Plan “B” Revisited: All About Chili!

Damn
That’s what I thought peering through the front window. What I expected was, well what the sign said, a Mexican grocery store. I had envisioned familiar and new, at least to me, ingredients – peppers, sauces, cheeses, vegetables and more all packed into this small store front on Route 70 in Cherry Hill. I had pictured a short dark man with an accent and a big smile working behind the counter who could answer my questions. I thought I’d be greeted by wonderful smells coming from behind a big glass counter where an older woman bustled about prepping all manner of homemade treats.

Instead I was greeted by a big empty room.

The door was unlocked but nobody was inside. There were no smells emanating from the small window in the back wall. The only thing that let me know that it wasn’t totally closed was the unlocked door and a handmade sign in Spanish with takeout pricing. So maybe this was just takeout now? I couldn’t smell any evidence that there was takeout to be had, but even if there was  takeout that wasn’t what I was looking for, I was looking for authentic ingredients. This was the second week in a row that my carefully laid plans had just crumbled. No matter. I’d fall back and punt.

Plan “B” Revisited: Chili a Fall Classic!
As the Fall has drifted toward becoming Winter I’ve been thinking about making chili. Chili, regardless of what Kato will tell you, is a great Fall comfort food. There’s nothing better, at least to me, to coming home, getting out of the cold and sitting down to a big bowl of hot chili – the spices, the peppers, and the meat all blending together into something that is far greater than the sum of its ingredients!

But it’s not really Mexican.

Texican vs Mexican
The foods that many American’s think of as Mexican are actually Tex Mex. Sort of. The border between what is Texican and what is truly Mexican isn’t very well-defined but most of the Mexican fast food that is sold in this country, at least this part of the country, is really Tex Mex.

True Mexican food is one of the great cuisines of the world. It’s infinitely more complex and sophisticated than what we’re used to. You could spend a lifetime learning about and studying Mexican food and in fact many famous Chefs such as Bobby Flay and Rick Bayless have done just that.

If I had to cite one “signature” preparation that would sum up Mexican cuisine, and this is a gross generalization, it would be molé poblano. Never heard of it? See! That’s what I mean. The most famous Mexican sauce there is and very few American’s have ever heard of it much less tried it. In Mexico 99% of the population has eaten at least one of the many regional variations of this dish.

Molé is a very complex sauce made with, depending on the variation, several dozen ingredients. Molé comes from a Nahuati word meaning “sauce” or “concoction”. Who the hell are the Nahuati, you ask? You know them better as the Aztecs. In addition to predicting the end of the world next year the Aztecs originated this complex sauce made from combinations of peppers, tomatillos, dried fruits, spices, and nuts. That’s an abbreviated list. The average molé sauce has at least 20 ingredients depending on the region it’s from. Some variations double or triple that number.

Molé sauce is one of the world’s great sauces and delicious on beef, pork, or chicken.

So I won’t be making molé sauce today. That’ll have to wait until I can find a good Mexican grocer.

If You Like Taco Bell Skip this Part
Still reading? Good for you! For the unenlightened Taco Bell is Mexican food. It’s not. However, let’s shelve that discussion for now. Here’s why I won’t eat at Taco Bell: the ingredients. So you’re thinking, “Yawn. We’ve heard this all before. Too much fat. Too much sugar. Too much salt. Preservatives. Boring!”

Wrong!

Well not really, that’s part of it, but in addition to all of those concerns a beef taco at Taco Bell has two of the most disturbing words I’ve ever read on an ingredients list.

Silicon Dioxide.

What the hell is that? I’ll tell you want that is, and I’m not making this up you can check their Web site’s nutrition facts page if you want, Silicon Dioxide is sand.

But, but why? Why would Taco Bell put sand in their tacos on purpose? I’ve never heard of any other recipe that called for sand. Well according to Taco Bell sand is added to prevent “clumping” and to allow the meat filling to smoothly flow down the “meat tube” that’s used to create their tacos.

Now sand is chemically inert. That’s why you can lay around on the beach all day almost naked with no ill effects beyond a sun burn. Sand when made into glass and sterilized can be left inside the human body with no real consequences.

The hell with that noise though! I know I don’t want sand in my food! Beyond that I find their term “meat tube” pretty disturbing in itself.

Chili – a History
So I’m going to make some chili a quintessential American comfort food. Not quite Mexican but what the hell!

So where does chili come from? According to Wikipedia chili was invented by American settlers as a way to preserve meat.

Wrong Wikipedia, Wrong!

Like a lot of things in Wikipedia this isn’t true. Since it’s written by the general public there’s a lot of stuff in Wikipedia that is just wrong. You’ve got to take everything in it with a grain of salt.

