Post modern chili

Cobe and I made a big decision 2 weeks ago--we got Stella (see above). Since then we have been plunged into a whole new world. A world of chew toys and wee wee pads. We've also lost all hope of real sleep as she needs to pee every 3 hours.

Needless to say, cooking went by the wayside. We had a few rotisserie chickens, some takeout vietnamese. Finally I marshaled my resources and started digging through recipes.

I came up with chili. But not just any chili, real mexican chili. Ground anchos and chilpotle, some fresh cilantro. Post modern chili.

It came out even better than I expected. Earthy and spicy, but somehow still light and fresh. Definitely serve it with some cornbread (I cheated and made a mix, throwing in some canned corn for texture). The corn and beans go perfectly together. You can top it with a little sour cream, but really it doesn't even need it. And it makes fabulous leftovers.



Post Modern Chili
(adapted from Last Night's Dinner)

1 red onion
2 Tbs olive oil
3 cloves garlic (whole)
1# ground beef
2 ancho chiles (dried, also called morita)
2 chipotle chiles (dried)
2 tsp oregano
2 tsp ground cumin
2 cans black beans
1 small can roasted green chiles
1 tsp muscovado sugar (or brown sugar)
28 oz can tomatoes
1 Tbs tomato paste
12 oz beer (I used deschutes buzzsaw brown)
salt and pepper to taste
Toppings: minced cilantro, sliced green onions, sliced black olives, sour cream, shredded cheddar cheese, squeeze of lime (mix and match to taste)

Chop red onion and saute with olive oil and a little salt over medium high until soft (a few minutes). Smash garlic cloves with flat side of knife, saute a few seconds until fragrant. Add ground beef and cook until brown. Pour off excess oil. Deseed and stem ancho and chipotle peppers, then grind in coffee grinder until fine. You can use store bought chili powder, but it's really not the same. It's worth searching out the peppers. If using whole cumin, grind that too. Put the ground peppers, oregano and cumin in with the onion/garlic/beef mixture and saute a few minutes. Then add tomatoes (drained and chopped), tomato paste, whole beer and green chiles. Add pinch of salt and pepper. Cook x 30 minutes covered. Drain black beans, add to pot. Cook another 30 minutes. Taste and correct flavorings, likely will need a tsp of sugar (I used muscovado which is like amazing brown sugar). Add salt and pepper. Serve with toppings as above. Really great with corn bread.

The Crock Pot Chronicles (Parts I & II)

First an admission: I used to have a crock pot and I gave it away. It failed me too many times and I couldn't take it. It went into the little "good will pile" before I left Philly. There's probably a Philadelphian family eating out of it right now.

Then the other night I'm at this blogger dinner and I somehow win this raffle and end up with this cute little crockpot.

It's like getting a goldfish at the fair. You think, what do I do with this thing?

I brought it home and set it on the kitchen floor and it just sat there, begging me to make something. I kept thinking about it. And then I realized...it's just a slow braise. I'm fond of the slow braise.

In my mom's day the whole point of the crock pot was to dump everything in in the morning and have instant dinner by the evening. Usually it involved a can of cream of mushroom soup.

I didn't have to do that. I could brown the meat first, saute a few onions, use a spice rub, some wine. Let it cook for hours. And then adjust the sauce, boil it down, fix the seasoning.

I tried it for the first time last week.

My first mistake was doing this while I was home. Why use the crockpot when you're home? In the oven you have full control over temperature, you can add fluid or take it away, turn things, adjust how well it's browning or not browning.

In the crockpot there are two temperatures: high and low. And mine is this little squat thing, so it's hard to tell what's going on in the bottom.

Besides, the best use of the crockpot is to save you time. To be able to cook when you're not home.

The results were actually pretty good, but it didn't cook long enough. I made beef spareribs and they needed a few more hours. Of course we ate them anyway. Partly because the sauce was amazing--red wine, shallots, and the bits of the puebla mole spice rub that fell off the ribs, mixed in with the juices of the spare ribs.

Today I decided to go for the pork ribs. Increase the cooking time, decrease the liquid. I browned the ribs, and then coated them with the same puebla mole spice rub.

I discovered spice rubs this summer, they're my favorite for quick dinners. This one is mostly cocoa and chipotle, with oregano, marjoram, cloves, allspice, coriander and black pepper. You could make your own. Mix whatever spices you like.

So I loaded the crockpot, this time standing the ribs up so they didn't just boil in the liquid. I added carrots, sauteed onions, garlic, a little red wine. Turned it on high and walked out the door.

