FOOD FIGHT - CULINARY FIGHT CLUB

[TATTRAT]

TATTRAT, now I want to read that forum too (as if this one isn't taking up enough of my time).

I can just copy and paste soome of the recipes over here if you like, I'll have to clean 'em up a bit, off all places, we have a pretty good cookbook thread going on an automotive forum, and we can get a little colorful with the language. . .

Here's a pretty good Chilli Recipe for anyone interested:


TATTRAT's 3 Meat Chipotle Chili w/ Maseca & Finished w/ Crema and Shredded Cheese[/B]


Rich, hearty, a little smokey, loaded with meat, it will warm you up and make you feel good inside. The masecca is corn flour, it helps tighten things up at the end and gives a very mild corn flavor. For finishing, you can add Cilantro, Green Onion, Chopped Jalapenos, whatever makes you happy.

I left the beans out of this batch, as my ladyfriend doesn't prefer them. You can add beans in the last 30 min of cooking, I would recommend kidney beans, as they are meaty and hold up well.


WHAT YOU'LL NEED!

The Veg:
1 large Onion, diced
1 Large Red Bell Pepper, diced
8 Gloves Garlic, minced


The Meat:
1.5lbs of Sirloin, Diced into fork sized chunks. Dry Rubbed and ready to be blackened/bronzed.
1.5lbs of 80/20 Ground Beef
HALF Lb of Smoked Sausage, your call, whatever you prefer


The Wet Goods:
1 Box Low Sodium Beef Stock
2 Cans, Diced Tomatoes
1 LG Jar of Prepared Salsa, I like the Chipotle Salsa from Safeway because I get my groceries delivered, and that's what I ordered on a whim. It was good.


The DRY Goods:
Smoked Paprika
Granulated Garlic
Paprika
Dark Chili Powder
Light Chili powder
Cumin
Salt
Pepper


OFF WE GO!


I Try to prepare the steak in advance, and give it a few hours to marinate in a dry rub of all of the above dry mix spices. Above, you can see how it should look, it is next to the ground beef.


Get 2 pans going, one saute for the steak, and later the veg, and one Stockpot/Soup pot for the ground beef, and the rest of the goods.


Heat the saute pan over high heat, wait for it to smoke, and go in with your steak. You are looking for a nice bronzed color, you want flavor, not burnt and bitter.

In the OTHER pan, you get the ground beef browning, and the sausage going. Let that stuff come down, and you are going to drain about 90% of the liquid/fat it renders.

Once the Steak is to a color of your liking, remember more color = more flavor, add it into the DRAINED ground beef and sausage. That is all the meats in the pot.

Continue to let all of this cook down, and develop some color.

While this is going on, in the SAME PAN you did the steak in, add in the diced onion, and diced peppers. You want to sweat these down a bit, and they will start to pick up some color from the left over fond from the steak you cooked earlier. Let them mingle with all that, and get nice and happy. ONCE the veg is nicely colored, deglaze the rest of the fond with about half of the beef stock.

Let this cook down until the liquid is down about half. At this point, Add it to the meat pot. Also, add in the diced tomatoes, juice and all, the salsa, and about 3/4 of the remaining beef stock. Mix well and add in your dry spices.

Once everyone is in the pot, go ahead and bring to a boil, then, a simmer. Let 'er rip for about an hour until the steak parts are just fork tender, but still have some bite to them. The liquid should reduce a bit if you leave the lid off a bit.


In a separate bowl, you want to mix the remaining beef stock with the Maseca (corn flour), and leave it as a paste. If it gets too thick, just add some water. take the chili OFF the heat and slowly whisk this into the Chili. It will start to tighten up quickly, so keep an eye on it. It is also going to CONTINUE to thicken as it gets back On the heat, so keep it a little under the consistency of the FINISHED product. Let simmer for another 15-20 min. If it happens to get too thick, hit it with some water, no biggie.


The leftover maseca. . .

The Finished pot of Chili

Service:


Your call. . . I kept it simple here, because sometimes less is more. You can add cilantro, green onion, jalapenos, crushed crackers/doritos, wth ever you want. For ours, just did crema and cheese with a side of Flaky Biscuits.

If you like Chili, I can assure you this will NOT disappoint.

