Well, I am back (maybe)! And this time, we are talking Chili !

Since I have again become more active in social media, and since a number of my posts are food related, I am thinking about re-activating this blog. I am sure that I will NOT be posting as often, but what I want to do is this: For any week that I make a Facebook post regarding food, the post which receives the most ‘likes’ I will post a recipe for it here on the blog.

For this first set of posts, I am going to disclose my recipe for chili. This has been a family secret for years, and in fact was developed over the years (about 25 of them). But I was able to use this recipe for a second place in a local chili festival. So, some people think it’s good. At least I am told. Sometimes, people are just ‘being nice’! Regardless, this is the first part of the formula.

At my real job in Waltham, MA recently, I overheard a conversation regarding chili, and specifically, chili powder. For years now, I have been making my own, as the commercial products are neither consistent, nor particularly flavorful. Here is my version:

Ingredients

• 4 parts ground ancho pepper
• 2 parts oregano (preferably, Mexican oregano)
• 1 part ground cumin
• 1 part smoked paprika
• 1 part ground chipotle pepper
• 1/2 part Goya Sazon seasoning
• 1/2 part fine ground dark roast coffee
• 1/2 part sumac

Directions

The recipe is expressed in parts, giving you the proportions to make any amount that you wish. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl, and mix throughly. Store in an airtight container. The stuff is good for about 6 months, which is about the length of the ‘Chili Season’, Fall and Winter.

Notes

It would appear at first glance that there is a LOT of actual chili pepper in this chili powder. This is as it should be. First both of the peppers are smoked peppers (the ancho is a smoked pablano pepper, and the chipotle is a smoked jalapeño). Smoking tempers the heat of the chili, and neither of these are particularly hot anyway. When it is time to ‘bring the heat’, add additional hot peppers during cooking of the chili. I use a combination of Habanero and Ghost peppers.

Mexican Oregano is not at all related to regular oregano, but they are similar in flavor. The Mexican herb is deeper and earthier, two things that work well in chili. Any decent hispanic grocery store will have it.

Use smoked paprika, again, to enhance the depth of the flavor. I really have never seen a commercial chili powder that uses smoked paprika, but one must exist. If you make it yourself, your’s will.

I do not frequently use a prepared product in any recipe, but this is one of the exceptions: Goya Sazón seasoning. It adds a bit of salty flavor, which is good, if you use the chili powder for things other than making chili (think French Fry seasoning!).

The powder contains 2 ‘bittering’ agents : Coffee and Sumac. Sumac is a seasoning common to Persian food, and is normally found in a Middle Eastern market. And yes, bitter flavors are VERY good in chili. There will be more when we actually make the chili itself.

Pig Week: Brunswick Stew

One of my earliest recollections as a child of BBQ was my dad bringing home Brunswick Stew, from a restaurant in Columbus, GA, the name of which I cannot remember. But the stew, I certainly do remember – rich and meaty, it is something that I searched all over for as an adult, never quite finding anything nearly as good as I remembered. Only later in life did I realize that most of the stews I had been having simply had too many vegetables, and not enough meat – they were more like soup than stew.

This version solves that problem in spades. It will only take a small bowl of this stuff to fill you up, that is how much meat is in the stew. And note, I used venison in the recipe, as some kind of game meat is traditional in the preparation of a Brunswick Stew, and Kroger was fresh out of squirrel meat !

Ingredients

• 1 pound pulled BBQ Pork
• 1 pound pulled BBQ Chicken
• 1 pound ground venison
• 1 medium yellow onion, medium dice
• 1/3 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
• 1 12 oz bag frozen baby lima beans
• 1 12 oz bag frozen yellow corn
• 1 hot pepper, finely minced
• 1/2 cup tomato catsup
• 1/2 cup sweet brown BBQ sauce
• 2/3 cup spicy mustard BBQ sauce
• 1 quart chicken stock

Start by preparing the ground venison. To be sure, if you want to omit, or cannot find any venison to use, simply add another pound of pulled pork and chicken. Brown the venison in a little butter, as you would hamburger meat. Drain.

In a large pot, put a tablespoon of butter, and begin sautéing the diced onion and minced hot pepper. Cook until the onion is translucent.

Now add the cooked venison, the pulled pork and the pulled chicken to the pot. You could, of course, fire up your smoker and create these meats from scratch, but clearly, it is easier and just as effective to go to your favorite BBQ restaurant and buy it, ready made. Just make sure that the meat is NOT smothered in any kind of sauce – dry rubbed is OK, but it is better to just have the smoked and pulled meat.

Add the lima beans, corn, sun-dried tomato, BBQ sauces and catsup to the pot and stir to mix throughly. A word about BBQ sauces : Again, you could make your own, but that is a lot of effort for use in a stew. Feel free to use any commercial brand you like, but make sure, as indicated in the recipe, that the dominant one is the spicy mustard based sauce. This is extremely important for the final flavor.

Allow the stew to simmer for about 2 hours, adding extra stock as necessary to prevent the stew from becoming too dry. The final consistency should be VERY thick, not at al like a soup. There should be no excess thin liquid on top.

Perlue

There are a lot of ways to prepare chicken and rice, but this traditional Southern way is one of the best. What we are aiming for here is not quite a soup, and certainly not a pilaf, but is more like a stew – rich and hearty. My recipe changes things up a little by adding sausage to the mix – not enough to be overpowering, but just enough to enhance the flavor. Of course, the prodigious amount of butter does not hurt either!

Ingredients

• 2 quarts + 1 quart chicken stock
• 1 pound pulled chicken
• 1 pound andouille sausage
• 3 cups short grain white rice
• 2 medium sweet onions
• 8 stalks celery
• 1/2 cup chopped parsley
• 1 tablespoon crushed red pepper
• 1 teaspoon black pepper
• 2 sticks of butter
• salt to taste

Assuming you do not have a pound of pulled chicken sitting around, you will first have to make it. The preferred way would be to boil the chicken, and if you are going to do that, why not make up a batch of fresh chicken stock, which will be needed anyway? Regardless of how you come about it, make sure you pull the chicken into shreds – do not cut or dice it! Reserve.

Cut the sausage into 1/4 inch cubes, and fry it until the sausage is brown, and most of the fat has been rendered from it. Drain and reserve.

Chop the onion and celery into a 1/4 inch dice. In a soup pot, add a couple of tablespoons of butter and over medium heat, saute the onion and celery until the onion is translucent. When this happens, add 2 quarts of the chicken stock, the uncooked rice, and the chicken. Simmer over low heat for about 45 minutes, until the rice is tender.

Add the chopped parsley, the red and black pepper, the salt, the butter and the reserved sausage to the pot and continue cooking. Now comes the important part. The additional quart of chicken stock is used to ‘balance’ the consistency of the perlue. You do not want it to be too thin or too thick, trying to achieve a stew like consistency. This will be a matter of preference, so as you continue to let the perlue cook, add more stock, as necessary, to achieve this. After about 20 minutes, the flavors will be integrated, and the perlue is ready. Serve hot, in very large bowls, as befits a dish of this nature.