When we got home the house smelled WONDERFUL. The ribs were, admittedly, almost too well done. But they were succulent and flavorful. The sauce had an unforseen problem, too much grease from the cooking ribs. I don't have a separator so I decided to blend it all together. This worked fairly well, as the carrots soaked up the grease. The flavor was wonderful, but the texture wasn't what I was looking for. I made a little arugula salad and we were sitting down to dinner in 5 minutes.

I can't bring myself to post the actual recipe though, even if it is just in my head. It needs more tweaking. I promise, a few more crock pot mishaps, and we may have something. I just wish the little thing had a temperature gauge, I'd be in heaven.

Mexican Fiesta

A few years ago I was dating a guy who only made one dish--mexican fiesta. I was all excited, expecting some carne asada and cotija, but it turned out to be bean burritos. With organic black beans. And jarred salsa.

Even that was a step up from the tacos we ate growing up. Hard taco shells, ground beef with taco spice mix, preshredded american cheese, iceberg lettuce and pace taco sauce.

They're not bad in their own right. Just a different food category.

These are a bit more fussy. A bit more mexican. I had to twist Cobe's arm to get him to stop by the mexican butcher shop.

"Can't we just go to Thriftway? It's already 6 oclock."

Pouting sad face. "But they have better meat at the mexican place."

He caved. A few minutes later we were in Carniceria el paisano. This place is amazing. Real mexican. Half of the cuts of meat I had never even heard of. Crazy bright red chorizo hanging from the ceiling. I picked out some skirt steak.

"You want it marinaded?" the guy behind the counter asked.

In a few minutes we had a big lump of meat layered with orange and onion, a block of cotija, some nopalito salsa, and some fresh tortillas. At home I decided to add some fresh ground ancho chili and cumin to the meat, as it seemed kind of bland. Then I threw it under the broiler for a few minutes on a side.

It came out great, but a bit salty. Next time I'll make my own spice mix as who knows what was in the mystery marinade. But mixed with the avocado, cotija and cilantro on the warm corn tortillas, it was pretty awesome.

We even pulled out all the stops and got the canned presliced olives for Chris. He probably would have preferred those crunchy tacos with spice mix ground beef, but he downed a few of these just fine. We cracked a few Negro Modelos and pretended it was August.

But I have to admit I pined a bit for the carne asada I made this summer on the grill. It was out of this world. I'll give you the recipe for that. Next time maybe I'll dodge the raindrops and fire that puppy up.

Carne Asada Tacos (from Bon Appetit July 2007)
20 servings

8 garlic cloves
2/3 cup ancho chili powder (grind 6-10 ancho chili's in a coffee grinder, it's amazing fresh. They're also called pasilla peppers.)
3T brown sugar
2T gr. black pepper
4 tsp. mexican oregano, dried
4 tsp ground cumin (grind fresh if you can)
4 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
5# skirt steak, cut into 6" lengths

Put garlic through press. Mix with chile powder, brown sugar, pepper, oregano, cumin, salt and cinnamon. Spread over steaks. Let stand 1 hour. Grill to desired doneness (~4 minutes/side) then let rest 10 minutes. Cu into 1/2 inch wide strips.

Serve with warm corn tortillas, lime juice, avocado, chopped cilantro, chopped onion, cotija cheese, salsa and hotsauce.

Meatloaf

It's amazing how different it feels in Seattle on a sunny day. Especially in the winter.

I went for a walk in Lincoln Park on Monday and the place was packed. People walking their dogs, kids making driftwood forts. The mountains stood silhouetted above the water, just crystal clear. Like some sort of paradise.

The tradeoff is the sunny days seem to be colder, with no cloud cover to keep in the warmth. So yesterday after my walk, I decided to make meatloaf. It sounded like just what we needed-- something warm and bacony. Besides, I had just seen a new meatloaf recipe in gourmet.

Cobe was all for it. He's quite a fan of meatloaf. Especially with bacon.

We set off to the store with my gourmet magazine clutched under my arm, and loaded up with ground beef and pork, as well as bacon, dried prunes, carrots, celery, onion and parsley.

The recipe is very french in style, starting with mirepoix (minced carrot, celery, onion, and garlic). I'm not the most finicky mincer, but I've begun to realize the importance of knife skills. The finer you can chop, the finer the flavors you produce. As I sauteed this in some butter, Cobe wandered over.

"That smells good!" he exclaimed.

