The OFFICIAL Unofficial Achewood Message Board
Trivial Pursuits => Sports & Leisure => Topic started by: linnea on December 29, 2006, 06:32:02 am
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Hey dearly beloved pretend people on the intarwub:
I am cooking chili! I was sort of going off of Beef's Five Dollar Chili recipe. It's in the Crock-Pot now, and I've got it on high, but it's been an hour and it's still not bubbling.
My question is... I cooked the beef chunks in a skillet first. They were totally cooked through, then I sauteed some chopped sweet onions and garlic. I heated up the beans and tomatoes and spices in the Crock-Pot separately, and then I added the beef.
I was going to leave it simmer tonight so that I'll have hot, delicious Five Dollar Chili for brekkie tomorrow. The question is... is it okay to switch it over to "Low" heat? I'm going to be asleep for at least 8 hours.
I probably should have just called my friend who works for the Alaska DEC and does kitchen and boat inspections for food safety, but I figured that this would be a fun time to talk about Chili on the board, get some tips, and hopefully figure out how to avoid dying even though I'm using a Crock-Pot.
Discuss. <3 Give me pointers.
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Do you have a thermometer? Does it go to 160 degrees Fahrenheit or 71 Celsius? If so, pluck out a beef chunk and slap the thermometer in it (so the tip's in the middle) and take a reading. When that beef hits 160 degrees, it's completely safe from anything bad and also less than full of grelicious beef juice. 145 F (62 C) will do if you like your beef rare.
I'm guessing "low heat" is probably close to 200 F, so you're likely fine to leave it on. Most likely, with diced beef, you're fine if you've already sauteed it and haven't let it get cold.
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My favorite chili uses only one pot and includes venison, but lamb or bacon will improve the beef flavor nicely as well. BE FOREWARNED: Venison stinks like a motherbitch when it cooks, but the beef mellows it as much as it enhances the beef. Also, if you can't get good venison from a properly-aged deer, skip it entirely. No deer past 5 years old has any business being cooked, nor any younger than 3.
Choop's Venison Chili (yields 4-6 servings)
1lb. venison, in cubes (or lamb, or 1/4 lb. bacon in a slab)
1lb. beef, ground
1 14oz. can whole peeled tomatoes in sauce (not in puree nor water, though puree's better than water if you can't find them in sauce)
1/2 6oz. can tomato paste (the thicker you like it, the more you add, up to 1 can)
1 Anaheim chili
1 Poblano chili
2/3 cup olive oil, approx.
1/2 cup onion, minced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1tbsp salt (sea salt, raw salt, kosher salt, in order of preference; less if using bacon)
1tbsp crushed black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne
1/3 tsp cumin
1/3 tsp sage
dash cinnamon
dash oregano
dash basil
1 bay leaf
1 can black beans (optional)
Roast, peel, and dice both peppers. A butane torch works well, as does a toaster oven or gas stove burner. Remove the seeds, but leave the membrane - that contains the heat. Use only the flesh and membrane of the pepper.
Heat the oil over medium-high heat until the smoking point. Add the onions and sautee until translucent, about 2-3 minutes, then add the garlic and sautee another 1-2 minutes, until the garlic smells good but before it burns. Add the peppers, and sautee another minute.
Add the ground beef and brown. Add the diced venison or lamb and brown (if you're using bacon, leave it out until a bit later). As soon as your meat is browned, season with herbs and spices. Mix very well.
Turn the heat to medium-low and add the tomatoes (with their sauce/puree!) and tomato paste. If you're adding black beans, or bacon in place of venison or lamb, drain and add them now. Stir, and bring to a simmer, then turn the burner as low as it can go and still cook. Stir it every 5-10 minutes to keep from sticking; after 45-60 minutes your chili should be ready.
Also, sometimes I add a splash of beer to deglaze the pan before I add the tomatoes. If your liquid level seems low, or if you've overestimated your tomato paste, another splash or four of beer will help you even it out. I'd probably use red wine if that were what I drink when I cook chili. Neither will really change the flavor much, and the alcohol in beer or wine cooks out at like 120 degrees.
