Tonight's entry is about something near and dear to my heart: Chili. I love making chili, likely more than I love eating it, though I do love a well made chili. So much so, that I've gone to some great lengths to learn more about chili, its origins, and its varied styles, before settling on my own make, which is a Texas style chili con carne, which I can't get enough of.
About a month ago, I met a newcomer to my workplace, who had brought chili to a staff meeting that I wasn't sure I wanted to be at. His chili made my night, because even though it wasn't a traditional Texas style chili, it was made well and had wonderful flavour. I spent most of the night, in between staff meeting topics, asking him a bunch of questions and discussing my love of chili with him as he did the same with me. Well needless to say, we shortly thereafter determined we needed to get together to cook some chili.
This proved to be more of an adventure than we thought, and took about 2 months to really figure out. While we were trying to work out the logistics of work schedules and time off, and time to dedicate to a proper batch of chili, I happened upon a rare find at the grocery store: A Bhut Jolokia Chile. Many of you know this chile as a "Ghost Chile Pepper", and may have heard this name tossed around on the internet or on several popular cooking shows on various cable network shows. I was so surprised to see it, that I bought it immediately.
I told my coworker about this find while we were at work together, and suddenly not only did he want to try it in a good batch of chili, but so did a wide variety of people at work, both carnivores and vegetarians alike. This was the start of what turned into tonight's events: Winter Chili Festival 2012.
Every autumn, I make a batch of chili and bring it in to work to share with my coworkers. This past autumn, I made two batches, in deference to my vegetarian coworkers, and soon found that both chilis were gone in less than 4 hours. What a hit! I'd discussed having a second batch for the winter, though wasn't sure if I was actually going to do so, until I really started coordinating this chili event. Well, after getting everything worked out, it so happened that my coworker was able to come over this evening, albeit a bit later than I'd hoped, but who cares, we were getting together to have some wonderful chili, and explore the potency of this "Ghost Chile". What follows is the events of the day surrounding my making two batches of chili simultaneously. Here is where we start:
I began by getting out a half sheet pan and oiling it rather well, setting the oven to about 550 degrees, and putting out 2 Poblanos, 2 Anaheims, and a Jalapeño on said pan and letting these chiles roast in the oven until the skins were charred and black.
While the chiles were roasting, I chopped up a large onion, which turned out to be 2 cups per half:
By the time I was done with the onion, it was time to flip the chiles the first time, so using tongs, I did just that and let them continue to roast. I then set the two pans out on the top of the stove: my cast iron dutch oven and my medium stockpot, and put a little oil in them to get glistening over low heat. I kept turning the chiles in the oven until all sides were well charred, and I had this to look forward to:
I covered these and let them rest, while putting the onions into the cooking vessels to caramelize over medium heat, and adding a little salt.
While these were going, I prepared one pound of stew beef for the one batch of chili, cutting it into chunks of a little larger than 1/4 inch each. After putting the beef back into the fridge, I opened up the canned, diced tomatoes I had been saving, a total of about 28oz per batch of chili, drained them, and waited. Once the onions were caramelized, I added the meat to the first batch, let it brown, and then immediately dumped each batch of tomatoes into their respective vessels.
While these were stewing up, I rinsed, de-seeded, and chopped up my roasted chiles and portioned them out for each batch: 1 Poblano and one Anaheim per batch, and the Jalapeño for the beefy chili.
As it turns out, the combination of the two larger chiles came out to about a cup each, which was perfect for what I was trying to accomplish: roasted chile flavour without overdoing the burn. After letting some of the water evaporate from the stewing tomatoes and onions, I lowered the heat to low so that the chili would continue to stew, but nothing would stick to the bottom. I then dumped each of these roasted chiles into their respective vessels.
I let these stew for about 20 minutes while I prepared my special spice mixes for the chili. Here is where I deviate a bit. I will tell you the recipe for these batches because its not something I've finalized, and I have a few more adjustments to make. This is not my competition chili, so I am ok with letting you know what is in the mix. See the recipes at the end of this entry for details. When the mixes for the first spice dump were finalized, this is what I ended up with:
I'm afraid I got a little lazy and didn't take photographs of the second spice dump, but since you are getting the recipe for this chili, you're not really missing out on anything. Anyway, the second spice dump isn't for a while yet, as this spice dump needed to get distributed throughout the stewing food. Once these were added, however, I am very pleased to say that the kitchen suddenly bloomed with aroma, as the colour of the chili also changed to that beautiful mahogany red that I love to see in a good batch of chili.
