Asymmetrical Information

Was it a typo, or is there actually meat in the recipe?

Jane, honey, the offer to marry you in previous comments is hereby repeated.

How'd you learn a proper respect for chili?

(Except for the beans, of course, but you do imply they're optional.)

Let's see: She's witty, articulate, thoughtful, good-looking, and she can cook too! What's wrong with the men in New York?

Damn, Megan, how much did you cook?

It all sounds delicious though.

You know, I can take the difference of opinion on the War. But - beans in chili????

Well it's an outrage, that's what it is.

OMG, I know what is going on!! Megan is going to be on "The Apprentice 1 and 1/2", where 12 lucky women compete to take over for Martha Stewart while she is in jail!!

Let's see how she does standing next to Maria Bartiromo. Isn't she kinda short? That will take tremendous skill to pull that one off.

-Brad

Any recipe for "chili" that includes oregano is not fit for the name. It is spagetti sauce.

Point of technique: In light of the fact that everything's going to be sitting together in a big pot for several days, is it really necessary to put the spice rub on the meat before browning? As you point out, the spices burn easily; I'd be particularly concerned about the garlic. Burned garlic is bitter and nasty, and I would think it'd be hard to get the meat nice 'n brown without burning that minced garlic.

My hypothesis is that spicing the meat after browning will enable deeper browning and more flavor. Controlled experiment, anyone?

I will try this recipe. This will be my project for tomorrow. However, I will never tell my friends that the recipe comes from someone living in Communist New York City! We Texans have our pride.

You don't have to use gloves when deseeding the anchos if you remember not to touch your eyes for several days afterwards!

For variations of a basic chile recipe, you can browse the shelves of the grocery store and add one or more fresh: red bell pepper, poblano, serrano, hot wax, Italian, jalapeno, etc., whatever your store might carry that is fresh. One store I used to go to in Roanoke, Virginia carried fresh ancho peppers, but since then I've had to make do with dried. The fresh peppers don't go into the puree; they are deseeded and cut into bitesize chunks. You can also add daikon for bulk. If you feel the necessity, the chile can be thickened with corn meal. Beans are definitely optional, with the International Chile cookoffs (and Texans) eschewing beans, but those of us who have to ensure we eat low GI foods can add beans. Another variation is to add turkey chunks and/or pork chunks. Still another is to use wine instead of or in addition to the beer.

Chile is what you make it.

A vegetarian's chili recipe.

What I want to know is, how do you find time in the day to cook all of this stuff, blog, go to work, and use the bathroom. I'm figuring you've got something that cuts short the bathroom time. And that would be????

"Let's see: She's witty, articulate, thoughtful, good-looking, and she can cook too! What's wrong with the men in New York?"

They're afraid of her? Tall gals tend to scare off a lot of guys for some reason that never made any sense to me. On the other hand, I knew some tall gals in high school and college, so I may have simply been inoculated against Amazonaphobia.

There isn't anything wrong with the men in New York. I imagine it went down just like in Peter Pan:

The way Mr. Darling won her was this: the many gentlemen who had been boys when she was a girl discovered simultaneously that they loved her, and they all ran to her house to propose to her except Mr. Darling, who took a cab and nipped in first, and so he got her.

I've been doing something like this for 30 years. Note that Ancho chilies are nothing more than Poblano chilies ripened and dried (they ain't hot cept the seeds and veins maybe). Think Paul Prudhomme, anything which will develope flavors from high heat pan searing is good but the stuff will simply be better the next day because it will allow all the good stuff to (choose your word)get to know it's self. Beans are good, Black, garbanzo, pinto, etc.................. but not necessary. Since Ky is the place we also do the pasta thingie, but corn tortillias work well.

PS 'Chilie' is Tex-Mex Not Mexican.... This stuff is I think a Tinga

Check the 'Ortiz' or 'Kennedy" cook books if you want mexican cooking for the North Americans.

...it just ain't proper chili 'less it gets washed down with the right beverage: A tall bottle o' Texas-brewed beer. Pearl used to be my choice, although I hear it is no longer brewed at the original facility in San Antonio. Lone Star perhaps. Either are hard to find in these parts...

Your chili recipe is probably the most important bit of info I'll read today. Thanks

Oops, sorry for the multiple posting. My dog jumped onto my lap...then there's the five cups of coffee......and then.........

