Getting silli with chilly .

K

Kevin the grey

Joined
Aug 26, 2005
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O:K: So its evident I need to walk off a lot of the excess produced from the foods I eat . I,m making a nice little chili for supper . Basic really except for spices .

I have to admit I cheat sometimes and just add Mold Elpasso's version of chili spices . Actually presidents choice has a little more flavour .

Who makes their own chili spices ? Even something you add to the regular stuff is welcome . Five alarm specials are O:K: " I like more flavor than Heat .
I don,t mind when my eyeballs sweat . I make it my limit when the eyebrows catch fire .

Whats some nice flavorful spices to make up a nice chili ? They can be hot . I just can,t get ridiculous about it . :eek:
 
Okay, you want to heat up chili, you can add all the usual suspects like cayenne, red and black pepper, jalapenos, habaneros, etc., until you get the desired heat you want. Jalapenos (love 'em, stuffed with peanut butter and sour cream) and habaneros are suspect. Remember that when you're sitting on the cosmic telephone at 4 a.m. ("Oh God, Oh God...") They will burn the polyps right out of you.

Kevin, I am now going to let you in on a couple of secret ingredients to make your chili so killer that people will keep coming back for more.

The first is coffee. Put it in the chili. You can use cold leftover coffee. You can use coffee grounds. You can use instant cafeinated or decaf. Doesn't really matter, you are using it as a flavoring spice only. Go lightly with it, that's the trick to all flavoring spices...just enough so that people know that something is there but they can't put their finger on it. They will come back for more.

The second ingredient is chocolate. Baker's chocolate, the bitter stuff. Ever heard of mole sauce (pronounced mo-lay, no it's not made with mole squeezings) what the mexicans use for chicken mole (mo-lay ;) ) Add about a teaspoon of baker's chocolate to two quarts of chili for starters...maybe more after you get used to using it.

My other favorite ingredients are real meat, cubed and sauteed brown (hamburger's okay as a second) - green scallions, chopped, instead of regular onions, but regular onions are okay - cubed tomatos, fresh or canned - a little oregano, a little cumin powder, a little sage, maybe a very little of liquid smoke which goes a long way - plenty of chili powder - chopped sweet red bell peppers, sauteed and lightly scorched in a skillet - bacon grease, sautee everything in bacon grease - pinto beans, black beans, black-eyed peas (which are really a bean) - anything but kidney beans, that is a cultural abomination promulgated by lily-white people from New England, do NOT use kidney beans :barf:

There are a million ways to make chili - a Hindu I used to know made great chili with curry powder - everybody has their favorite way of doing it.

Just don't add too much salt, or sugar to counteract the salt. Or too much garlic, beans don't like too much garlic. I know from experience.

Yeah, yeah, experts say that real chili is not made with beans. Bull pancakes! My grandmother came from old Mexico and she always made chili with beans. But not kidney beans :barf:

Have fun and enjoy :D
 
Smoke. I like smokey tastes.
You can use a product called liquid smoke, if you don't have or don't want to actually smoke the chili and/or the meat.

I have smoker/grill, and when cooking main courses, i will throw some ground beef in there, to cook it and induce that smokey flavor. Use it in chili, even spaghetti. Not thick acrid smokey flaover, but nice smooth smoke.

You can buy mesquite and hickory in small bags, but go light on the hickory, it can make stuff too smokey. (Like a Virginia smoked ham).
I have a lot of luck with good and seasoned Oak, Maple, and wild cherry. Always trim off the bark for a purer smoke, Bark can give food a funky taste.

So, along with your spices, add some smoke flavor, makes you feel like you are outdoors, eating food cooked over a campfire. Brings back memories of campfires gone by.

If you want super-duper easy, and no additional prep, just pick up a small bottle of 'liquid smoke' , follow directions.
 
SkunkWerX Thats a great idea . I,m a big fan of smoked meats . We have a tradition of Mechoui here which is exactly what you are talking about . They will even hire smokers on wheels like a trailer to go to supermarkets or butchers .

They will park on the street and start smoking away . Its not cheap stuff . We are talking over ten bucks a pound . I don,t have much room for a smoker . I have seem liquid smoke and hickory for sale . I would much rather have the natural stuff . I have also heard smoked stuff especially the liquid additives are hard on the body . What do you think ? Man you got me hungry now .
 
Coldwood said:
Okay, you want to heat up chili, you can add all the usual suspects like cayenne, red and black pepper, jalapenos, habaneros, etc., until you get the desired heat you want. Jalapenos (love 'em, stuffed with peanut butter and sour cream) and habaneros are suspect. Remember that when you're sitting on the cosmic telephone at 4 a.m. ("Oh God, Oh God...") They will burn the polyps right out of you.
Click to expand...

Laughed so hard, got beer out of the nose. Again. I think you need counseling. Or I do! I've been on that telephone call before!

Some great recipe ideas, I'll try some of them, thanks! Sans peanut butter, though... :D
 
Kevin, another way to add a smoke flavor to chili is with chipotle peppers. They are smoked jalapenos, and are really good. You can usually find them canned in adobo sauce in the Mexican spice section of the supermarket.
 
Josh Feltman said:
Kevin, another way to add a smoke flavor to chili is with chipotle peppers. They are smoked jalapenos, and are really good. You can usually find them canned in adobo sauce in the Mexican spice section of the supermarket.
Click to expand...

Now that is an eye opener . I confess not to have ventured much past marinaded jalapenos . I tried a few dried varieties which were either too strong or musty which may have been cause they were too old .

