Made Chili the other day. Might be the easiest dish ever to make. But making it awesome is a different story.
Normally I've used my mother's recipe, which is just ground beef, kidney beans, onion, garlic, chili powder. No real tomato. It's ok but it's always been a little on the thin side, no real gravy to speak of, just the fats and juices blended with the spices.
So I tried what the internet recommended for a change.
Used a whole tomato I crushed up in to pulp.
Used a can of actual tomato sauce. Typically I don't use tomato sauce in anything I make, even spaghetti sauce. (I usually go with tomato paste so I have complete control over the consistency.)
Used a can of chili sauce. Again, I don't really like using pre-made sauces because you either like the flavor or you don't and it's crap shoot when you're buying it off the shelves. But I wanted to really infuse the chili with spice this time and add more "sauce" to it.
Seasoning were chili powder, cayenne pepper, garlic powder, sea salt, black pepper corns and a bit of cumin.
Cooked the hamburger up in big chunks instead of chopping it up in the pan, based on a youtube video I saw. At first I doubted the method, seemed overly fiddly to me. But you know what? It works. Not chopping up the hamburger until the chili is well in to the cooking phase does a lot of things. First, it keeps the hamburger on the inside of the chunk tender and raw throughout the cooking process. When you plan to cook your chili for hours instead of minutes, it's pretty important not to over cook the meat. Second, it slowly leeches the meat fats in to the chili over time, rather than leaving most of it in the pan while you're browning it. Again, when you plan to slow cook your chili it's important to not over cook the meat and its byproducts. Lastly, you end up with seemingly dense bits of meat that are in longer strands than when you finally chop it up in the pan while you're browning it, as it naturally comes apart in the chili. This makes the chili consistency, along with all the other factors, thicker.
I did one round of seasoning then cooked it at a low bubble for about 45 minutes. Then I let it rest for a half hour. Then I reheated it, and hit it with another round of seasoning, as the spices can tend to mellow over time. Cooked it for about another 45 minutes at a low bubble.
It came out so thick in places I had to stir it constantly to prevent the bottom from burning. A lot of the veggies and smaller meat bits at the bottom cooked so thoroughly, and separated from the fluids that it became pretty thick in the bottom inch of the pot. I was tempted at one point to add some water but I fought the inclination, as I'm trying to get away from using water at all to control thickness and consistency, I want maximum flavor out of whatever I'm making.
And it came out pretty goddamn delicious, and spicy, in the end. I think I could go without the chili sauce honestly, all it really adds is vinegar and blended spices I'm already using. I could just substitute with more tomato sauce or perhaps beef broth. And on the tomato sauce front.....I'll probably try mashing my own tomatoes next time to make sauce. The canned sauce isn't bad. It's certainly convenient. But again, I hate using pre-made stuff because its got its own flavorings and I want to have a base to work from where I know where each flavor comes from. So I'll probably mash and puree tomatoes next time I do this. I'll also probably mince my onions and garlic too rather than fine chopping. I tend to prefer my veggies to disappear into things like chili and gravy.
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Topic: Food Thread: Kitchen Chemistry (Read 578627 times)