Freeper Chili Cook-Off

[lawnguy]

Freepers, I would like your favorite chili recipes.

I know many of these recipes are top secret, but I will be happy to settle for those in the public domain.:-)

Thank You!!

[IronManBike]

If there is a recipe--ain't chili, sorry!

Cubed roast or chuck,

1/4 meat sausage,

nothing that resembles a bean!

Secret: habanero peppers and its vinegar,

hot mustard.

[Squantos]

Can't hold a candle to that old babe at the KAFB Bowling alley that made the Green Chili Stew.........damn I miss her............cookin !

[ChefKeith]

Well there must be some Yankee blood in there somewhere:o)

(ducking for cover now)

[Squantos]

8 generations of getting it wrong don't make it right but I'll bet it's good anyway !

Regards from the Panhandle !

[SuzyQue]

That remains to be determined. Sounds like we need to have a local cook-off to determine the veracity of your statement. (Or mine, for that matter!)

[ChefKeith]

Works for Me.

I'll need time to go kill some Bambi before we do it. (unless one volunteers to commit road-a-cide and I find it a fresh kill)

[ChefKeith]

LOL

[MamaTexan]

(ducking for cover now)

You BETTER run, you little stinker!

(grin)

[SAJ]

Here you go, m'friend. This one wins a cookoff now and then. Bit of trouble to make, but flavour is exceptional.

9-Pepper Chili

Ingredients: 3 lbs lean freshly ground chuck, 2 46 oz cans V-8 juice, 1 medium green bell pepper, 1 medium red bell pepper, 1 large Anaheim pepper, 2 large jalapeno peppers, 4-10 serrano peppers (they're small), 1 large poblano pepper, 2-4 fingerhot (Georgia green) peppers, 2 red string (cayenne) peppers, 2-3 medium yellow onions

Optional -- either 2 lbs well-soaked (overnight in beef stock with 1 oz ground cumin, 2 tbsps salt) and drained red beans, or 2 15.5 oz cans chili beans in sauce (I prefer them -- no lectures please about how 'authentic' chili doesn't have beans... If not using beans, add another 1/2 lb chuck, and more Anaheims and poblanos to keep the bulk/liquid ratio about right)

Optional -- 1 lb fresh rabbit or squirrel cut into cubes (quite good!). Add another 12-16 oz V-8 to the stock if using these

Spices: 3-4 oz cumin (minimum, fresh ground is way best), 10-12 medium cloves garlic, well-chopped (or 6-8 tsp prepared minced garlic), 1 oz fresh ground black pepper. Or more to taste, of course. No salt; we'll deal with salt later, and in any case the V-8 stock and the beans (if used) have stacks of salt.

In uncovered stockpot, reduce V-8 juice by 15-20% over medium heat (being a juice, it has too much water to start). While reducing, stem the peppers, then rough dice onions and all peppers, including the hearts and seeds, and set aside.

Brown ground chuck thoroughly in 4-6 tbsps of olive oil, draining about 80% of the fat (keep some, certainly, for the flavour). Add chuck, peppers, onions, and beans and rabbit or squirrel, if used, to reduced stockpot. Add black pepper and half the garlic at this point. Lower heat to simmer, and cover. Simmer approximately 90 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes or so. At the 60 minute mark, add half the cumin, stirring well.

After 90 minutes, if you intend to eat the chili today, add remainder of garlic and cumin and simmer another 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.

If you do not intend to eat it today, add remainder of garlic and cumin, stir thoroughly, remove from heat and refrigerate overnight, covered. This improves the flavour immensely, in my view. Do not discard the condensation that forms inside the stockpot lid; stir it back into the stock.

Reheat slowly, starting 1 hour or so before serving, and adding more cumin and/or garlic according to taste. Some adjustment will probably be necessary. Note: cumin is a relatively fragile spice, and WILL degrade under high or extended heating (this is why we waited to add it in the first place...)

Serve with side bowls of garnishes, fresh-grated sharp cheddar, or pecorino Romano (surprisingly good), chopped jalaps, chopped onion, diced fresh tomatoes (a can of Ro-Tel is very good, too), and oyster crackers

This recipe can be multiplied without damage, for large crowds

This chili, for all the peppers it contains, is pretty mild. If you prefer it hotter, or are making a batch for a group of people, some of whom are known to like it hot, here's one solution.

In a 2-quart saucepan, add 1-2 cups from the stockpot, 6-10 finely chopped habanero peppers, 6-10 finely chopped Thai red ('dragon') peppers, and whatever number you like of finely chopped pasilla, serrano, cayenne, and jalapeno peppers, along with 6 oz cider vinegar, 2 tbsps of your favourite hot sauce, and 1 tbsp prepared horseradish if feeling adventurous.

Loosely cover and place on medium heat for 15 minutes, boiling off perhaps half the vinegar. Best to have a ventilating fan on because the aroma is, er, unique. Serve in a separate bowl, and let the folks add what amount they like.

