Thrown Together Chili

Literally.  When I created this about 2 months ago, it was completely on the fly and I didn't really have all the traditional chili makins.  Sooooo I did what I always do, make do with what I DID have.  It was a small batch (compared to the normal amount that I would cook) so it didn't take me more than 30 minutes to prep my veg, brown the meat, open the cans and get everything simmering. I later adapted that recipe to accommodate for a larger yield.

Nothing about it is exact, it all depends on how much or how little you want to make, I always plan for leftovers so the specs I'm about to give you will definitely give you chili for a week (depending on your portion sizes). You can add to or take away what you don't want/like:

1-2 pounds of ground beef (I usually use the lean, less grease to drain)
3 cans of tomato sauce
3 cans of navy (northern) beans, drained and rinsed (they hold up better than you think and they don't have all those skins)
3 cans of sweet corn (partially drained)
2 cans of rotel (I first used the one that has green chile, lime and cilantro in it, you can also get the one that has chili seasoning in it or mix and match) don't drain
2 decent sized bell peppers, diced small
2 medium white onions, diced small
2 mid sized garlic cloves, minced
1 quarter to 1 half of fresh jalapeno, seeded, diced as fine as you can get it
Salt, to taste
Cumin, to taste
Chili powder, to taste (if you used chili seasoning, taste it first)
Pinch of sugar (mainly for the corn but it lends to the finished product too)
1 good squirt of ketchup (cuts the strong tomato acidic taste, gives a little sweetness)

Brown your meat first, drain it and remove it from your pot. That elusive little bit of grease left behind, plus 1 tblsp olive/veggie oil and 1 small chunk of butter (so your oil doesn't get too hot and your veggies don't caramelize) goes in behind it, throw in your onion and bell pepper. Let them sweat for about 3 minutes or until they're turning clear and add the garlic and the jalapeno. Sweat for about 5 more minutes. Add beef back to pot, then start dumping in your cans, beans, salt, cumin, chili powder, sugar and ketchup.

If you don't have enough volume or it's REALLY thick, add water till you've got the consistency you want. Taste and re-season as needed. I tend to have to add a lot of chili powder and cumin. Cumin gives it the smokey background flavor I crave in chili.

Let it come to a low boil, let it go at that temp for about 20 minutes, stirring frequently so it doesn't settle and stick.
Taste test it again, make sure it doesn't need anything else. If it's still too tangy for you, go for another squirt of ketchup or another couple of pinches of sugar. Turn the heat down and let it simmer for about 15 minutes (or until your side dishes are done).

If it thins out too much by the time it's done, which mine usually does, I add a cornstarch slurry of 1 tablspoon cornstarch to enough water to dissolve, and bring it back to a boil till it's back up to the thickness I want.  

Serve and enjoy
Yield : quite a lot, bring your A game people


                                             

Super Secret Spud Seasoning

Well, not so much a secret anymore...

It's also referred to as S4 (S to the 4th power) or, affectionately, "Crack."  Once you've tried it, you want to put it on everything, or so say the ones who came up with that one.  It's ridiculously simple to make and everything you need is pretty much already in your spice cabinet.  The only oddball is cumin.  Unless you NEVER make chili, you SHOULD have this, but if not, it's easy to find and relatively inexpensive.  I honestly find no difference between the flavor of pricey cumin versus the $1 bargain brand.  Unless it's been sitting on the shelf for EVER, I always opt for the $1 stuff when it comes to the things I use the most.  If I burn through a jar of garlic powder in 2 weeks, I don't feel so bad knowing that it was only $1.


All of the measurements are equal parts.  How much to use depends on how much or how little you want to make.  I usually make enough to fill a salt shaker, or 1/4 of a chinese take out tupperware-like-bowl thingy that they always give you the sweet and sour sauce in.

Equal parts:
Salt (regular table salt, you can use kosher if you'd rather, but they don't get along with shaker holes)
Pepper
Garlic Powder
Onion Powder
Paprika
Cumin


Dump all these into your trusty chinese take out tupperware bowl (or zippy bag, those work great too), put the lid on and SHAKE IT! Over the sink though!  Just in case.


This goes AMAZINGLY well on roasted new potatoes (the red ones) as that's what my friend and I originally created this seasoning for, as well as mashed potatoes, baked potatoes and french fries.  Heck, it's even good in scrambled eggs! (I told you, you'd want to put it on everything!)  Due to the cumin it gives a little smokey background flavor to anything you put it on, while the rest of the stuff in there just enhances whatever food it touches.

I assimilated...

Yep.  I assimilated to the new era of owning a blog.  My original idea was to write a cookbook and then figure out how to publish it on a small, local kind of scale.  Yeah, whatev, that's too time consuming and I can't update it easily.  Every time I create a new dish all I have to do is log on and blog it!  So much simpler.

I've been cooking and creating my own recipes for about 10 years now.  I'm 23 now, so I started when I was 13, much to Mama's displeasure, since I was not a fan (still ain't!) of washing the dishes after an adventure in gastronomy.  I will wash up now, if she doesn't get to them before me.  That woman is a dish ninja.  DO NOT leave a glass or a fork unattended for less than 2 minutes around her.  It WILL end up in the dishpan and then the dish drain in 1:30 flat.  The last 30 seconds is the time it takes for you to reach for the item, only to find it's been ninja'd into the drainer.

She's yet to figure out how I do it though.  Walk into the kitchen with NO plan of action whatsoever, and walk out with something amazing in about an hours time.  When it comes out good enough for me to wish I'd made more, I grab my trusty Tinkerbell notebook (that's right, TINKERBELL!) and jot it all down.  However at that point, I'm also wishing I'd written down the measurements as well.  I never measure things.  Unless I have to.  I do everything "to taste" and put however much or however little I want into whatever it is.  I'm not trying to overpower anything.  I want to be able to taste the different flavors separately in certain things and in others I want them to blend together.  'Course that all depends on what you're making and how you use them.  I can't teach you how to do these things like some white-coat at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) or JAW (Johnson and Wales) could.  Some folks palates just aren't built to detect certain flavors over others, or in some cases, be able to detect it at all.  I'm the kind of person that can taste something at a restaurant and tell you what's in it in about a minute.  Just lucky I guess.

That's one of the problems with some folks these days though.  They don't take the time to really TASTE their food.  They're in such a tremendous hurry to scarf it down and move on to the next task that they do just that.  Scarf it down and wonder why they have heartburn later.  I am ALWAYS the LAST person to finish eating.  It doesn't matter when I sat down or how quickly I made my plate, I will finish last.  Sometimes 30 minutes after everyone else.

My cooking is based on convenience, but it's so you can sit down when it's done and enjoy it.  I don't want to stand in the kitchen for 2 hours anymore than the next person, but I do want something that's easy, filling and awesome.  I believe in left-overs so usually I've made a lot because if it was that good then imagine how much better it'll be tomorrow!

The recipes I post here are meant to be re-created and tweaked so feel free!  If you tweaked it and it came out awesome, then let me know!  There's nothing I enjoy more than seeing people sit back from the table after they're done, rubbing their bellies or unbuttoning their pants because they're fat and happy now that they're done.  I cook because I enjoy seeing my creativity put a smile on someone's face.

Well, that and because I was hungry.