MAN I should totally get the Achewood cookbook.
Edit: On reread of your post, you got me thinking in a different direction. If your crock-pots wiring seems the least bit sketchy, put on some rubber gloves and unplug it and throw it away RIGHT NOW. Save the chili if and only if your crock-pot's cooking bowl is removable. Nobody needs an electrical fire. Nobody needs you to have an electrical fire. A new crock-pot is cheap in the long run.
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A crock pot is totally made to run for long periods of time. I'd say, as long as there are no moderately obvious issues with its age or wiring, that you go ahead and let that chumpy run overnight.
I makes me a mean pot o' chili. I think the important thing isn't so much the recipe, as the ingredients. Get yourself some really good chili powder, not crappy McCormick grocery store crappy crap crap. I like this one (http://www.penderys.com/detail.aspx?ID=42141).
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Chili powder is so hit-and-miss I don't use it any more. Usually what goes into chili powder is cayenne, cumin, salt, pepper, and preservatives. The better ones add better (and sometimes more various) spices and herbs, but I like the one I've come up with above, with the cayenne, cumin, cinnamon, sage, oregano, basil, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
But, hey, whatever you enjoy using is the best thing to buy.
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Ooooh god DAMN is this some delicious fuckin' chili.
I did not die, as evidenced by my post. I was mostly afraid of unleashin' death if the food was not kept at the proper temperatures. My Crock-Pot is brand spankin' new, and this was its inaugural dish to break it in.
I bought a small tray of beef steak chunks at the store, which was $8.95 (fuck you, Alaska prices). They pay people to arrange them carefully so that it looks as if you are buying a tray of bright red, jewel-like muscle. The brown spots are artfully hidden underneath. Oh well.
Anyway, I fired up the Crock-Pot to high and added a couple of cans of chopped tomatoes (with flavorings already added such as garlic and onion) and a can of Kidney beans. I covered that and let it heat while I was prepping the other ingredients. I also added some spice packets, masa, salt, and cayenne pepper to the tomato mix.
I chopped one sweet yellow onion and two cloves of garlic. I mixed up some unbleached flour, salt, and some weird Monterey spice rub that I had in the cupboard, and dredged the beef chunks in that. I heated up a lone tablespoon of olive oil in an electric skillet and cooked the beef until it was delicious chocolatey-brown on a couple of sides. Then I added the onion/garlic and let it cook until the onion was translucent and perfect.
The beef was added to the stew pot. Water was added. The Crock-Pot was at high, which I left on high while I got ready for bed. Right before I went to sleep, I turned it to low. I tasted it, and the tomatoes were very acidic. I added a few teaspoons of brown sugar, which placated the acid and the chili was perfect.
I woke up this morning to the heavenly smell of chili. I had a bowl for brekkie. I don't have a meat thermometer, but the beef seems fine. I put the covered earthenware pot into the refrigerator before I went to work for food safety.
A bowl of the chili microwaved just fine and dandy for lunch. Next time I'm going to try the following:
* Add less water
* Add another can of beans, perhaps red beans or pinto
* Cook the beef at a lower temperature, because I think that a few of the pieces were cooked a little too forcefully.
Otherwise, a fabulous wintertime treat.
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I did not die, as evidenced by my post.
Well, at least not yet...
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after the time (ie: last week) when I ate warm sushi, I basically think I cannot get food poisoning.
I won't test it, though. There is some possibility that the sushi was tofu-based, and only tasted giraffey.
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after the time (ie: last week) when I ate warm sushi, I basically think I cannot get food poisoning.
I won't test it, though. There is some possibility that the sushi was tofu-based, and only tasted giraffey.
Uh, tofu is refrigerated also. Plus it's nothing like tasty giraffe
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yeah, but, will eating warm raw tofu make people gasp in horror?
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Smoking does help.
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yeah, but, will eating warm raw tofu make people gasp in horror?
