On Apr 4, 12:09 pm, "Nunya Bidnits" wrote:
wrote:

My chili base is the red chili ancho paste I posted earlier. Its still not
the spicy brown broth of the traditional chili, but makes a rather thick
chili. I brown onions, ground pork, ground beef, (or cubed pork and beef),
add the red sauce, green chilis, chicken or vegetable broth, maybe some
beer, garlic, comino, lime juice, some pinto beans, oregano (mexican or
greek), salt and pepper. Maybe some roasted poblano, maybe some chopped
serranos or japs. Maybe some chorizo to make it interesting. Oh yeah, and a
few chopped tomatoes.

I'm just checking here... one more time.... are you sure you aren't
from Texas? Maybe even from the panhandle? There's got to be a
connection somewhere looking at your ingredient selection. I am
suspicious; you eat serranos and toast cumin...

Or, I modify and use grilled chicken, less red chile, more green chile, plus
poblanos, more chicken broth, black beans, and the other stuff for
chicken/black bean chili. And whatever else of the stuff above smells good
at the time.

That's the fun of non competition chili. You do whatever you want
with it based on what is on hand. All chili used to be like that,
just basically a stew. You would have had a great time here when
chili cookoffs were in vogue and held for charity events. About 30
years ago when I started going to the first ones, there were NO rules
about ingredients, judging, or anything else. The judges were local
celebrities, and they walked the fair grounds and tasted and drank
beer. Which ever one they liked won.

So there was judgin' chili, and there was eatin' chili. Besides beef
and pork chili, I have had chili made from bear, possum, squirrel,
rattlesnake (largest yearly rattlesnake hunt in the world is an hour
and a half from my house), elk, goat (actually cabrito) and all manner
and mix of those ingredients. Most of the contestants were hunters,
and they felt like their "camp chili" was the best ever, so they were
the contestants.

Some of it was perfect it was so good. Some of it was inedible.

*If chili was supposed to be tomato based, it would be called tomati.*

I like that one!

That abuelita principle actually describes how I cook pretty
well. I don't use that many hard and fast recipes, but rather, I learn the
basic techniques involved in creating a particular type of food
construction, with the whys as well as the whats, and then I find I can
create around that basic knowledge without scaring myself very often.

I cook the same way as well. I enjoy cooking, and have gone through
several phases of traditional Italian, Chinese (had to take a class on
that one), of course traditional Mexican, and traditional Southern
style cooking. You could spend your life doing nothing but Southern
cooking and never get it all. I am like a dog with a bone when I make
up a batch of homemade cornbread with smoked ham bits and jalepenos in
it.

I branch off, though. Last week we had cheese tortellinis with
sauteed eggplant and spinach, tossed with smoked shrimp, tossed with
garlic infused olive oil.

The week before I made a grilled chicken breast entree by marinating
the chicken breasts in balsamic vinegar and spices, then slit them
open and stuffed them with ricotta cheese, bread crumbs and chopped
spinach with lightly toasted garlic. The smoke added the right
touch. A spinach/egg salad with homemade dressing, and a quick side
of linguine in marinara, and that was good as well.

That's
probably why I don't bake much, a rocket science which requires precise
adherence to recipes. At least for me.

I started making all kinds of breads a few years ago. I tossed,
threw, kneaded, proofed, and did all kinds of things for about 5
years. During the winter I was making as much as 8 loaves a weekend,
and we never had any left. Homemade bread ALWAYS has a home. I
probably put on 15 pounds, so I stopped. I have a killer recipe for a
traditional white Italian, but I only make that once in a while.


But did I mention chili ancho chocolate chip cookies? g

Waitin' to see that recipe... ;^)

The pork steaks have the characteristic T shaped bone from the pork butt. If
pork butt goes on sale there cheaper than pork steak, just ask them for some
sliced pork butt. g

I don't know if they would slice them and sell them as something else
or not. Frankly, I hadn't thought of that.

I have a standing arrangement with a couple of my friends, and we meet
once a week and have dinner and a few beers. Here's something we have
gone back to: lately our local supermarket has been having the
packages of "mixed chops" on sale pretty cheap. I like to cook them
the way I used to when they were really cheap and you could buy a
bucket of them for nothing.

These guys are about 3/8" or so of an inch thick, and some not even
that much. I spray them with quick dose of cooking spray, then coat
them with tabasco flavored lemon pepper and garlic granules. We make
a nice oak fire in the grill, and put these as far away from the fire
as we can to let them smoke a bit. I put a ton of them in there, and
leave them for about 45 minutes or so, moving them only once to make
sure they all get equal oak smoke. Then I move them closer to the
actual fire, and brown them for another 15 - 20 minutes.

We pull them off and eat them like fried chicken, usually several per
person. Add some garlic and onion mashed potatoes, homemade ranch
style beans and beer right out of the ice and you have one hell of a
meal.

I really have the best of the deal, too. None of my friends cook, and
they claim they never have home cooked meals, so they buy everything,
and all I have to do is show up and cook! They all like to eat
though, and they are in a great mood knowing they are going to be fed
well. I usually chip in if they will let me, but they buy enough so
that they have a lot of leftovers so they feel like they are the ones
getting ahead.

Someway it all works.

Robert