The Heat is On!

[YOhio]

Nik, your effort is impressive and fun to read about. Tell me, did you get the Brinkman's Gourmet smoker?

I really hope this turns out well for you.

[FN Phat]

Lol - I broke down and bought the electric. It had a nifty digital temperature control.

LOL! You saw something shiny! Typical.

FWIW, I always use venison. You may have hard time finding that

Surfah, I still have that trash can and will be using it shortly. My wife is responsible for 3 turkeys for a RS dinner in Nov. She wants one in the trash can, one deep-fried and one smoked. I will be eating a lot of turkey until we have each dialed in.

[Pheidippides]

Day 2: morning edition.

Drying the peppers went very smoothly. Simple cookie sheets in an oven at 175 for four hours gave me a very good product. These have now been put away in plastic bags for grinding tonight.

The smoking of the jalapenos was a little more uneven than I wanted because of differences in size. I used cherry wood, which has a nice sweetness that should counter the bit of the jalapenos. I smoked a couple of poblanos, a serrano, and a habanero as well. All of this will be pureed to make my chipotle paste.

If I can figure out this electric smoker, I will graduate to the real thing and learn how to truly BBQ. But this one will be great for making jerky and bacon and such when I start hunting again this year.

[Surfah]

LOL! You saw something shiny! Typical.

FWIW, I always use venison. You may have hard time finding that

Surfah, I still have that trash can and will be using it shortly. My wife is responsible for 3 turkeys for a RS dinner in Nov. She wants one in the trash can, one deep-fried and one smoked. I will be eating a lot of turkey until we have each dialed in.

You mean this one?

[YOUTUBE]SO9TeOhhuoc[/YOUTUBE]

[Pheidippides]

Day 2 - the base chili

I got home from work and immediately started making chili. I took photos (with my iPhone, so they are only so-so) along the way.

I cut off the fat and silverskin from about 2.5 pounds of chuck roast and put in a pot with three thick slices of bacon, sliced up. Then I let it brown, stirring occasionally. This was the easy part.



After that, I roughly cut up one red onion (it should be red because of the sweetness red brings) and mince four cloves of garlic. I add those to the pot when the meat is browned.



It's time to grind up the dried peppers. This is where it got hard. I planned on grinding up in two batches: mild and hot. The mild peppers are a mix of dried poblano (i.e., ancho) peppers and anaheim peppers, in about a 2-1 ratio. I had planned on using my wife's coffee grinder that she uses for baby food, but the invisible chili dust was killing me. My throat and lungs were on fire. This was pretty shocking because poblano and anaheim peppers are just barely above green pepper hotness.

Thankfully, I had anticipated problems and picked myself up a mortar and pestle from the store. So I decided to do things the old fashioned way. Here are the peppers I dried last night:



About halfway through, it became pretty tough to grind anymore with coughing and sneezing. I felt like I was choking on pepper dust. I rammed paper towels up my nose, but my mouth still burned. I stuck my face in my shirt to no avail. I tried tying a bandana around my nose and mouth, but that didn't work. I finally went with this approach:



And in the end, even that wasn't good enough because the little tiny pepper molecules made their way up by my neck into the helmet and into my nose and mouth. But I finished:



Now I have a real problem. The poblano/anaheim peppers about killed me, and they were mild. The drying process really concentrates them and makes them go airborne quite easily. And now I have to grind up the hot mix, which is a 2:1:1 mixture of Habanero, Jalapeno and Serrano peppers, which have also been dried and concentrated. This what I am staring at, figuring my sinuses are going to be on fire for some time, and maybe my eyes and throat as well:



And then I had a great idea:



No problem grinding this time. I recommend this approach, looks not withstanding. The finished product:



Now for the comino seeds. Take out a couple of tablespoons and toast:



And then grind:



To be continued....

[Pheidippides]

Continued....

The final preparation is to take care of the chipotle pepper mix. This are the peppers that I smoked with cherry wood last night. It was about a 1:1 mixture of jalapeno and habanero, with a random serrano or two in as well, so I guess it wasn't a true chipotle mix (which would have been jalapeno only). These peppers aren't completely dried out, so I decided to blend them. Added a cup of water to make a paste. They went from this:



to this:



Now we are ready to start adding more stuff in. The mixture of the chuck, bacon, garlic and onions looks like this right now, give or take:



To that I add two tablespoons of the "mild" chili powder, one tablespoon of the "hot" chili powder, about one and a half tablespoons of the homemade cumin, two 8 oz cans of tomato paste, one tablespoon kosher salt, two tablespoons chipotle paste, and six cups of water. It looks like this:



I set the chili to simmer with a lid on, and then go on a run for 8 miles. Including time spent prepping to go out and time spent stretching when I get back, I am gone for about 90 minutes.

Now I kill the heat. I put two tablespoons of masa flour in a separate bowl and add just enough cold water to whisk it into a paste. Adding that to the chili (which is still hot) gives it a thicker texture. It now looks like this:



Now I get myself a bowlful. I taste just a bit. It is hotter than the fires of hell and damnation, which is just the way I like it. But not so hot that the heat overwhelms. And there is a good mouth feel to the heat - sort of a delayed reaction, but an all-over burn. I like it. My kids will die of pain, though.

