What's cooking?

Tonight was bone-in, skinless heritage chicken breast/wing quarters (wish I knew which breed it was!), baked for 40 minutes @ 350 w/ 1 cup uncooked basmati rice, 2 cups homemade chicken broth, some celery hearts and baby carrots, s&p. OMG! The chicken was as tender as store-bought, with a lot more flavor. raising these birds is so worth it.
Sunday evening, I marinated two thigh/leg quarters in lemon juice, fresh rosemary, EVOO, s&p, then cooked it in the rice cooker steamer basket over a red & black rice mix. The meat was a little chewy, but tasted great.

This past weekend we spent 3 days doing wedding festivities. Rehearsal dinner, wedding and feast, and Sunday brunch.

It was extremely beautiful and great fun (but now I am doing a serious diet!!)

The reason I am posting -- we were driving home and when we got close to Princeton, Louise said "There's a Trader Joe's near here, I'd like to stop" I said, great.

I had been thinking of those olives, and of course I bought a couple of cans.

I am thinking that Snapper Veracruz might be particularly good with those olives -- thanks for the suggestion Jenise!

1. I prefer the whole top blade because of the connective tissue down the middle which becomes tasty, soft and tender at the end of the cooking time at 150 °C of about 3 to 4 hours in the oven.
2. I don't marinate the meat for brasato, but I marinate the same piece of meat for "Sauerbraten" using red wine vinegar.
3. I don't puree the vegetables into the sauce. I discard the solids, degrease the liquid and reduce it. At the end I whisk some cold butter into the sauce to thicken. I think it's more worthwhile to drink a good wine with the dish than adding some wine again into the sauce.

Thank you, Heinz. I like the idea of mounting the reduced sauce with butter.

Tonight it is soup with Sweet and Hot Italian sausage, sweet potatoes, onion, garlic, chicken stock, smoked paprika, Yukon Gold spuds, and rainbow Swiss chard. Sure is smelling good.

[Jenise]

I had been thinking of those olives, and of course I bought a couple of cans.

I am thinking that Snapper Veracruz might be particularly good with those olives

Absolutely! Did your son get married?



Dinner here tonight: fresh Icelandic lamb shoulder chops, coated with powdered onion and pan-seared with black olive and sage bread pudding. A lemon cuke salad will start and a syrah will make it all go down so nicely.

My son got married July of last year. We took him and his wife down to MD for the wedding of my niece, daughter of Louise's brother. Tom provided the "sound track" for the ceremony, playing his guitar and singing.

It was at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club which is just south of the eastern end of the Bay Bridge. It's an amazing venue, and we ate a lot of crabs in between the official festivities.

[Jenise]

My son got married July of last year. We took him and his wife down to MD for the wedding of my niece, daughter of Louise's brother. Tom provided the "sound track" for the ceremony, playing his guitar and singing.

It was at the Chesapeake Bay Beach Club which is just south of the eastern end of the Bay Bridge. It's an amazing venue, and we ate a lot of crabs in between the official festivities.

I'll bet you did. Sounds like you have a fun family (I'll trade!)

[Jenise]

This morning and friend and I are making chili. LOTS of it. About five gallons each of two varieties we're calling Tex-Mex Dog Breath and Screaming Naked Cajun Chicken to serve at our Yacht Club's fall general meeting on Saturday. As all things are on this scale, it's going to be an interesting challenge!

This morning and friend and I are making chili. LOTS of it. About five gallons each of two varieties we're calling Tex-Mex Dog Breath and Screaming Naked Cajun Chicken to serve at our Yacht Club's fall general meeting on Saturday. As all things are on this scale, it's going to be an interesting challenge!

Remember, if it doesn't raise a sweat with the first bite, add more cayenne.

And I hope that neither of them has cinnamon in it.

And I hope that neither of them has cinnamon in it.

What! You don't like Cincinnati Chili?

And I hope that neither of them has cinnamon in it.

What! You don't like Cincinnati Chili?

I don't know about Bob, but Cincinnati is far, far down the list of what area first comes to mind when I hear the words "good chili".

Robin, I suspect you have an idea of my opinion of Cincinnati chili. I think We have talked on that subject. Karen, how are you familiar with Cincinnati chili...awful stuff.

