Does this ever happen to you? I love chili, and last week I made my standard 6 quarts. But I forgot and left it on the stove for an hour. It boiled down to mush. It was awful. I added some already cooked hamburger and cooked it again. Well that didn’t help, so I added a bunch cayenne powder and cooked it again. No good. So I added a bunch more of poblano peppers. Ditto. So I added another can of beans and another can of tomato sauce and a bunch more of whole cayenne peppers from my garden and cooked it again. My old step daddy used to say “Mixing horse shit and ice cream don’t improve the flavor of either one.”
Ok, what happened to Friday?
Oops. I should have called it Friday. I’m old. But the shrink says that I’m not stupid yet. I better check his diploma.
Unfortunately, at best this is only a stew. Here’s how to make a red chile, Texas or desert southwestern style. Use this recipe for s a small batch to try.
Cube to 1/2″ lean beef, any cut. If you have a real butcher, get day-old loin before he grinds it for hamburger. Sauté in a hot skillet, liberally covered with garlic powder. Meantime start cutting up 2 onions, the stronger the better. Move the meat when browned to la large pot and cover with water, 2″ above the meat and start to boil.
Without cleaning the skillet, add some olive oil and sauté the onion pieces. Meanwhile chop up some carrots to 1/2″ and a potato or two, skin on, cubed to 1/2″ . Move them to the pot. Add 2 TBSP of cumin powder, ditto black pepper, ditto garlic powder or 2 mashed cloves, and 4-8 TBSP red chile molido. This latter varies according to the pepper. Don’t be afraid of it being too hot as it cooks in. Reduce the heat to simmer and cover for 2 hours. Make sure there is an inch of water cover. as rjw potatoes will soak it up.
After the two hours, taste the broth and see if you need more cumin or chile molido. If it’s too hot for yankee taste buds, add 1 tsp of Nescafe Classico Instant Coffee. That will tame it. When satisfied, it’s time for green herbs. I use Frontier’s Italian Mix, or you can do oregano, thyme, basil, and marjoram. I use 2 TBSP at least.
Leave it uncovered to reduce the water. It should take about an hour. Stir to prevent burning it. You want it somewhat wet, but not too much. If you are in a hurry to serve and it’s too wet, add a little flour, sifting from a spoon as you mix with a fork. Or crumble saltines in, gingerly.
In this last hour, you can prepare some beans or refried to serve on the side. Chop some cilantro fine in another bowl. Wrap a stack of tortillas in a wet dishcloth and warm them in the microwave. Corn or flour or both. I scorch them on a burner flame first to release the flavor.
Serve with sliced tomatoes that have been vinegared and lightly salted, to satisfy heathens who confuse tomato soup with red chile. Saltine crackers should be on table as well, to crumble into the chile to taste. Some grated cheese is also good as a topping. Sour cream is also fun.
This will freeze well, but leave some airspace because of the potatoes. Enjoy!
Thanks for all the time it took you to write that. You must be some chef. Or is it Frau Westernet? If that’s Your last name. My ingredients are onions, red beans (Almost all canned beans have sugar added. The large red beans don’t. I hate sugar in my food) tomato sauce, poblano chilis, cayenne chilis, canned tomatoes, hamburger, oregano and lots of cumin. I might add chili powder if I have it. I don’t over cook the peppers or the meat. I don’t saute the peppers at all, only the onions. today I made a burrito and added taco sauce. It was good.
Don’t forget to have several rolls of high quality toilet paper available.
I was told years ago that Chili as we know it was invented so that canned sheep meat could be eaten. The chili was seasoned to hide the taste of the mutton. Canned mutton without some sort of camouflage was pretty disgusting.
Beans. I was brought up with no beans. Saltine crackers and hot sauce on the side was expected.