A decent chili normally simmers away for at least an hour. What follows is an indecent chili, which had been made in something of a rush. This was a callback to my old chili-making days, when I didn't work off a recipe and simply threw together elements that made intuitive sense—beef, onion flakes, salt, pepper, garlic powder, various spices, and canned beans:
To borrow a chef's idiom: the chili is a bit, shall we say, cumin-forward. I may dump in a little extra passata di pomodoro to counteract that. Not that the chili is bad; it's just a bit aggressive, especially with the other spicy elements in it: jalapeño juice, cayenne, sriracha, and some lovely, lovely chipotle powder.
I ate two bowls of chili for dinner. Blast-off is scheduled for tomorrow morning. My toilet trembles in fear.
One of these days, I need to make real Texas chili: no beans and no tomatoes. Authentic Texas chili comes straight from Mexico, and it's normally a no-fucking-around recipe that is little more than meat, spices, and time.
2 comments:
Looks good from here! I saw an article somewhere about unusual ingredients people use in chili. The ones I remember are peanut butter, pineapple, and apples. Hmm. In a weird way, I can see the pineapple maybe working. And yes, I'll cop to occasionally ordering a "Hawaiian" pizza. Damn, I just talked myself into trying that on my next batch. Thanks for the inspiration!
The pineapples make sense because of the combination of sweetness and acidity that they provide. Peanut butter is a stumper... maybe it affects sweetness and consistency, and I've heard of people slathering peanut butter onto their hamburgers before, so perhaps there's a natural affinity between beef and peanut butter. That's not too surprising, I guess, especially when you look at Southeast Asian flavor profiles. As for apples... no clue.
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