It would make me gasp in horror. Yuck.
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Chili powder is so hit-and-miss I don't use it any more. Usually what goes into chili powder is cayenne, cumin, salt, pepper, and preservatives. The better ones add better (and sometimes more various) spices and herbs, but I like the one I've come up with above, with the cayenne, cumin, cinnamon, sage, oregano, basil, bay leaf, salt and pepper.
But, hey, whatever you enjoy using is the best thing to buy.
I have become enamored with Penzeys (http://www.penzeys.com/). I'm lucky in that they have a store here in the Kansas City area, but if I ever move away I will continue to mail order all my spices from these guys. They have a hot chili powder that makes an excellent hot chili for those who like the spice, and their medium has a bit of zip to it and is incredibly flavorful. I think there's something to be said for buying spices which are fresh and replacing them often, and I think that you're more likely to get fresh spices buying from a dedicated spice purveyor rather than a supermarket.
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First off: What Choop and Linnea posted sounds good.
I'm surprised there hasn't been a war over if chili is still chili if you add beans or tomatoes though.
...Wimberly brings to light yet another controversy that has raged among chili cooks since the beginning of time: whether or not one should put tomatoes in chili. "Jailhouse chili," he says, "is a good example. It's always been a favorite. It has been served to many a prisoner, and it was always very basic - meat, spices, peppers, and grease from the suet."
"Originally," says Valdez, "chili was made with meat of hosss or deer, chile peppers and cornmeal from ears of stalks that grew only to the knee. No beans."
International Chili Federation (http://www.chilicookoff.com/History/History_of_Chili.asp[/url)
Personally, I fall on the "GIVE ME MY TASTY LEGUMES" side of the ledger.
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First off: What Choop and Linnea posted sounds good.
I'm surprised there hasn't been a war over if chili is still chili if you add beans or tomatoes though.
Personally, I fall on the "GIVE ME MY TASTY LEGUMES" side of the ledger.
Man, what kind of ungodly concoction is chili sin frijoles? I mean, they have chili con carne and chili sin carne...but remove beans or tomatoes and you're left with some kind of godless hash. I love tasty legumes.
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Man, what kind of ungodly concoction is chili sin frijoles? I mean, they have chili con carne and chili sin carne...but remove beans or tomatoes and you're left with some kind of godless hash. I love tasty legumes.
See this is why I get my chili at Hard Times. They have 3 kinds (plus vegetarian) and they only add beans if you ask. I have only ever discovered 2 tasty legumes and neither belongs in chili.
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Watchoo got against frijoles negros, ese?
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I like all sorts of chili: beans, no beans, red, green, you name it. If you think chili MUST have beans, try this one out before you make up your mind. This is the Texas entry from "Chili Nation."
1 c. chopped onion
2 minced garlic cloves
2 lb. beef round, cut into 1/2 inch cubes
1 1/2 t. salt
1 T. sugar
1 1/2 t. pepper
1 1/2 teaspoon Mexican oregano (regular oregano will do if you can't find Mexican, but I recommend the Mexican if at all possible)
1 T. ground cumin
5 T. chili powder (good stuff! Not McCormick bullshit!)
1 1/2 teaspoons red jalapeno powder (you can leave this out if you're a wuss; if you're a big-time hot food freak, double it)
15 oz. tomato sauce
1 T. masa harina (corn flour) dissolved in 1/2 c. water
Saute the onions and garlic in a bit of vegetable oil. Chcuk in the beef and brown it up. Put in all the spices, the tomato sauce, and 1 1/2 cups of water. Stir it up, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer. Cook partially covered for 70 minutes. Stir in the masa harina mixture, and simmer 5 minutes longer.
Serve with beans on the side if you want, but don't actually put beans IN it.
GOD DAMMIT NOW I'M HUNGRY FOR CHILI.
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I am a chili heretic. Mine has beans, is made with turkey, and avoids smoky flavors. But damn is it good. I shall post when it is not 4:30 AM on a work night.