After Julia ate and appeared to LOVE chili at last weeks playgroup, I have decided to try and make my own, something that I have never done.
So, last night I went out and bought the following ingredients:
2 lbs of ground beef
1 can of light red kidney beans
1 can of diced tomatoes
1 can of tomato sauce (8 oz)
and a bag of chili seasonings which includes:
masa corn flour
caynenne pepper
salt
a bag labeled "chili spices"
I was thinking that I would like to cook this in the crock. I will brown the beef first of course and then throw everything in.
I was wondering though, if anyone has ever done this? I am planning on waiting to add the beans and possibly the diced tomatoes until its about a half hour before the chili is done. I was thinking they were too soft and would cook to "quickly" in the slow cooker but, if anyone has any input in that regard, please share.
How ave you cooked chili in the past? What works best for you?
4 comments:
Heh. Chili from a kit. Never tried that.
I've made it with ground beef. These days I make it with cheap steak, cut small. I've been using pinto beans, though kidney beans are at least as traditional. Deb was concerned about the toxicity of kidney beans when I bought a bag, but apparently that just means they need extra soaking/precooking time.
Anywho, I cook the beans as one would do, in a big pan that will become the chili pan. Optionally as they are well into cooking I might throw some chili powder in them.
In a frying pan, if I have any or all of these, I cook with butter some cut up garlic, onion and pepper. For a big pot of chili made with 2 steaks, close to 3 lbs, and most of a bag of beans, I used about 4 cloves of garlic and the majority each of a green bell pepper (it was what I had) and sweet onion. The rest got chopped and frozen for future convenience. I think I threw that into the beans, by then sitting there, done cooking, having soaked up enough water I didn't really need to drain any, IIRC. Then I did the meat in the same pan, same butter (I'd have maybe put the meat in and left the rest in but volume was too great), seasoning it heavily with red pepper, chili powder, maybe a bit of celery flakes and ginger, and plenty of black pepper.
When cooked, it goes in the beans. Meanwhile, I added a can of tomato soup, which worked, but I normally use tomato paste and more ketchup than I had handy. Also, a little vinegar can be good, but I forgot that until I was tweaking. That's more a barbecue beef thing, anyway; in this we're talking a tiny bit to tweak the tanginess. Tomatoes in other forms would work. The ketchup adds a sweetness and without it both sugar and vinegar would be more called for.
Then I cook and taste and spice and taste and sweeten and taste. As with when I have to sweeten/unbitter red sauce for pasta, I generally use brown sugar, but it is acceptable to use white sugar if that's what you have or the brown is being wimpy about getting it sweetened enough.
I like a variety of chili, including Wendy's, which is sort of watery. Mine is super thick and good that way. It's great served with french bread and butter. Also good with grated cheese on top. It can have a modest bite, depending how the batch comes out, but it's also a somewhat sweet (maybe a little tangy) dish at the same time. The kids love it. Deb loves it.
I used to make faux chili for myself, based on cheap cans of Campbell's pork & beans. Do some pepper and onion, add burger and cook it, add beans, add chili powder, maybe garlic poweder and red pepper, brown or white sugar as needed, cook and cook, and viola.
That was always yummy, but my real stuff is better, though the flavors are surprisingly close.
I've found the kids will eat anything better if, while I am cooking and periodically tasting, they get to taste and "approve" too. They're both fascinated by watching me cook, but Sadie especially will probably be cooking when she's five. Stuff she might sit and play with, she'll eat happily if she helped taste. But then we've also discovered that a pre-dinner sweet can stoke their appetites. So much for "it'll ruin your dinner."
Also, Lynn uses canned kidney beans for hers and they work fine. I ended up going straight from faux chili to chili made with dry beans.
I have used a couple of the recipes from "fix it and forget it lightly" which I think you have. If you don't, I would be happy to send the recipes to you. I really liked Dawns 4 bean turkey Chili p179 (although I used ground beef because it was what I had on hand). we didn't feel that the beans got too mushy, I just made sure not to stir it too much. Hope this helps.
I totally forgot! Now that I have them in the house, I also used cumin and cilantro. It would not be out of line to use a pinch of dry mustard. As with red sauce, you can use a touch of cinnamon or allspice to counter excess bitter or sweeten the flavor a little. They're strong, so very little.
Interestingly, chili powder is essentially a blend of red pepper, garlic powder and cumin, so using those three could be redundant or alter the balance. At the same time, it's as if the peppers used in the chili powder are different and it's not really possible to duplicate the flavor exactly.
I also used paprika last time. It's a mild flavor; a different kind of red pepper, but was good for helping to redden the color without being incompatible with the flavor. Normally tomato paste is my single strongest reddening agent, so if I'd had that I'd likely not have used paprika.
I think I used the non-chili spices more to impart flavor into the meat as it cooked, and chili powder more in the pot proper.
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