency cherries have been my best food discoveries here; when we move, it'll be with ten pounds of jowl bacon in a cooler in my lap.)

Unlike most chilis I make, it turns out Louisiana hot sauce is not a good garnish on these leftovers, I don't know why. I have some habanero roasted ketchup from a few days ago, but it's potent stuff and I wasn't sure I was awake enough for it.

[Ktepi]

Would you mind explaining the flavor of the grains of paradise?  I've never tried them, but the name makes them sound awfully tempting.

Thanks

-Linda

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Oh sure. They're very peppercorn-like, although you can notice the difference right away -- I'm not sure how to characterize that difference, but it's like the way chicken and turkey certainly taste similar while still being distinct. Warm, and sometimes a little bitter, enough so that I don't use it on hamburgers and am more likely to use it when it cooks in something rather than on the surface of something.

I shouldn't be doing this, but I've been using them as a peppercorn substitute lately, only because I'm out of peppercorns and I'm not out of grains of paradise. Financially, this is really not a good idea, and I'm sure I'm shaming my Yankee mother.

[Chris Amirault]

Looks great, Bill. Quick question:

I precooked 8 oz. of Mexican-style chorizo (no lymph nodes),

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What do you mean by that parenthesis?

Looks like a lot of weekend chili going on here!

[Ktepi]

Looks great, Bill. Quick question:

I precooked 8 oz. of Mexican-style chorizo (no lymph nodes),

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What do you mean by that parenthesis?

Looks like a lot of weekend chili going on here!

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Oh, Linda had mentioned cheap Mexican-style chorizo having lips and lymph nodes, so when I was shopping for it, I found two brands, and checked the ingredients -- sure enough, one of them had lymph nodes listed; the other, just pork. I bought the pork -- I've bought the noded one tons of times in the past, but it's one of the chorizos I complain about for disintegrating too quickly into a pool of grease studded with suggestions of meat, rather than something I can actually work with.

[Chris Amirault]

The chili is simmering on the stove. The process so far. 3 1/2 lb chuck roast, which I have to say was so beautiful I took this glamour shot:

1 1/2-2" cubes:

Browned the cubes in a T or 2 of lard:

Poured off the fat and added two diced onions to brown in the fond:

Added several minced garlic cloves, then a few T of cumin that I had toasted and ground. Meanwhile, at the same time, I had toasted 5-6 ancho, pasilla, mullato, and chipotle chiles in that same skillet; I then doused them with a few cups of boiling water:

They all went into the blender:

I then added that chile paste into the dutch oven, along with some salt, cinnamon, ground cloves, and ground chocolate (a T or 2 each, though a bit lighter on the cloves). Fried that paste for a while, tasted, and decided it needed a bit of cayenne to increase the heat:

I then added the meat, a can of crushed tomatoes, and a couple of cups of chicken stock that I needed to use up for moisture:

Results a bit later!

[fifi]

That is really looking good, Chris.

What is it with the big chunks of meat? Are you guys too lazy to do a 1/2 inch dice?

I am now wondering why cinnamon isn't in the Whacked Out Chili recipe. I think it would be a good addition.

[MarketStEl]

Let's say I used the above recipe to make chili.  But suppose I didn't have crushed tomatoes with puree, and instead substituted diced tomatoes (no puree) and added the whole can (liquid and all).  But now, the chili is looking a little more liquidy than it probably should (after having simmered for 90 minutes already).  When I add the beans, will that help thicken it?  Or should I add something else?  Puree some canned tomatoes?  Help my chili!

All this is purely hypothetical, of course, lest y'all think I'm one of those people that substitutes everything, then asks, "What did I do wrong?" 

But help would be appreciated!!! 

(Did I mention I didn't have any oregano, so I put in some sage, instead?)

Edited to ask:  Do you skim the grease off the chili, or just mix it all in for that extra fatty flavour?  What to do, what to do....

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1. Thickening: If you look at my standard chili recipe--in truth, the recipe I used for the batch I made last Wednesday, posted upthread--you will see that I used canned diced tomatoes. I did drain them, however, since when you cook in a slow cooker, you have very little reduction in the liquid. I usually add no liquid beyond that found in the puree or drained tomatoes, plus whatever is left after draining the canned beans, and I also add a small can of tomato sauce to my chili, which also helps thicken the stew.

Even so, my slow-cooker chili usually comes out a little more liquid than I prefer, though thick enough to be satisfying. My preference for nearly pasty chili is probably a byproduct of growing up on Rice's chili in a chub roll. The R.B. Rice Co. was a Kansas City pork processor that made the leading brand of breakfast sausage in the area. They also made a very meaty heat 'n' eat chili, packaged in a roll like their sausage. It was very dense, the consistency of a thick paste, and the hot variety was very spicy indeed.

2. Sage: Substituting sage for oregano? Hmmmmmm.... I suspect this would alter the flavor more than you might have thought. How did the resulting chili taste? (I usually do not use oregano in my chili. I suspect that adding it might reduce the hint of sweetness I find in my chili.)

3. Grease: Skim off the grease? Heaven forbid! Stir it back in!

[Chris Amirault]

After quite a few hours simmering, then resting, then coming back to heat, here's the finished chili:

That yellow tinge is a photo effect, thankfully. And here are the beans using the oven-baked method. They turned out fantastic, I must say. Buh bye, bean soaking:

The finished product: baked potato (Andrea's favorite base), beans, chili, cheese, jalapeño:

Enjoying this with a fantastic Dogfish Head 90 Minute Imperial IPA.

Finally: ok, Linda, you win! It's clear that this big chunk of chuck is not traditional at all. I dunno how in the world I thought it was, but I did. Next time, I'll rough grind up the chuck. Traditional or not, I just love those strands o' beef!

[fifi]

No! No! No! Don't grind it up! Half inch dice, you fool!

[Chris Amirault]

Where's that damned cassoulet cook-off thread??!?

[fifi]

It snuck in here.

(Is "snuck" a past tense verb of sneak?)