I let this stew for about 30 minutes. In case you haven't noticed, by the way, there are two spoons sitting on the stove. The reason for this is, again, that the chili on the right is a vegetarian chili, and I didn't want to mix up the spoons between the two when cooking. Veggie stays veggie and gets no mix of the content from the meat chili on the left.
I'm afraid that I'm a little shy of photos for this next section, but I imagine that you're tired of seeing photos anyway. The next step was to put in the stock for each batch. One cup of stock per, for that matter. Now generally, you can use either chicken stock or vegetable stock in the meat chili, because both are neutral enough to only add just the right amount of flavour to the chili without overtaking it. In the case of these batches, I used chicken stock in the meat chili and vegetable stock in the veggie chili.
I let these stew uncovered for about another 30 minutes, watching the liquid reduce, and then added spice dump part 2. I then covered both of the vessels and let them stew for about another 30 minutes. By the time I took the lids off, the aromas were amazingly fragrant, and I ended up with chili that looks like this:
Now I know what you are all wondering: What about the "Ghost Chile"? Well, the fact is that my company hadn't arrived yet as of the time that the chili was nearing its completion, so I uncovered the chili again and created my Masa Harina slurry, which I use as a thickener in all of my chili. Since I don't have a photograph of that, I will post a photograph of the ground/dried spices I used to compose my mixes:
With the thickener in, I again covered the chili for about another 15 minutes and then uncovered it while I let the remaining excess of liquid reduce. About this time, my coworker finally arrived, and I removed the "Ghost Chile" from its bag, put on rubber dishwashing gloves, washed my hands with the gloves on, grabbed my favourite paring knife, and cut into the chile.
I have to say, that while there was only a mild scent of the fruit, the non-scented fumes from the capsaicin were airborne within seconds, and we had a very mild bit of coughing to deal with before we stripped the seeds from the inside and saved a few, then sliced the chile into ribbons and dumped it into the veggie chili. After letting that cook for about 10 minutes, I turned off the burner on the meat chili, and then added drained black beans to the veggie chili. After letting this cook for about 15 minutes, we were ready to eat.
I had everyone (except my partner) sample both chilis, and the responses were overwhelming. I'm rather self conscious about my own cooking at times, even when I know its good, and I found that my self confidence, while humble, was justified. I got rave reviews on this chili, both batches. I was very surprised, too, because this was the first time I'd ever bothered to write down my chili recipe as I made it. Usually I just guesstimate as I go, and it comes out good. But this time, I made a recipe. I'll share the recipes for these chilis in their raw form, since you already have the cooking guidelines in the entry.
I have to say that after eating this with my friends, and having lots of fun conversation and story telling afterwards, that Winter Chili Festival MMXII was a smashing success! The chili was a hit, and I think I'm ready to take the next step in preparing a competition level chili for the next Chili Festival. As I sign off, I'll leave you the raw recipe as I jotted it down.
Happy cooking, everyone!
Spectral Chili:
1/2 tsp Ground New Mexican Chile
1/2 tsp Ground Chipotle Chile
1/2 tsp Regular Chili Powder
1/2 tspx2 Ground Cumin
28oz diced tomatoes, drained (if canned)
2 cups of yellow onion
1 roasted Poblano Chile, seeded
1 roasted Anaheim Chile, seeded
1 diced/chifonade Bhut Jolokia Chile, seeded
1 cup vegetable stock
1/2 cup of hot water & 1/2 tbsp of Masa Harina mixed well
1 can of black beans, drained
Kim's Kickass Chili Kon Karnal:
1/2 tsp Ground New Mexican Chile
1/2 tspx2 Regular Chili Powder
1/2 tspx2 Ground Cumin
28oz diced tomatoes, drained (if canned)
2 cups of yellow onion
1-2 pounds of stew meat of your choice (in this case, beef)
1 roasted Poblano Chile, seeded
1 roasted Anaheim Chile, seeded
1 roasted Jalapeño Chile, seeded
1 cup vegetable OR chicken stock
1/2 cup of hot water & 1/2 tbsp of Masa Harina mixed well
No comments:
Post a Comment