In this case they’re not giving credit to the Indians who lived in what’s now the American South West. They were preserving meat with salt and peppers for centuries before European intrusion. The Indians I suspect are used to this sort of oversight.

The settlers adopted this practice creating bricks of dried beef, suet, dried chili peppers, and salt that could be stored without spoiling and then be dropped into a pot with some water and reconstituted into a hot meal.

In the 1880s “Chili Queens”, women in brightly colored garb, would sell bowls of chili on the streets. A word of caution though, if you go looking for “Chili Queens” today I suspect you are in for an entirely different experience.

Before long chili parlors started appearing and began spreading North and East out of Texas. Each one had a “secret recipe” that included their own special ingredients. As the popularity of chili grew it began to spread world wide.

What’s In It Part One: Essential Ingredients
No one can really agree what goes in chili. For some it’s a secret only rivaled by the ingredients in barbecue sauce. For other’s it’s almost a religion, but everyone can agree on these three components:

• Meat: Traditionally it’s beef. Not ground beef rather chopped and or shredded beef. These days there are variations that replace the beef with chicken, turkey, pork, or even tofu.
• Chili Peppers: There are many types of chili  peppers and which ones to use is another source of debate among chili lovers, but some sort of chili pepper is used in every variation.
• Salt: There are all sorts of other spices used but everyone agrees that chili has salt in it.

What’s In It Part Two: Optional Ingredients
Everything else is in dispute. Chili zealots will argue for – well they’ll argue forever, on what does and doesn’t belong in chili. Some popular additions to the basic formula include:

• Beans: There is a saying in Texas, “You don’t know beans about chili because chili ain’t got no beans!”. However I’m a big believer in cooking things how you like them. Beans? I like them! They’re a great source of fiber, tasty, and very good for you.
• Tomatoes: Outside absolute purists most chili has some form of tomatoes in it.
• Other Vegetables: This could include onions, garlic, corn, and even celery.
• Spices: Depending on whose secret recipe it is this might include cumin, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, even saffron.
• Miscellaneous Stuff: There are all sorts of other additions pineapple, bananas, coffee, chorizo, chocolate, the list goes on and on.

Making “Bob’s Chili”
So, what’s in my chili? If I told you I’d have to kill you wouldn’t I?

The truth is that I don’t have an exact recipe for chili. I’m a bit of an old Grandmother when it comes to chili. A lot of what goes into it depends on what I can get fresh when I decide to make it. However, I will tell you I like variety in my chili. I want each spoonful to be packed with different flavors and textures.

There’s no coffee or sugar free vanilla syrup in my chili I just didn’t clear off my counter.

Here’s what’s going into today’s batch:

• Ground Beef, Pork, & Veal: I opted for a blend usually meant for meatballs or meatloaf this time. I could have used ground turkey or chicken and had a healthier alternative but I think that with the sheer volume of other stuff I’m throwing into the pot that the fat will be “diluted” mixed as it will be with a lot of healthy beans.
• Chorizo: This is a type of Mexican sausage that will bring a lot of good flavor to the party.
• Beans: I like a lot of different beans in my chili. You could use dried and soak them first overnight but I usually use canned. I don’t drain them, the bean liquid will help thicken the chili. For this batch I’m using:
  • Chili Beans
  • Dark Red Kidney Beans
  • Light Red Kidney Beans
  • Black Beans
• Diced Tomatoes: Look for ones that include chili peppers – adds even more flavor!
• Peppers: I also like a lot of different peppers in my chili, each has a different flavor. Which ones I use depends on what I can get. Today they include:
  • Green Pepper: Bitter but they’ll add needed color.
  • Red Peppers: Sweeter than the green peppers these are very mild.
  • Poblano Peppers: A little spicier, poblanos have more flavor than heat.
  • Jalapeno Peppers: Here’s some of the heat. You could also use scotch bonnets or habaneros but the store was out of them. How much you use is up to you. Don’t like a lot of heat? Don’t use a lot.
  • Ancho Pasilla: These are just dried poblano peppers not really pasilla peppers. That’s a marketing term. Drying poblanos gives them a slightly different flavor than fresh poblanos. Throw them into a bowl with some hot water, zap them in the microwave, then let them soak. When they’re soft enough chop them up removing and discarding the seeds, stems, and membranes.
  • Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce: These guys are smoked jalapeño peppers in a tomato, onion and vinegar sauce. They come in a can and are great to keep in your pantry. There are a lot of ways to use these!
• Garlic
• Onions
• Seasonings:
  • Adobo: This is a shaker seasoning from the good people at Goya. It’s basically a seasoned salt that includes cumin, garlic, black pepper, oregano and turmeric. I’ll use this instead of salt to flavor the meat as it browns.
  • Sazón: Another fine Goya product it’ll also be used to flavor the browning meat. It includes monosodium glutamate, salt, garlic, saffron, and turmeric. If you’re sensitive to monosodium glutamate leave it out. I happen to have some on hand so I’m using it!
  • Carroll Shelby’s Chili Kit: This could be considered cheating but this is a good product! I could assemble the same ingredients myself but it would cost more. The kit includes:
    • Corn Masa Flour: You use this mixed with water to thicken the chili.
    • Chili Powder: Ground up chili peppers.
    • Salt: I’ll hold off on the salt and see how much I really think I need by tasting the chili. You can always add more but taking it out is hard!
    • Garlic
    • Cumin: One of the key spices in chili as far as I’m concerned!
    • Onion
    • Paprika
    • Cayenne Pepper: For the love of God taste the chili as you go. You may not need all the cayenne pepper, or you may not need it all. It matters how much heat you like.
• Fresh Cilantro: Added toward the end of cooking so the taste doesn’t just disappear.
• Beer: What ever beer you like. I wouldn’t use a stout or a bock – try a lighter tasting beer but in a pinch any beer will do.
• Olive Oil

