What makes chili... chili? (lentil, sesame, black pepper, powder)
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This past Sunday my chili won first place in the Church's Chili Cook-Off.
I mentioned it to some on line friends and was asked if I would share it. I don't follow any recipe completely...but this is close to my prize winning chili.
Ingredients
Almost 4 lbs of ground beef
1 pound of ground pork
A large white onion chopped, 5 lrg cloves of garlic minced
1 bell pepper
1 large can of original Roselle's Tomato with green chili
2 large cans of tomato sauce
1 bottle of beer
1 can kidney beans (optional) spices: chili powder....6-8 Tablespoons, cumin about 5 teaspoons, 2 teaspoons Oregano, 5 small bay leaves, black pepper,3 teaspoons of smoked coriander, maggi seasoning a few dashes
2 ounces bakers chocolate unsweetened--grated
3 or 4 Tablespoons of sugar
I browned the beef and pork in batches....so it browned and didn't boil in the excess liquid and fat. I used a baster to take off the grease while it cooked. I added the onions and green pepper and garlic to the pan toward the end and added all the meat back. I then added the beer, tomatoes and sauce, spices and mixed and let simmer and then added the chocolate and the sugar.
I put mine all in a large (6 qt) crock pot slow cooker and cooked it for about 6 hrs. Let it cool a bit and skimmed off any fat that came to the top.....I even laid some paper toweling across the top to degrease the chili. Then I put the pot in the fridge overnight. In the morning I skimmed off the congealed fat (there wasn't much)....and adjusted the seasonings....(more chili powder).....and let it reheat in slow cooker for the next 4 hours before service.
It was very good. I got a blue ribbon. I also got indigestion from all the testing and tasting and the bowls for two days and all I ate of everyone else's chili at church.
Congratulations, Elston. I've only ever gotten 3rd.
When we lived in S Cal.......I won 1st for a white chili I entered. So this is my second time winning first prize. Maybe that makes me a chili master.
Next year I think I mightl enter Cincinnati chili.....but not sure how to bring the spaghetti for 3 way chili to the church buffet--maybe just make the chili and serve it with oyster crackers and chopped onion and shredded cheese as toppings.
I wish I could say Dos Equis or Corona ...but I like pale lager beers......I think it might have been Pacifico. I don't think it really matters....there are so many flavors happening in this chili....the beer provides a vehicle to transport them all...but doesn't stand out. I don't think anyone eating it even knew there was chocolate or beer in it.
These discussions are always funny, so many purists (many of them clustered in a certain geographical region of the country) emphatically stating what is and isn't chili.
The first chili was likely just dried beef, beef fat (suet), dried chiles, salt, and water. So if you want to be completely technical your "authentic" chili shouldn't have any onions, garlic, bell peppers, cumin, black pepper, oregano, beer, vinegar, sugar, beef stock, etc. either. If you put garlic in your chili, it's not chili, it's hamburger soup! And how many of you use dried beef and suet in your chili?
Chili might have even originated in pre-Columbian civilization. No one really knows for sure. And it's highly unlikely the settlers making chili on the trail were such purists. They probably used whatever they had or could get. If they killed a turkey or a deer they probably used that.
If you add corn, beans, tomatoes, cactus, etc. to your chili it's still chili. People mash some cauliflower into their mashed potatoes and you don't see people declaring that it's not mashed potatoes, listing the only acceptable ingredients, and talking about what was in the first mashed potatoes. If people add okra to their vegetable soup people say "mmm that sounds good!" and "good idea!" but try to adding some okra to chili and people get all up in arms and it turns into a 20-page flame war.
Some of the ingredients people add sometimes do make me cringe a little though, e.g. celery and carrots, just because I don't think those flavors fit. But to me tomatoes round out the flavors. They should not be the dominant flavor though and should be used somewhat sparingly so that they don't overpower the dried chiles. Sliced nopales are great in chili. Black beans are alright and add some nutrition. Deer meat or bison make good chili in lieu of beef, and so on. I've even used refried beans to thicken chili, and a few times I've added black lentils.
The main things to me are chile powder (which I usually make from anchos, cascabels, chiltepin, and red jalapenos), cumin, and Mexican oregano (which I add fresh in the last ~10 minutes of cooking, don't care if it's not authentic to use fresh, it tastes better). I also usually add some coriander (seed, for the non-Americans).
Last edited by EugeneOnegin; 07-10-2013 at 02:05 PM..
I grew up with tomato based chili - hamburger, dark red kidney beans, onion, lawry's chili seasoning - and cornbread of course.
I modified mine over the years - light red kidney beans, can of cheap beer, hamburger, cumin, garlic, stewed tomatoes - and the cornbread
Currently it is made with pinto beans and the above - my younger kids never liked the kidney beans so I switched. But since the girls are with grandma this week - I am making chili tonight. - Gonna use kidney beans and pinto beans.
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