And yet something is missing. This is somehow familiar. What is it...something familiar, something I love. Got it! Turtle Soup at Brennan's. I don't know why, but that's what it reminds me of. And every time they bring Turtle Soup there, they also offer to add something extra at the table...yes! I know what to do!



A splash in the bowl, mixed together, gives just the fruity undertone I wanted. Perfect. Chuck is tender, but with enough structure to make me happy. Bacon has almost disintegrated - you can tell that something is there, but not what, exactly how I want it.

Verdict: Easily the best chili ever. I will make this for the ward cookoff. The only problem is that I need to double the beef to make sure the beef to sauce ratio is correct, but that's easily fixable. I might split it into two batches, one with the super spicy pepper and one without. I will put a surgeon general's warning on the former. Also, I will probably add the cognac before serving, out of sight of the ward members. Victory is mine!

[Tim]

Continued....

The final preparation is to take care of the chipotle pepper mix. This are the peppers that I smoked with cherry wood last night. It was about a 1:1 mixture of jalapeno and habanero, with a random serrano or two in as well, so I guess it wasn't a true chipotle mix (which would have been jalapeno only). These peppers aren't completely dried out, so I decided to blend them. Added a cup of water to make a paste. They went from this:



to this:



Now we are ready to start adding more stuff in. The mixture of the chuck, bacon, garlic and onions looks like this right now, give or take:



To that I add two tablespoons of the "mild" chili powder, one tablespoon of the "hot" chili powder, about one and a half tablespoons of the homemade cumin, two 8 oz cans of tomato paste, one tablespoon kosher salt, two tablespoons chipotle paste, and six cups of water. It looks like this:



I set the chili to simmer with a lid on, and then go on a run for 8 miles. Including time spent prepping to go out and time spent stretching when I get back, I am gone for about 90 minutes.

Now I kill the heat. I put two tablespoons of masa flour in a separate bowl and add just enough cold water to whisk it into a paste. Adding that to the chili (which is still hot) gives it a thicker texture. It now looks like this:



Now I get myself a bowlful. I taste just a bit. It is hotter than the fires of hell and damnation, which is just the way I like it. But not so hot that the heat overwhelms. And there is a good mouth feel to the heat - sort of a delayed reaction, but an all-over burn. I like it. My kids will die of pain, though.

And yet something is missing. This is somehow familiar. What is it...something familiar, something I love. Got it! Turtle Soup at Brennan's. I don't know why, but that's what it reminds me of. And every time they bring Turtle Soup there, they also offer to add something extra at the table...yes! I know what to do!



A splash in the bowl, mixed together, gives just the fruity undertone I wanted. Perfect. Chuck is tender, but with enough structure to make me happy. Bacon has almost disintegrated - you can tell that something is there, but not what, exactly how I want it.

Verdict: Easily the best chili ever. I will make this for the ward cookoff. The only problem is that I need to double the beef to make sure the beef to sauce ratio is correct, but that's easily fixable. I might split it into two batches, one with the super spicy pepper and one without. I will put a surgeon general's warning on the former. Also, I will probably add the cognac before serving, out of site of the ward members. Victory is mine!

Best damn post EVER on this site!!!

[wuapinmon]

That looks most excellent, and the peppers look like they're grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum.

[Coach McGuirk]

Dude that looks and sounds delicious!

[Surfah]

I like beans in my chili. I wonder what beans would go best with your chili. I am thinking some pinto with all of your peppers in there.

[Pheidippides]

That looks most excellent, and the peppers look like they're grown deep in the jungle primeval by the inmates of a Guatemalan insane asylum.

I was amazed at how well the peppers turned out. They were just your standard peppers from the normal grocery store (we do have a pretty good selection of varieties here in Texas). Just to see the difference, I have some peppers sitting in the fridge in a paper back with a ripening banana to see if I can get them to turn red instead of the green they are (the red color from the chili is all about the tomato paste here).

[Pheidippides]

I like beans in my chili. I wonder what beans would go best with your chili. I am thinking some pinto with all of your peppers in there.

We're going to try some kidney beans in the leftover stuff from tonight, since it's light on meat. I also want to let it sit overnight in the fridge, as I've heard that the time spent with flavors cooling and mingling can make things mature.

[cougjunkie]

be honest did you pour out a little Hennessy for your fallen homies before adding it to the chili?

[Pheidippides]

be honest did you pour out a little Hennessy for your fallen homies before adding it to the chili?

I sure thought about it.

My wife declined the Hennessy in her chili. Maybe she was having second thoughts about the propriety about it, which is funny, since she is the one who fights for the last bits of rum when we have Tiramisu. I thought it really finished off the chili, but she said it was fine without it.

Warning: the above recipe is HOT. Don't blame me if you can't feel your tongue tomorrow.

[FMCoug]

I make chili ever October conference ... got a late start but I'm trying this recipe today. I didn't have time to dry/grind the peppers so I'm just smoking them for a few hours and will just chop / blend them.