That’s some list! The rest is procedural and doesn’t vary that much.

Soak the dried peppers in some hot water to re-hydrate.

Here’s the peppers coming out of the oven. There skins should slide right off after a couple minutes steaming in a covered bowl. If you have a gas range you could omit the olive oil and do this right on the burner!

I roast all of the fresh peppers in the oven, after I give them a little drizzle of oil, until their skins blister. Roasting peppers changes them completely extracting a depth of flavor that doesn’t exist in raw peppers. Then I take them out of the oven throw them into a big bowl and cover them. They’ll steam a bit in the bowl making their skins easier to remove. After they’ve cooled a bit you can rub their skins right off. The pepper skins don’t bring any real flavor to the chili and have a unpleasant texture. Clean them removing the seeds and the membranes inside the peppers. That’s where the real heat is. Make sure you don’t rub your eyes or any other sensitive parts of your anatomy after handling hot peppers. Chop them up into the desired size. I like my chili a bit “rustic” which is Foodie speak for fairly big pieces. Think about what size you’d like to see on a spoon.

Next, I dice up the onions and chorizo and sweat them a bit in a large fry pan. The goal here is to render some of the fat out of the chorizo and get the onions translucent. When that’s done replace the onions and chorizo with the ground meat and brown it. Toward the end throw in some chopped garlic and season with sazón and adobo. Drain off the rendered oils and deglaze the pan with some of the beer.

Throw everything into a big crock pot and put it on high. Crock pots are terrific for chili! You want to cook chili for a long time. The longer the better and you have to use low heat so the chili doesn’t burn on the bottom of the pan. If you don’t use a crock pot you’ll need to stir it quite often to prevent burning this can cause the beans to sort of break up. With a crock pot you won’t have this problem.

Before you put the salt in taste it! A lot of the products that this is assembled from have salt in them. You don’t want to over salt the chili.

When the chili comes to a simmer back the crock pot’s temperature off to low, throw a lid on it, and wait stirring once in a while. For how long? Well taste it now and again. You’ll know when it’s done.

An hour or so before you’re going to eat it check its consistency. If it’s not thick enough mix the masa from the “Chili Kit” with a little hot water and stir it into the chili. This will help thicken the chili up. If it’s thick enough leave the masa out. If you can’t find masa throw some white corn chips in a blender and pulverize them. They’ll thicken the chili just as well.

Maybe 15 minutes to a half an hour before serving throw some chopped cilantro in and give it a stir. How much? How much do you like cilantro? Remember you can always add more.

Finally drink the rest of the beer. You deserve it. That was a lot of work!

Serving Chili – the Options
In addition to all of that stuff I like to top a big bowl of chili with a lot of “extras”. This time these will include:

• Finely Chopped Onions
• Finely Chopped Cilantro
• Corn Chips
• Corn Bread (on the side!)
• Salsa (your favorite – whatever it is.)
• Diced avocado
• Grated Sharp Cheddar Cheese
• Queso Fresco
• Sour Cream
• Fresh Lime (squeezed on top – brightens the dish up!)

You could also serve it over rice or even pasta!

What to Do with the Leftovers?
Chili freezes well so putting some of this batch into the deep freeze is certainly an option.

I bought some great Hebrew National hot dogs, my favorite brand, so chili dogs are on the menu. I could also make chili cheese fries but I most likely won’t. Probably wouldn’t be good for me in the long run.

Much later in the week the leftovers will have thickened up a bit more, I’ll add some leftover shredded chicken, and I’ll make chili burritos out of it! I even bought some wraps just for that purpose.

What Do You Think?
Are you a chili fan? What do you do that I don’t?! Drop me a line and let me know!