Do you think its possible that I have seen dried chipotle peppers ? Does smoking make Jalapeno hotter , the same or smooth out the flavor ? Does the adobo sauce itself do much ?
Could I get them without the adobe sauce so that I may judge them individually ?

I have seen them in cans . I prefer peppers in bottles as they are so acid . Am I depriving myself for no reason ?
 
Something I really like to add to my chili is refried beans along with whole beans. It gives the chili a real nice creamy texture.
 
Extras I add,depending what's in the fridge/cupboard:

Bacon(well cooked and cut up small).
Mushrooms.
Zuccini.
Olives.
Zest of a lime.
Hot Chipotle Sauce.
A dash or two of Ketchup.
As Grubbster said re-fried beans add a nice touch.
Smoked Garlic.
Sometimes I mix in some cheese and sometimes some sour cream.

A nice garnish is to serve topped with tortilla chips,sour cream and chopped spring onions !
 
i like to make"if it cant outrun you when you when you open the fridge throw it in chili"

everything works in chili
 
Wow , smoked garlic . I've never heard of that . I love roasted Garlic . I wonder what the smoked tastes like . It is not sold around here .
 
Kevin, even if you have access to a small grill, you can cook with the smoked flaver. You build your fire over on one side, doesn't have to be a large fire.
What you are doing is "indirect" cooking. if you can separate the coals from the rest of the area, thats good, use a piece of sheet metal as a divider.
DO NOT use galvanized metal, like ductwork.

Grilling is over the flame and coals, like steaks are cooked at high temps. Smoking is with a separate firebox and low temps.
Indirect is in between, it's similar to baking, but, you can throw some wood chips, or pieces on top of your fire and that smoke will get into your chile or beans. after 20 mins, add some more wood, and stir a little, and you'll get more smoke taste.

I prefer the chunks of wood to the small chips.

Hickory and Mesquite are the two comercially available woods in bags.
Hickory, if not used sparingly gives you that thick "Virginia Ham" smoked tastes.
Mesquite is better for fish and poultry.
You can smoke with many hardwood species. NOT evergreens! yuck.
I have had luck with wild cherry, oaks, and yesterday I used seasoned maple wood....mmmmm good.

I smoked a pot of beans, 6 chicken breats and two small pork tenderloins.
Now we have dinner for several nights running.

What does this have to do with wilderness survival?
Before Salt was available to commoners, smoking meats was the #1 method for preserving. If you were out in the wild, and let's say you got yourself two squirrels, or a squirrel and a rabbit, you could cook one, and hang the other higher above a low fire and "smoke" it. It cooks slower, and develops a smokey "bark". I had to bring this back around to survival, as it was starting to sound like the BBQ forum. :)

My baby: (when it was "newer")
CharGrillerWheels.jpg
 
SkunkWerX . some fine ideas . If I understand it correctly indirect cooking is inbetween smoking and grilling ? I wasn,t sure if it was just the placement between grilling and smoking that produced the result .

When you say you smoke a pot of beans would this produce a browned taste as well? I see there is a lot to learn even though the process sounds easy as smoking a meatpie. ;)
 
Hmmm.... Kevin, I will admit, I don't exactly know what a"browned taste" is.
Smoking a pot of beans will give a browned top surface, if cooked long enough.

And don't mind the Surgeon General, who would warn against smoking beans.

The best result acheived is from smoking them (as opposed to using the indrect heating method) , but smoking can take hours.
I only offered the indirect method since you said you didn't have space/access to a smoker. Just try it on a standard charcoal grill, don't make the fire too big, and add the wood to create the smoke.

You can "cheat heat" the pot inside on a stove, to bring them to cooking temps, then move them to the grill, if you don't have a spare hour or two to muck with them.

I'd suggest going ahead and cooking some meat with them, why waste the heat and smoke.

I just had round two of the smoked beans today, always better on day two.
mmmmm good.
 
It is browned as in deep browned beans .

Thats great advice . I,m gonna take you up on it if I get the chance .

Heat cheat,

Brown bean treat.

wood sweet ,

for smoke meat.

Can,t be beat.

===========================================================
Oh Boy. :rolleyes:
 
To remember the above, just repeat.
Take care, do not Delete.
Don't use wood that smells like feet.
Once it's cooked it is complete.
As long as it's not stiff, like curing concrete.
It takes a while to cook, so pull up a seat.
 
I add about 3/4 can of beer to the meat before adding anything else. I use Leinenkugel's Original, but any lager would do it. That's my not-so-secret ingredient. Also feel free to lubricate your esophagus with the beer, before eating the chili, that seems to help with digestion. :D
 
Kevin the grey said:
Now that is an eye opener . I confess not to have ventured much past marinaded jalapenos . I tried a few dried varieties which were either too strong or musty which may have been cause they were too old .

Do you think its possible that I have seen dried chipotle peppers ? Does smoking make Jalapeno hotter , the same or smooth out the flavor ? Does the adobo sauce itself do much ?
Could I get them without the adobe sauce so that I may judge them individually ?

I have seen them in cans . I prefer peppers in bottles as they are so acid . Am I depriving myself for no reason ?
Click to expand...

Kevin, in my experience, chipotles are more mild than fresh peppers. You can find them dried, but I see them more often in the canned form. The adobo sauce is good too, not super hot, but really flavorful--I add the whole can to my chili. The heat can vary greatly from can to can though, so test before you use.

I've never experienced any problems with canned peppers. I buy the big cans of Embasa jalapenos regularly for snacks, and they taste good to me. Of course, I'm probably poisoning myself a little bit more with each can.
 
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