Monthly Archives: October 2012

Chili Ingredients

I find chili interesting from a cultural perspective. Most everyone knows what they mean by chili but it’s fairly common for us to mean different things. One person’s ideal chili is another person’s waste of time. For some, chili has beans, for others (like me) beans are just wrong. I suppose there really isn’t any one chili recipe that can be called “authentic” to the exclusion of all others. That’s not to say there aren’t ingredients that are inauthentic, even if they happen to be traditional in particular places. For instance, cinnamon is certainly traditional in Cincinnati but it’s not particularly authentic. As far as I’m concerned, pasta and beans fall into this category. Chili, to me, never has beans in it. You certainly can put beans in chili but as far as I’m concerned, it ceases to be chili as soon as you do.

Chopping The Beef

Anyway, this is what I put in my chili. We start with about 5 pounds of chuck roast. You can use ground beef but I prefer to start with a known entity. I chop it up pretty fine but you could easily cut it into fairly sizable chunks, since it’s going to fall apart by the time you’re done. The next ingredient is not authentic, I’m pretty sure, but I like to add some salt pork. You could easily use bacon or pancetta if that’s what you have. I cut it up into fairly small (0.5cm) pieces and then cook it until it’s a bit crispy. I add the beef, a little at a time, to that. It’s important to turn the temperature up to high so you get some good browning of the meat. At medium temperatures you’ll just stew the meat.

Onions, Peppers, and Spices

While that’s happening, coarsely chop the onions and put them in a food processor with the peppers, minced garlic, fresh thyme, ground cayenne, cumin, oregano, coriander, and salt. Shown here are large, dried Ancho and smaller Chipotle chilis, which are smoke-dried jalapeños, as well as fresh Anaheim chilis. Not the hottest combination but the smokiness of the dried peppers is important. You can control the heat with the ground cayenne. Shown here is a little less than a quarter cup, which means this will be a mild chili (you have to gauge your audience). A full quarter cup or more, or perhaps a chopped up scotch bonnet (Capsicum chinense) or two and you can bring the heat up as high as you like.

Two More Hours and It’s Done

For this amount of chili, I needed to process it in two batches because my vintage Moulinex La Machine II won’t hold that much all at once. If you find that it’s too thick to chop well, pour in a bit of the beer. Once it’s been given a good whiz, add it to the meat that’s been seared in the pot. Add the rest of the beer (or all of it if there isn’t any in the onion mixture). I find that using a pot that’s way too big is easier than one that’s just barely big enough so I use a great big pot. At this point, you can cover it well, turn the heat down to low, and let it simmer for a couple hours. In this final photograph it’s just started but in a couple hours it’s going to be a rich, dark color and really yummy.

That’s about it. For this batch, Dorothy asked me to add two cans of chopped tomatoes, which is fine. Or you can blend that with the onions so there aren’t any tomato pieces. Or leave it out entirely. It’s up to you. If you must add beans, then I can’t stop you, but it won’t be chili, as far as I’m concerned. I prefer to eat chili with fresh, chopped onions, grated cheese, and sour cream.

Lake Needwood

I stopped at Lake Needwood again today on the way to work to get a brighter picture of the lake. I really need to keep checking to see when the leaves turn, because this is going to be quite pretty then, I think. This morning there was more sun, although it wasn’t high enough in the sky to hit most of the lake. There was a light mist rising from the lake, which gave it an other-worldly feel. Of the left side of this photo there was a small boat with two people fishing. I wonder if they caught anything. To be honest, I’d rather have been fishing myself, than going to work.

Pad Poh Tack

If you like seafood, specifically shrimp, squid, scallops, and mussels, and you don’t mind a fair amount of heat, you could do a lot worse than the Pad Poh Tack at Thai Pavilion in Rockville. You can temper the heat a little by avoiding the “green beans,” as Kendra called them, or you can eat everything, as I did (except the mussel shells, of course). The flavors are quite good, although it lived up to it’s three-pepper rating.

From the Thai Pavilion menu:
54. Trang PAD POH TACK
Combination of shrimp, squid, scallops, and mussels sautéed with lemon grass, galangal, chili paste, and kiffir-lime leaves.

Needwood in Fog

I drive past Lake Needwood most mornings that I drive the carpool. Today was such a morning and with the rain we’ve had over the last 24 hours and with the fog that was so thick this morning, I decided to stop for a few pictures. This is a picture of an island in the middle of the lake, looking through the fog. Quite a peaceful scene, but of course I had to leave and get to work. What I need is a laptop and a lawn chair. Oh, well.

Costco Shopping Carts

Interesting to me that I have grocery shopping themed photos two days in a row. Not that interesting, I guess. Anyway, ran up to Costco for a few things after work today. I liked the patters made by the shopping carts in the parking lot.

The Frozen Food Aisle

I needed to stop at the grocery store for a few things on the way home this evening. I sent Dorothy a text asking what she wanted for dinner and she said that for a vegetable she wanted unshelled edamame. For some reason, I took this picture of the frozen food aisle at our local Safeway. So, I give you Frozen Foods.