Some Like it Hot: part Two

 Today
we move on to dried chiles.  In a previous post I promised a recipe on how to make you own chili powder.  Remember that chile (with an E) powder is nothing more than ground dried chiles whereas chili (with an I) powder is a mix of spices including chile powder, salt, cumin, garlic, and onion powder.  Let’s start with making the chile (with an E) powder.  You will need dried chiles. I recommend ancho chiles as they have a very pleasant fruity taste and are fairly mild as chiles go, but any dried chile will work for this recipe. You should be able to find several varieties of dried chiles at your supermarket typically in the produce department or the Latin foods aisle.  If yours does not carry dried chiles try a Latin food market or at the very least they can be found online just search for “dried chile”.  Once you have obtained your chiles the next thing you will need is some way to grind them.  The very best and easiest method is to use an electric coffee grinder, which is a small investment at 15-20$ (note: if you already have one to grind coffee you’ll still want an additional one of these just for grinding spices as once you’ve ground a spice in the grinder you won’t  enjoy the coffee you grind in it).  You could also use the traditional pestle and mortar, or you can use your food processor.  

Now that you have the goods to make your chile powder the first thing you want to do is cut the tops off the chiles and shake out the seeds. Then take your kitchen shears and cut the chiles into small strips. Place the strips into a preheated pan over medium heat and toss frequently for 1-2 minutes.  You only want to gently heat the chiles, not cook them or more to the point burn them.  Let the chiles come to room temperature then place them in your chosen grinding device and pulverize those suckers into a fine powder.  Now this seems like a whole lot for something you can just pick up a jar of.  TRUST ME! Try this once and you’ll never look at commercial made chill powders the same.

Sweet and Smoky Chili Powder

                        3T   fresh ground chile (with an E) powder

                        2T  Granulated garlic

                        1T smoked paprika

                        1T each,  cumin, dried oregano, onion powder, Spanish paprika, and kosher salt

                        1/2T  dark brown sugar

                        1 tsp  each, ground coriander, cayenne pepper, and ground mustard

Directions:  Thoroughly combine all ingredients in a bowl.  Transfer to an airtight container, and store in a cool, dry, dark place.

Come back for one more and you will be hot to trot.



Some Like It Hot: Part One

My last post there was mention of chili, and I had promised to post about CHILE’s. Not the restaurant, which I do not recommend, but the actual fruit.  This promises to be one hot post! 

Chile’s are fruit of plants in the genus Capsicum, and like tomatoes are in the nightshade family. Relatively speaking chiles are new to the European and Asian kitchens being brought back to Spain by Columbus in 1493 and spreading from there.  On the other hand chiles have more than likely been cultivated for human consumption since 6000BC in their native South America.  Chiles range in flavor from the fruity taste of a bell pepper to the nuclear heat that is the calling card of the ghost pepper.    Chiles get their distinctive bite from chemical compounds called capsaicinoids.  These compounds, primarily capsaicin, bind with pain receptors in the mouth that sense heat.  Once activated by the capsaicinoids, these receptors send impulses to our brain  telling it we have eaten something hot. The heat of a Chile is rated in scoville units.  A scoville unit , or SU  is basically how many times a given amount of dried chile must be diluted in a sugar water solution before the heat is undetectable.  The scale goes from 0 SU of a bell pepper to 15,000,000 SU of pure capsaicin. Now, this scientific measurement is nice and all but the truth of the matter is the exact heat of a chile pepper is a function of numerous things. Things like the soil they were grown in, the weather they matured in, how long they have sat after being picked, and the list can go on and on.  The take home is a general rating of heat you can expect from a given pepper in relation to other peppers.   Now, there are 3 basic forms you will find chiles in the local supermarket: fresh, dried, and canned.  Fresh are just that, the fresh grown chile in its natural unaltered form. Some examples are jalapeño, bell, poblano, and habenero.   When a fresh chile is dried it gets a new name and usually takes on a different flavor than the chile in its fresh form.  The dried chile also tends to be hotter than its fresh counterpart.  A dried chile example is the Ancho pepper which is a dried poblano.  As for canned/jarred there are 3 most common items found in our local supermarkets. 1) is pickled jalapeño we are all familiar with being served on nachos at the ballpark 2.) is canned chopped green chiles and 3.) the chipotle pepper, a smoked jalapeño that is usually found in a tomato/spice mixture known as adobo.  I am going to give you all 3 different recipes using the three different forms of chiles, in three different posts.  

Lets start with fresh.  This recipe is for a condiment known as firewater.  This stuff is amazing as an additive to chili’s and soups or on your morning eggs. Pretty much anyplace you might use hot sauce you can substitute the broader flavor and milder heat of firewater.  The recipe is going to call for jalapeños and Serrano peppers, but you can use hotter chiles to increase the heat or milder chiles to decrease it.  When working with fresh chiles it is always a good idea to wear disposable gloves to keep the capsaicin containing oils off your fingers and subsequently out of your eyes and other sensitive areas.  Also, while it is true the seeds of a chile have more heat than the flesh, the majority of the capsaicin in a chile is contained in the white pithy ribs found inside the chile.  So if you are cutting up chiles (which this recipe doesn’t call for) you can further reduce the heat by discarding the ribs and seeds or leave them in for a greater zing! 

