OT: Chili Madness

I’ve got a nice big batch of chili going right now.  We have a well worn cookbook called Chili Madness.  I can’t say I’ve ever followed any of the recipes in it, but every once in a while, it’s fun to haul it out and flip through it.  SJ has made a few of the recipes in it that call for pork shoulder.  I’m not too fond of those, but they’re alright.  My mom always made chili with ground beef, canned diced tomatoes and/or tomato paste, and canned kidney beans when I was a kid; that was the only way she knew how to do it.

This cookbook contains some recipes that are nothing but meat and sauce, some without tomatoes at all, as well as recipes that contain various types of beans.  They range from mild (why bother, unless you’re serving it to kids?), to hot enough to make your eyebrows sweat.  Some have cinnamon and allspice, and one or two include cocoa powder for that mole flavor.  Most just have the usual chili powder, oregano, and cumin, but vary on whether to use crushed red pepper, ground red pepper, or hot sauce.

None of them call for any form of poultry, and none of them are vegetarian.  I’ve made both turkey and vegetarian chili, which would probably make purists scream foul (or fowl).

I only had about two cups of leftover shredded turkey, so I went with a variety that has beans.  Unless I’m baking, I never really follow a recipe, and rarely measure my ingredients with true accuracy, unless they’re liquid, as in 1 tsp. of vanilla extract.  Granted, I’m pretty good about eyeballing herbs and spices in the palm of my hand with fairly decent accuracy.

“That looks about right” is sort of my motto, and I work in proportions.  Case in point is pumpkin pie spices:  two-to-one cinnamon to ginger, and half as much nutmeg as ginger.  I’ll add a dash of allspice as well, but I’ve yet to come across a recipe for pumpkin pie that calls for allspice.  Same deal for chili spices and herbs.  Eyeball them, go by rough proportions, and adjust the seasonings to taste near the end.

For this batch of chili, I diced a couple of medium sized onions, and minced a couple of huge cloves of garlic, sauteed them in bacon grease until translucent, then dumped in a can of spicy diced tomatoes, a can of stewed tomatoes, four of my largest dried cayennes (crushed, chopped, seeds and all), maybe a quart of water, two fistfuls of what I think are pinto beans, salt, freshly ground tellicherry black pepper, chili powder, cumin, and some oregano.  Finally, I added the turkey.

As it cooks, I’ll have to add more water.  I tossed the beans in dry, without presoaking them.  I’m convinced that there are as many recipes for chili as there are people making it.  Of course, since I never really follow any recipe for chili, it comes out a bit different every time I make a batch . . .

My mom, on the other hand, measures every ingredient accurately, and follows cooking times to the minute, then wonders why her casserole sometimes comes out watery, and other times is fine.  D’oh.

Enough of my babble.  I need to go check on the chili.  It’s starting to make the whole house smell really good, but I know it won’t be done for at least another hour.