"Any recipe for "chili" that includes oregano is not fit for the name. It is spagetti sauce."

Go read the ingredients for “chili powder” on your spice jar. For those that list the actual spices, oregano is one of them.

Thanks to those who informed me in response to my query in a previous post as to miracle whip - although I fear they didn't inspire me to try it. I suspect the vegemite analogy may be spot on, in that if you don't grow up on the stuff you find it inedible.

But what is cilantro? I assume it's some sort of spice but I can't recall ever having seen it in Oz.

Cac, cilantro is a parsley sort of thing. It's actually the leaves of the coriander plant (read more here).

I may be misremembering, but I think Michael Dukakis, when running for President in 1988, made the mistake of suggesting that farmers suffering from low crop prices should grow new things like cilantro. It's not something I'd expect to find at Denny's, but it's standard in dishes at Mexican restaurants, and I've seen it in salads at other up-to-date restaurants.

Can't offer much personal experience, since I don't generally cook Mexican, or eat out often enough to have strong opinions of it.

I'll confirm PJ's statement: I believe that what Yanks call cilantro, Brits (and likely Aussies) call coriander. Actually, on this side of the pond, we call the seeds 'coriander' and the leaves 'cilantro'. Divided by a common language, and all that.

Cilantro is best described as as Lemon flavored Tide. It is a must ingredient in most Mex cooking. It is---- the green tops of young coriander before it goes to seed. You can usually plant fresh seed from the grok store in a small pot with most any soil and grow it at home. It does not taste like the seed. If you have had 'Pico de Gallo' at any mex food palace you have had it as a prime spice.

whhjr

Venison works better than beef.

Thicken with sassafras, if it needs thickening.

Thin with coffee, if it needs thinning.

Toss in some semi-sweet chocolate chunks.

If you put beans in chili, people will never again take seriously anything you say about anything.

If you put beans in chili, people will never again take seriously anything you say about anything.

Hmmm. I've honestly never had - nor for that matter even heard of - chili without beans.

What should you put in there? Kumquats?

You just illustrated the point.

"Any recipe for "chili" that includes oregano is not fit for the name. It is spagetti sauce.

Not if you use Mexican oregano. (Insert "wacky weed" joke here.) It has a different flavor than the kind from the Med.

Hmmm. I've honestly never had - nor for that matter even heard of - chili without beans.

Then you've never had real chili. Beans are, if consumed with chili, eaten on the side. This is according to those illustrious men and women of great probity, the Texas Legislature, which made chili without beans the official state dish of Texas. And they can't be wrong.

Thanks for the info. In Oz we use "coriander" as the name for the seeds and the leaf (and the root) and it's an ingredient I'm pretty familiar with, although more in an Asian food context. Mexican is not that big here but it sounds well worth trying.

In Oz we use "coriander" as the name for the seeds and the leaf (and the root) and it's an ingredient I'm pretty familiar with, although more in an Asian food context. Mexican is not that big here but it sounds well worth trying.

My 20 year old Fannie Farmer cookbook does include cilantro in the index, but the sum total about it is this entry in "Herbs, Spices, and Seasonings":

Coriander or Cilantro (Chinese Parsley). There are the seeds and there are the leaves, used quite differently. The ground coriander seeds are sometimes used in baking; the whole seeds are essential in pickling and making aromatic vegetables. The leaf, also known as Chinese parsley and cilantro, has a surprising, unfamiliar taste, one which must be acquired. But it is much appreciated by connoisseurs and used frequently in Mexcian, Indian, and Chinese cooking.

I aso checked my On Food And Cooking (McGee). He doesn't mention cilantro, but there are a few mentions of coriander. Two facts to start your week off right:

1) Coriander is a member of the carrot family, and so is related to anise, caraway, cumin, dill, fennel, and parsley.
2) "It became popular in 17th-century France, where it was the principal ingredient in Eau de Carnes, a concoction that could be used as a liqueur or as a cologne." McGee doesn't mention how it worked as a dessert topping or a floor wax.

Since I complained about the feminist prediliction of refusing to cook, I must compliment you on posting recipes. I love cooking, too.

Cooking is an art and a service. Serving a beautiful meal is one of the greatest acts of love and friendship.

Thanks.

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