[Robin Garr]

Robin, I suspect you have an idea of my opinion of Cincinnati chili. I think We have talked on that subject. Karen, how are you familiar with Cincinnati chili...awful stuff.

I don't really understand this, Bob. It's really just Greek spaghetti sauce, repurposed by post-WWII immigrants to Cincy because their initial Greek restaurants were too exotic for Cincinnatians' tastes. Sure, a touch of cinnamon in savory dishes seems odd if you're not used to it, and of course it's very different from a Tex-Mex bowl of red, but I don't honestly see why some people take so much joy in hating on it. If you went to a Greek eatery and asked for spaghetti with meat sauce, you'd get the same thing, but nobody complains about it until they call it "chili."

The Cincinnati chili I make is not "awful stuff" it is awesome. Everyone who eats it wants the recipe. I also make an all white chili that was a prize winner in a local contest. Chili does not have be cut out of the same mold. Good grief, when we travel in our RV we come across all sorts of chili cook offs, in other states......all different but you appreciate them for what they are. I'm a foodie but I am not stuffy and unbending about recipes. It is food after all, meant to be mixed and experimented with and to taste good.

SOME DAY I will probably make Cinci Chili just to try it. I know it isn't "chili." And in recent months I have mostly made all beef Texas Chili, pretty hot. But it is its own thing and -- actually what it reminds me of is the Japanese dish Okonomiyaki, "whatever you want" which in some versions has spaghetti noodles in it. As long as you don't expect it to resemble chili in any way, it has a chance of being pretty good. The fact that Greeks put cinnamon into meat dishes just ties them to the Ottoman empire and the Middle east. Fine cooking in Italy and France, 500 years ago, imitated that style so you saw a lot of ground almonds, cinammon, saffron, etc.

After the Renaissance, most of Europe got over it...

[Jenise]

And I hope that neither of them has cinnamon in it.

They didn't! We named our chilies: Tex-Mex Red Dog Breath and Screaming Naked Cajun Chicken. I'm especially in love with the latter.

The Cincinnati chili I make is not "awful stuff" it is awesome. Everyone who eats it wants the recipe. I also make an all white chili that was a prize winner in a local contest. Chili does not have be cut out of the same mold.

But it isn't "chili" anymore. It may be a very good spiced meat sauce, but chili has an expected flavor profile that can only be changed so much before it loses it's identity. Chili con carne was created based on Central American chiles, cumin, and sometimes cacao.
What is made in Cincinnati may be a most excellent spagetti sauce, so call it that, because for a chili afficianado, the addition of cinnamon deviates from the expected profile enough so as to cause the brain to say "Whoa! That ain't good chili! Damn good pasta sauce, though."

[Jenise]

What is made in Cincinnati may be a most excellent spagetti sauce, so call it that, because for a chili afficianado, the addition of cinnamon deviates from the expected profile enough so as to cause the brain to say "Whoa! That ain't good chili! Damn good pasta sauce, though."

I agree with that. It's spaghetti sauce, NOT chili. The same way spaghetti sauce is not gravy. These regional anomalies are fun to talk about but being misnamed does not really mean they're in the game when comparing others in that category--and I'm sure Karen thinks so too.

The Cincinnati chili I make is not "awful stuff" it is awesome. Everyone who eats it wants the recipe. I also make an all white chili that was a prize winner in a local contest. Chili does not have be cut out of the same mold.

But it isn't "chili" anymore. It may be a very good spiced meat sauce, but chili has an expected flavor profile that can only be changed so much before it loses it's identity. Chili con carne was created based on Central American chiles, cumin, and sometimes cacao.
What is made in Cincinnati may be a most excellent spagetti sauce, so call it that, because for a chili afficianado, the addition of cinnamon deviates from the expected profile enough so as to cause the brain to say "Whoa! That ain't good chili! Damn good pasta sauce, though."

Robert, you said it much better than I ever could. Every time I get into one of these (and I started this one) postings I seem to ruffle feathers. I don't set out to do that, but it seems to happen. It has been said before that what the Cincinnati chili is, is Greek spaghetti sauce. That may well be exactly what it is AFAIK. And as you said, if it were not called chili, this thread would never have went in this direction.

