Guess what? I moved to Texas! I finished my master's degree in St. Louis and headed south. My experiments are starting to pick up at my new job and I'm jumping into life as a "Wisconsinite Displaced in Texas." The cheese and brat selections in Houston are far superior to those in St. Louis, many of the traffic lights are shorter, and I left town 2 days before a snowstorm that was the first of many. I walked in the surf on the Gulf of Mexico, saw my first rodeo, and went in the pool on Easter Sunday! With that and more in mind, I'd say that the move was a great idea.
Oh yeah, there's also a boy in Texas. For the past few months, that boy and I have been talking about hosting a chili cook-off. His work schedule is kinda crazy (he's a pediatric intern), so we had to schedule it during a month when he got weekends off (a rarity). Coincidentally, I moved to Texas during just such a month. Planning a chili cook-off over Easter weekend might not have been the best idea. We aren't religious, but it turns out a lot of our friends are. Even so, we ended up with 8 chili entries (3 vegetarian, 5 meat) and a number of "fixin's" and desserts. Entries included an okra, bean and Sriracha chili, a barley and bean chili, a bell pepper and bean chili, traditional Texan beef chili, tomatillo beef chili, chicken chili, ground turkey chili, and, believe it or not, a venison chili! Overall, our chili cook-off was a success and we had a lot of fun.
To prepare for the cook-off, we went to the grocery store and bought every type of dried chile available (including but not limited to ancho, New Mexico, morita, mulato, chipotle, arbol, guajillo, pasilla, Japanese, and pequin). I knew I wanted to make a vegetarian chili to be sure that there was at least 1 vegetarian option available. I started off by reading The Food Lab: How to Make The Best Chili Ever on Serious Eats. Kenji provides an excellent discussion of chili--from flavor, to texture, to ingredients, and beyond. The article links to Serious Eats' Best Vegetarian Bean Chili recipe, which I used as the starting point for my chile. At first, I wanted to use as many chiles and peppers as possible (we had serranos, jalapenos, manzana, red/orange/yellow bell, poblano, and a really long green one). I decided to limit the peppers to bell peppers because I thought they would hold their crisp texture better than the others (poblanos tend to get mushy and I wasn't sure about any of the others). I wanted to use a bunch of different types of beans to add character. I decided to add lime for acidity and cinnamon for sweetness because the flavor of the chiles didn't come out right away upon taking a spoonful. In the end, I stirred in some corn for color and texture. I'm proud to report that my recipe tied for best vegetarian chili.
Oh yeah, there's also a boy in Texas. For the past few months, that boy and I have been talking about hosting a chili cook-off. His work schedule is kinda crazy (he's a pediatric intern), so we had to schedule it during a month when he got weekends off (a rarity). Coincidentally, I moved to Texas during just such a month. Planning a chili cook-off over Easter weekend might not have been the best idea. We aren't religious, but it turns out a lot of our friends are. Even so, we ended up with 8 chili entries (3 vegetarian, 5 meat) and a number of "fixin's" and desserts. Entries included an okra, bean and Sriracha chili, a barley and bean chili, a bell pepper and bean chili, traditional Texan beef chili, tomatillo beef chili, chicken chili, ground turkey chili, and, believe it or not, a venison chili! Overall, our chili cook-off was a success and we had a lot of fun.
To prepare for the cook-off, we went to the grocery store and bought every type of dried chile available (including but not limited to ancho, New Mexico, morita, mulato, chipotle, arbol, guajillo, pasilla, Japanese, and pequin). I knew I wanted to make a vegetarian chili to be sure that there was at least 1 vegetarian option available. I started off by reading The Food Lab: How to Make The Best Chili Ever on Serious Eats. Kenji provides an excellent discussion of chili--from flavor, to texture, to ingredients, and beyond. The article links to Serious Eats' Best Vegetarian Bean Chili recipe, which I used as the starting point for my chile. At first, I wanted to use as many chiles and peppers as possible (we had serranos, jalapenos, manzana, red/orange/yellow bell, poblano, and a really long green one). I decided to limit the peppers to bell peppers because I thought they would hold their crisp texture better than the others (poblanos tend to get mushy and I wasn't sure about any of the others). I wanted to use a bunch of different types of beans to add character. I decided to add lime for acidity and cinnamon for sweetness because the flavor of the chiles didn't come out right away upon taking a spoonful. In the end, I stirred in some corn for color and texture. I'm proud to report that my recipe tied for best vegetarian chili.
Objective
Make a tasty vegetarian chili for the Chili Cook-off using dried chiles as the base of the flavor.
Materials
2 chiles de arbol
2 chiles mullato
2 chiles pasilla
2 chiles guajillo
1 chile morita
1 1/2 tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. oregano
1/2 tsp. ginger
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. salt
2 limes
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 bell peppers (1 each: red, orange, yellow), chopped
1 tbsp. olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
6 cloves garlic, minced
3 bell peppers (1 each: red, orange, yellow), chopped
28 oz. Kidney beans
28 oz. Black beans
14 oz. Great Northern White beans
14 oz. Black eyed peas
28 oz. crushed tomatoes
14 oz. diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
14 oz. diced tomatoes
1 1/2 cups frozen corn
1 tbsp. soy sauce
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
Methods
1. Prepare the chile paste: cut the stems off of the chiles and remove the seeds. Place them in a dry skillet and cook over medium-high heat for about 5 minutes. Add enough water to the skillet to cover the chiles (don't worry if they start to float). Bring the water to a boil, then remove the skillet from the heat and sit 15 minutes.
2. Move the chiles to a blender with 1/2-1 cup of the chile water. Add 1 1/2 tbsp. cumin, 1 tsp. oregano, 1/2 tsp. ginger, and the juice of 2 limes. Blend to form a thick paste, adding more chile water if necessary.
3. In a large pot, heat 1 tbsp. olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook about 3 minutes. Add the minced garlic and chopped bell peppers. Continue to heat and stir until the onions and peppers have softened. Add the chile paste, beans, tomato, corn, soy sauce, cinnamon, and cayenne pepper. Stir the chili to mix the ingredients. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 30 minutes.
4. After the chili has simmered, taste the chili for flavor. As necessary, add more salt, cumin, cayenne, cinnamon, ginger, oregano, and lime juice. Continue simmering until and adjusting the spices until you reach a flavor that you like. Beware that the longer the chili simmers, the intensity of the flavors will dissipate.
Results
Yum! Without meat, it's tricky to get chili with texture that isn't just mush. Using a variety of beans and adding corn helped a lot. The flavor is good. It's sweet with a little bit of spicy. After sitting in the fridge over night, the heat was lost and the chili became very mild.
Discussion
The biggest thing this chili lacks is something to chew. I don't like tofu or fake meat, so maybe the texture I should add is crunchy. Just a little something to give the teeth some resistance. Maybe sprinkling the top of each bowl with crushed tortilla chips would work. The other thing I'd like to taste is more heat. Most of the other chili makers used Sriracha. I know that I'm in the huge minority these days, but I've never purchased or used the stuff. I wouldn't have thought to add hot sauce because I wanted my heat to be authentic from the chiles I added. I ended up relying a lot on the cayenne for heat and the peppers for flavor depth. Hot sauce might be the key!
My usual chili recipe is a turkey and black bean chili with chipotle salsa. I've made it with and without meat, and either way, the flavor is hard to beat (the brand of the chipotle salsa is the key). For the chili cook-off, I was determined to use chiles and not chili powder. I'm glad that I did because it was a learning experience. It took a lot more tasting and adding spices than I'm used to, but in the end, I liked my product enough that I was glad I didn't use my usual recipe.
