Black and Red Chili

Printable version

I love to make chili. When I first started cooking on a regular basis, it seemed like I was making up an experimental batch every weekend. I would throw anything in the pot if I thought it might taste good - mushrooms, black olives, egg plant – you name it. Through making numerous chili variations I realized that one simple item could ruin an entire pot of food!

I still make chili on a regular basis but my recipes have been refined and continue to evolve. This fall I have made chili numerous times and lately when I have beef as the main ingredient I simmer the entire pot for a couple hours uncovered, which concentrates the flavors and thickens it up. Also, I have been using a fair amount of garlic and onion in the base which opens up the taste buds and amplifies the other flavors in the pot. For sweetness, I add red peppers, and for a fuller bite, black beans have been thrown into the pool. These two additions have inspired the name for my current creation: Black and Red Chili.

BEHIND THIS BITE

Black and Red Chili

Like I said in the introduction, I love to make chili and this recipe is one of my favorites. I used to make most of my chili quick, in 30 minutes or less, but I never used any water or broth, the only liquid came from crushed tomatoes. The end result was a thick chili with lots of different flavors in each bite.

Over the last couple of years I have started to change my tactics and part of that is adding lots of liquid and reducing it during a long simmer. This creates the thick chili that I like, but the end result is consistent flavor with every spoonful. The long simmer not only thickens the chili by evaporating the liquid, but it allows all of the flavors to concentrate and harmoniously mingle. Each bites contains the rich and meaty flavors of the beef and broth with lots of depth from the spices and base vegetables.

This chili recipe might be ready for competition.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Black and Red Chili

Serves 12 to 15; 3 hours
5 lbs Ground beef
2 C Red onion, diced
2 C Red pepper, diced
1/2 C Jalapéno, seeded, diced
1/4 C Garlic minced
6 C Beef broth
2 Cans Black beans (15 oz)
1 Can Crushed tomatoes (28 oz)
1/4 C Chili powder
2 Tbs Cumin
1 Tbs Mexican oregano

Brown ground beef
In a large soup pot over medium-high heat cook ground beef until brown and fat has rendered, 6 to 8 minutes. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Remove to a bowl and discard all but 2 tablespoons of the liquid.

Make chili
In drippings left in pan, sauté onion, red pepper and jalapéno until soft 3 to 4 minutes. Salt and pepper to taste. Stir in garlic and cook 2 minutes more. Add reserved beef, broth, black beans, crushed tomato, chili powder, cumin and Mexican oregano. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 2 hours allowing mixture to reduce by a quarter. Remove from heat and serve.

Red Pepper and Onion Dip

Printable version

In the 1950s, the Thomas J. Lipton Company began promoting dip made from mixing their dried onion soup with sour cream or cream cheese. They sponsored radio and television programs and provided recipes on millions of their packages as promotion.    At the same time, potato chips were being mass marketed and it wasn’t long before the crunchy and salty treats became the favorite method of dip delivery.

The ease and convenience of chips and dip made them a popular snack to enjoy while watching television, which also became widely accepted in the 1950s and helped catapult the dip industry to the billion dollar business that it is today.

For this recipe, I make a homemade dip from red pepper and onion. The vegetables are sautéd with a little garlic to bring out their sweetness and to eliminate any raw or sharp flavors before being mixed with sour cream and mayo. The end result is a savory dip that will make devouring an entire bag of potato chips a simple task.

BEHIND THIS BITE

As the daily temperature slowly begins to rise in Northern Indiana I have been thinking more and more about warm weather cooking. I always think about grilling stuff, so I’m not really talking about that. I’m thinking about all the stuff that goes with grilled food.

Chips and dip are one such treat for me. They are also a party food, but curly chips with some creamy dip always reminds me of lunch on a hot summer day. I ate a lot of the two during summer vacation as a kid. When we were in school we had to eat the school lunch. In the summertime, there were many days that I was able to sneak off and eat a plateful of chips with a half tub of dip for my mid-day meal. I would just skip the tuna salad sandwiches Mom made for us all together.

Amazing how a plate of fried potatoes with a dairy based sauce could be enough fuel to play outside all day four hours and hours. These days it seems I need at least two meals and a gallon of coffee just to have enough energy to photograph and write about food.

Eat well, cook often ...

THE RECIPE

Makes 2 cups; 15 minutes active; 2 1/2 hours inactive
1 C Red pepper diced
1 C Sweet onion diced
1 tsp Garlic minced
1 C Sour cream
1/3 C Mayonnaise

Cook vegetables
In a sauté pan over medium heat cook red pepper and onion in a little olive oil until soft with salt and pepper to taste, 6 to 8 minutes. Stir in garlic, cook another 1 to 2 minutes more. Remove from heat and let cool at least 30 minutes.

Make dip
In a medium sized bowl mix together vegetables, sour cream and mayonnaise. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours to let flavors meld. Serve with favorite type of chip or fresh vegetables for dipping.

A Roast for Dinner Part 3: The Corn

This corn dish is the second side to my roasted pork loin, but really this is a side to the mashed potatoes! I love mixing corn with my taters! I have done it since I was a kid. Throw in the red pepper - I'm in side dish heaven.

This recipe is quick and easy. The toughest part is chopping the ingredients. I use canned corn here. I marvel at the Food Network cooks. It seems like most of them always roast whole ears then slice off the corn.  I've never had great luck with that. When I cook an ear of corn I eat it on the cob! I'm usually a purist and cook with fresh ingredients but corn is an exception for me.

Of all the peppers, the red pepper is my favorite. I think it's sweeter than a green pepper and there's no heat, unlike chilis. That combination makes it versatile and I use it in many of the dishes I create. I especialy love them roasted! I think that would have worked well here also.

Cooking an entire meal and breaking it up into my separate entries for the blog is new for me. I think this is how I'm going to approach the complex meals and bites that I feature here. It allows me to concentrate on the details of each element rather than a huge post, like my pumpkin feast, with a massive info graphic in the middle. Don't get me wrong, I still love to create giant recipe infographics. It's just a better work flow for me to break up the bites. I can still put them all together in the end but I guess I'll have to save that for the book.

I need to create a word for recipe infographics, any suggestion?

Eat well, cook often ...

Part 1: The Loin
Part 2: The Potatoes