I make a pot of (what I call) chili pretty often, perhaps once a month even in summer. I put beans in my version so perhaps I shouldn't call it chili, however, I always call it "chili con frijoles" and not just plain chili. In my mind it is a stew sort of dish that has a definite flavor profile. We could say that it isn't chili unless it has venison, and in the old Chisholm trail days venison was plentiful and and for many necessary, not that way anymore. I would go so far as to think that dried beans were a staple for frontier families as well as for cowboys on the cattle drive to the rail head. At least that makes perfect sense to me. Just don't put any cinnamon or celery, or sausage, or pork, or liver, or tripe, or a whole host of other things in my chili. OK, I will now leave this thread alone and hope I have not offended anyone. (BTW, I also make a "white" chili with great northern beans and chicken, but it "ain't" really chicken, and I won't call it chili ever again.

[Jenise]

Bob, purist Texans not withstanding , the inclusion of beans in chili is so widely accepted that I frankly think it's more standard, far more, than without. And white chili, with that adjective, sets its own self apart. No need to discontinue your use of the word chili there. I had actually never had a white chili before this week, when I actually made one for the chili feed tonight. I canvassed a myriad of recipes, including the food network eminences, for inspiration. And those were pretty funny: Giada used canned beans and ground chicken which she combined and had on the table in under an hour. Paula Deen through in a pound of butter, and Emeril laced his with 'Essence', green bell peppers and Andouille. I didn't follow Emeril's recipe exactly, but I more or less made something similar since PR-wise I could do a lot more with a 'Cajun' attitude to bring in the neighbors, as is my mission. AND I LOVE IT. Not that our meaty Red Dog Breath chili is lacking in any way. Ten pounds of tri-tip and four pounds of bulk breakfast sausage went into that pot!

Jenise, thanks for the encouragement. Now about that dog breath chili. Can you downsize the recipe and post it? Sounds real interesting to me. I have a local meat market that makes their own sausages (many kinds) including an all beef breakfast sausage, I tried it once for breakfast and didn't like it. They coarse grind the meat so I thought it would be good to make chili from. I thought it was WAY too fat, so if I do it again I will make it, chill it and remove about 90% of the fat. We do chicken broth that way when I do the broth from chicken backs. It's amazing how much fat is on a chicken back. I've even thought of trying to save the fat to use as schmalz. I wonder if I couldn't simply reserve the fat I take from the broth after chilling, melt it, and strain to remove any non fat and keep it. the downside of that though is that it might take on some flavors from the vegetables I use in making the broth. I also buy duck fat in a three pound pail (frozen) for about $23. I keep it frozen and it stays fresh for a long time.

[Jenise]

Bob, I didn't follow a recipe. Rather, I went to some website for a big whoopdedoo chili contest and chose two recipes from among recent winners to basically picked the best of what I liked from. I was absolutely going to deviate because my chili was definitely going to have beans in it! I love breakfast sausage so I borrowed that, for instance. I went big on the beef because I liked the idea of two meats. I added canned tomatoes, chicken and beef broths, lots of onions, lots of fresh garlic, Gebhardts chili powder, guajillo chiles, oregano, extra cumin and lots of black pepper. One recipe mentioned masa harina as a thickener, and I've always loved that light tamale taste it adds so thought that a great idea, but I didn't have any on hand and didn't want to buy a big bag of it with no immediate plans to use it so I experimented with grinding up corn tortillas which are made from that, after all, and which I always have on hand, and have to tell you that was brilliant. Both chiles are mild of neccessity, since we're feeding a crowd, but the condiments will give them opportunities to goose it up. We have a nice little array of hot sauces, plus each chili has it's own set of fresh condiments, like chile peanuts, white cheese and white onions for the white chili, to crispy Cholula-flavored rice, sharp orange cheddar and lime-marinated red onions for the red.

Jenise, the next time you need a thickener whether for chili or just a veg soup, I find that a can or partial can of generic re-fried beans works wonders, plus it add some good flavor as well. Winter is on the way, and I want to make a pot of Stuarts minestrone soup. it's really good stuff. I like the sound of your chili...bet I would like the taste too.