This will produce a very flavourful, and VERY hot sauce which can be added or not to each person's bowl, as desired. Do not screw around with this sauce -- it is hot. You have been warned.

If not all of these peppers are readily to hand, feel free to substitute others of the same relative 'hotness'. In ascending order, the heat index is, approximately -- bell, Anaheim, poblano, jalapeno, fingerhot, pasilla, cayenne, serrano...and the Thai red and habanero are off the scale. Your grocer or produce man can advise on substitution.

There are, afaic, only two inviolable rules for chili:

1) You probably can't use too much garlic.

2) You absolutely can't use too much cumin.

Dig in!

< donning habanero-proof flame suit >

[SuzyQue]

I like it. A central Texas Freeper chili cookoff. A good time could be had by all.

Of course - you're gonna lose! Well, I guess with chili and good company, no one really loses.

[MamaTexan]

8 generations of getting it wrong don't make it right but I'll bet it's good anyway !

LOL!

I won't get into the Great Bean Debate with you, 'cause I don't honestly know if my Mom made it that way because she thought it was 'right' or if she was just trying to get more *bang* for her food buck.

Hugs from the Heart O' Texas!

:-)

[Domestic Church]

I put 2 Tbs of Hershey's cocoa in mine....gives a richness to it.

[Squantos]

Back at ya !

All chili is good chili !

[M Kehoe]

If you use this receipt, then you owe me a six pack of Grolsch.

1 part ground beef

1 part hot sausage

1 part venison

2 large onions

2 cans red kidney beans, 2 cans light kidney beans

2 green bell peppers, 2 red bell peppers

2 cans diced tomatoes

1 can tomato paste

1/5 clove of garlic

6 small jalapenos, 1 habenaro

Cumin, Cayenne pepper, black pepper, Cinnamon, paprika, sea salt, and a dash of Dave's Insanity to taste.

2 ounces Jack Daniels

Cook and stir

I know that I left out some of the measures. Experimenting is fun.

5.56mm

[dread78645]

Great Bean Debate

Well sorta. The chili was served over the beans.

Military Plaza in San Antonio 1876 -- In the left foreground, the town's famous "chili queens"
operated "chili tables" to nourish visitors of all social classes.

"San Antonio in the nineteenth century is well known for the "Chili Queens" that sold chili con carne from their chili stands at the plaza. An authoritative early account is provided in an article published in the July 1927 issue of Frontier Times Magazine. In the article, San Antonio Commissioner Frank H. Bushick reminisces about the Chili Queens and their origin at Military Plaza before they were moved to Market Square in 1887.

According to Bushick, "The chili stand and chili queens are peculiarities, or unique institutions, of the Alamo City. They started away back there when the Spanish army camped on the plaza. They were started to feed the soldiers. Every class of people in every station of life patronized them in the old days. Some were attracted by the novelty of it, some by the cheapness. A big plate of chili and beans, with a tortilla on the side, cost a dime. A Mexican bootblack and a silk-hatted tourist would line up and eat side by side, [each] unconscious or oblivious of the other."

It was a newspaper writer Joe (?) Cooper that started the "No beans" nonsense. To promote his newly published book, he organized a World Champions Chili cook-off that didn't allow beans ...

[TheMom]

Chili is easy to make. The hardest thing to do is open the can.

[ken5050]

I like your recipies..many thanks..especially for the "mix" of chilis...however....I'm not sold on the V-8 juice..if I wanted to substitute..would you recommend diced orstewed tomatoes, puree, or a mixture of them?

[ken5050]

FYI..come play in our chili crock..

[SAJ]

Just fyi, the recipe posted was first made for me (tweaked it some since regarding the peppers, and he just loved salt, which I've reduced since) by my old cooking tutor, Louis d'Auberge Messarveaux, in 1969 just outside Plaquemines.

He used red beans, soaked as described. Moah bettah, Ah garontee. I guess he must have sneaked down to LA from Connecticut, right? (g!)

Never have understood why some folks add beer to chili. The alcohol cooks right off and you're left with kind of a wan hops/barley flavour. Guess I'm slow, but I just don't get it.

Of course, having a beer or two or five while making the chili, that I understand...heh heh heh...

;^)

[SAJ]

I'd take beefsteak tomatoes and puree them, I think. Figure a good beefsteak comes in at, say, 14-16 oz, you'd want about 6-7-8 of them, depending upon actual size.

Let the puree settle in the fridge for perhaps 1-2 hours, then drain off the really runny bit on top, probably about 1/4 of the whole (Otherwise, you get to do the reduction thing again).

Here, naturally, you'll want to add a good deal of salt to the stockpot, because you won't get the salt from the V-8.

Try the V-8 one time, though -- I think you'll like it. Something about it just works right.