Firewater

Ingredients:

5   whole jalapeño chiles

2   Serrano chiles

3   cloves garlic, crushed slightly

3 T   fresh oregano

      Or substitute 2tsp. dried

1T + 1tsp  crushed red pepper, divided

1tsp   kosher salt

3C boiling water

Directions:  rinse off the chiles and make 4 or 5 slits the length of each chili leaving the tops and point ends uncut.  Place the chiles, garlic, oregano,1 T crushed pepper, and salt into a large jar or container with a lid.  Pour the boiling water over the ingredients and close the jar.  Leave the jar on your counter overnight or for 10-12 hours.  Pour the water into a clean jar, while straining out the solids.  Add another tsp of the crushed red pepper to the jar (or for less heat leave out).  Store the firewater in your refrigerator for up to 1 month.

Hungry for more?  Look here for part two, coming soon.

Inside The Bowl, The lowdown on Chili

The super bowl  is this Sunday, and in honor of the big game I’ve decided to write about one of the quintessential  super bowl party foods; Chili.  Now, the best place to start with just about anything is the beginning. 

Chili more than likely started with the Gauchos of the Mexican plains. Initially a simple mixture of available meat in a spicy chile sauce, it was adopted by the cowboys of the American southwest, and in typical American fashion made bigger and more complex.  The cowboy’s camp cooks took that simple mixture and added tomatoes, aromatics, and additional spices to make what today’s chili purist would call ambrosia.  Traditional chili is a far cry from the simmering pots of ground meat and beans most of us have on our stoves.  True chili purists will tell you that chili is chunk meat in a thick and spicy tomatoes and chile broth.  They look down on those of us that would even dare consider adding vegetables, or beans, and the meat definitely must be whole chunks nothing so sissified as ground meat!  OK, for anyone sweating bullets that I am going to tell them they need to remove the beans from their chili or there mortal soul will burn…..relax. I am far from a purist.  I love to experiment with different ingredients, and every pot of chili I make contains beans of some sort.  In fact I think the greatest thing about a popular food like chili is all the variety.  Traditional, red eye, green, white, turkey, buffalo, vegan and about 400 other versions exists to tempt our palates and our imagination.  In our house we have tried dozens upon dozens of additional ingredients to our basic chili recipe. Some of them keepers, some of them…..well, not so much. Here is a list of some of the keepers.

·        Honey

·        Lager beer

·        Whisky

·        Chocolate (really! Try it some time. Dark is better than milk)

·        Molasses

·        Maple syrup

·        Ground up corn chips

·        Bacon (duh!)

·        Strong brewed coffee

·        Crushed pineapple

·        Diced zucchini and summer squash

·        Tomatillos instead of tomatoes

·        Beans: black, red, pinto, kidney, navy, great northern, black eyed

Another way to broaden you chili's horizons is to vary the meat you use.  Our favorite combo is ground sirloin, pork, and venison, but if it squeaks, squawks, flys, swims, slithers, or walks you can probably grind it up and make chili out of it.  Please show some restraint though. I know you’re excited to perfect that chili recipe but let’s leave the neighbor’s cat to the Chinese takeout guy.  I promise I am going to give you a recipe here but I have one last thing to mention.  This recipe is going to call for chile, C-H-I-L-E powder. This is different from chili, C-H-I-L-I powder.  Chili powder is the reddish brown powder found in just about every American spice cabinet. It is a mixture of ground dried chiles, cumin, salt, garlic powder, and onion powder.  Chile powder on the other hand is just the ground up dried chiles.  My recipe calls for the Chile with an “e” version.  Chile powder can be found at Latin food stores or at specialty spice stores.  In a future post I show you how to make your own.  If you don’t want to buy another spice, or are unable to find chile powder, chili powder can be substituted in the same quantity but be sure to leave out the salt and cumin or those flavors will overpower the chili. 

2# ground meat (I suggest sirloin and pork)

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 medium red onion diced

2 ribs celery finely diced

1 poblano pepper diced

1 each red and green bell pepper diced

2 28oz cans crushed tomatoes

2 16oz cans diced tomatoes (no salt added if you can find it)

3 T tomato paste

1 can each: black beans, pinto beans, and light red kidney beans (we use dried, also a future post)

3T Ancho Chile powder (or regular chili powder)

1T cumin

1T granulated garlic

1T oregano

1/2T Onion powder

1tsp cayenne powder

2T brown sugar

2T kosher salt

2T beef bullion

2C water

1/4C masa(a corn flour widely available at many grocery stores) or ground up corn chips

In a large pot brown the meat, and drain reserving 4 or 5 tablespoons of the drippings.  Return the reserved drippings and add the garlic, onion, celery and peppers cooking over medium heat until tender.  Return the meat, and add the tomatoes and tomato paste.  Drain and thoroughly rinse the beans adding them to the pot.  Then add the chili powder through the bullion stirring the pot well to mix.  In a separate bowl add the water to the masa and mix well.  Add the masa to the chili pot.  Cover and simmer for at least one hour before serving.  Serve with cornbread, shredded cheese, sour cream, and thinly sliced fresh jalapeños.

Use this recipe as a starting point and experiment on your own.  Go find the next greatest ingredient and invite us over for a bowl!  I hope we have inspired you.  Leave us a message and let us know what your secret ingredients are, or what the most bizarre thing you have put in that chili pot was!