It did smell good. It tasted good as well, much more than the sum of its parts. The onion and garlic provided a little bite, the carrot some sweetness, and the celery a certain grassiness. Because of the mincing, these flavors all blended to create some new flavor, perfectly balanced.

I let that get a bit caramlized, then added it to the breadcrumbs I had soaked in milk. I was pretty proud of myself that I figured out how to make my own breadcrumbs. I just threw some cubed bread in my little cheapy blender, turned it on high, and presto: breadcrumbs.

Then the pork, beef, egg, celery, bacon, prunes and allspice. Made a loaf and baked it at 350 for like an hour (till it was 155). It turned out wonderful, the subtle sweetness adding depth and the prunes and breadcrumbs adding moisture. Could have made a little gravy with the pan juices, but we were feeling a little WT so we went with ketchup.

You can find the recipe on epicurious (Gourmet February 2008): here

Breakaway Kofta

I brought the leftovers from this dinner to work on Wednesday. When I put them in the microwave, the smell of star anise and meat wafted through the break room.

"What are you making?" Annette asked. "It smells wonderful!"

"Kofta." I said.

Blank look.

Apparently kofta isn't as well known as I thought. If you look kofta up in Wikipedia, you find it exists in 15 different countries, from the arab world to romania to bangladesh. Always some type of ground meat on a stick, always spicy, usually lamb.

This is another recipe from one of my fave cookbooks, "Breakaway Cook" by Eric Gower (see breakaway chicken). Essentially, it's kofta with ingredients you have in your kitchen. Or maybe that I have in my kitchen because most people don't stock pomegrante molasses and star anise.

It's a shame. They should.

I managed to stop at the grocery store on my way home to buy some ground beef. At 3pm I rolled out of bed and started toasting the star anise and coriander. Then I put them in my spice/coffee grinder. My coffee grinder is kind of crap though. It's not crap for coffee, but star anise doesn't like to grind. I ended up with this mixture that was a little gritty. I pined for a burr grinder and decided it was good enough.

Then I put the spices into a pan with a little butter and olive oil, and added chopped shallots. Eric says red onion, but I didn't have red onion and for some odd reason I had a bag of shallots in my basement. Cooked them till soft, then added a dollop of pomegrante molasses.



This stuff kicks ass. It's a mix of sweet and sour, like tamarind but better. Cooked that a bit. Tasted again and it needed a little salt so added some soy sauce which was perfect.

Then I threw this in with some ground beef and broke in an egg, mushed the whole thing up and made some sausage shaped balls which I tried to skewer. Except it was kind of mushy (maybe too much egg? Maybe the addition of the soy sauce?). No matter. It looked fine. I did make the mistake of trying to put a few of these meatball like things on each skewer though. Don't do this. One per skewer. When I tried to turn them under the broiler they all fell apart.

Oh and I also forgot to soak the skewers so smoke was pouring out of the oven.

Cobe turned on the fan, eyeing me suspiciously.

But in a few minutes I had the kofta spread out on a platter, adorned with mint, and accompanied by toasty warm flat bread, greek yogurt and feta. And you know, a salad and veg because you should always have a salad and veg.

"You've done it again!" said Chris, finishing his first forkful.

The kofta turned out perfectly, the meat was soft and juicy from the addition of the caramelized shallots and perfectly spicy. The greek yogurt and feta were just the right foil. And they were even better the next day, heated up with some feta.

It makes me want to play with ground beef. So many possibilities. Black bean sauce. Chili in adobo. Endless.

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Breakaway Kofta
(from Eric Gower's Breakaway Cook)

1 T. whole coriander
2 T. whole star anise
1 t. ground cinnamon
1 T. unsalted butter
1 T. olive oil
1 med red onion minced (1 cup) or 5-6 shallots
1 T. pomegrante molasses
1 - 1/2 # ground beef (or ground lamb or both)
1 egg
mint leaves, chiffonaded

Toast coriander and star anise in a skillet over medium heat until fragrant. Grind in coffee grinder with cinnamon. Melt butter and olive oil over medium heat, add onion and spices, sautee til soft. Add pomegrante molasses and continue to sautee a few minutes (here is where I added ~1tsp soy sauce).

Place ground meat in bowl, add onion mix and egg, mix well. Make into balls or sausage shape and put on kebabs (remember to soak the kebab sticks first or else smoke will come billowing out of your oven). One meatball per kebab (or else you will not be able to turn them so well). Cook under preheated broiler, ~5 minutes per side until crispy brown. Top with mint. Serve with feta, greek yogurt, and flat bread or pita.