 

[OLaA]

Awesome plating!

 

[Ron Evers]

The best foods are based on poverty, imo. The trend of American comfort food is making a comeback after almost a decade of high end fusion and Haute Cuisine. . . BUT, because it's now "trendy" to do mac n cheese, and simple braised dishes, the prices reflect the trendiness. The good thing about "American" comfort food is it's wide array of dishes, thanks to the American melting pot and immigrants bringing in all of their traditions.

For sure!

I am so old I remember the first Pizza restaurant in London ON & the first KFC not that it is ethnic.

Now in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) we have foods of the world offered.

 

[Trever1t]

Awesome thread...good job OP.

Great gobs of yummyness. Tonight we eat Curry Chicken, not much to look at but tastes oh so good, picture later (not ready yet).


Food of of the poorest people is always the best. You have to know how to make sh*t taste good when you don't have much to work with.

 

[TATTRAT]

The best foods are based on poverty, imo. The trend of American comfort food is making a comeback after almost a decade of high end fusion and Haute Cuisine. . . BUT, because it's now "trendy" to do mac n cheese, and simple braised dishes, the prices reflect the trendiness. The good thing about "American" comfort food is it's wide array of dishes, thanks to the American melting pot and immigrants bringing in all of their traditions.

For sure!

I am so old I remember the first Pizza restaurant in London ON & the first KFC not that it is ethnic.

Now in the GTA (Greater Toronto Area) we have foods of the world offered.

I am so grateful to be in a city where anything from Ethiopian to Vietnamese, Persian to Pizza and almost everything in between. I do miss some of the more Pacific Rim influenced foods that I fell in love with living in Hawaii, but of all things, I REALLY REALLY miss a nice bowl of Bermuda fish chowder with Sherry Pepper drizzle, takes me right back to my childhood. I fell in love, like ate 6 nights a week type of love, with Malaysian/Indonesian food living in Holland, and I was in the UK during a very interesting part of its' culinary history, where gastro pubs were just starting to take off, and it wasn't just Curry, or Fish n Chips anymore. I am SO proud of what the UK has been doing for it culinary image, it's night and day than what it was 15 years ago. I fell in love with proper Central American food in Costa Rica, but have a hard time finding some of the ingredients here in the states. . .especially when it comes to some of my faves from Bolivia, the FDA frowns upon many of the local and native ingredients from many places. The joy of being a Chef has been that I can work wherever I have ended up, and it's all a learning experience. All in all though, the American Culinary scene has come light years in the past 30 years. It's an awesome side effect of having such a culturally diverse country.

 

[Trever1t]

Same here in San Jose, every culture is represented, restaurants are in the thousands...but the best Vietnamese restaurant in in my kitchen. Now West Indian food, oh how I miss my food of home...

Conch, Snapper, what we call seazon rice, beans. You gotta say it like C Zon....and Plantain..of my god...I love the seasoning from my island food.

 

[TATTRAT]

Whole fish looks great! You are lucky to have an Asian wife! I have NEVER met an Asian that couldn't cook their ass off. I can do some great Korean, Viet, Thai, Hunan, Szechuan, but man, it ALWAYS tastes better when someone else cooks it!

 

[Trever1t]

I am very very lucky, don't pinch me, I don't want to wake up!

 

[ktan7]

Delicious looking food.

 

[Ron Evers]

What, no beans in the chili?

 

[jwbryson1]

Brisket anybody?

[/URL] IMAG0833 by jwbryson1, on Flickr[/IMG]

 

[OLaA]

Brisket anybody?

[/URL] IMAG0833 by jwbryson1, on Flickr[/IMG]

That looks awesome! How long did you smoke it? I see a nice smoke ring going on!

 

[jwbryson1]

Brisket anybody?

[/URL] IMAG0833 by jwbryson1, on Flickr[/IMG]

That looks awesome! How long did you smoke it? I see a nice smoke ring going on!

13 hours at around 225-250*. Mesquite wood. It ROCKED!

 

[Ron Evers]

Brisket anybody?

[/URL] IMAG0833 by jwbryson1, on Flickr[/IMG]

That looks awesome! How long did you smoke it? I see a nice smoke ring going on!

13 hours at around 225-250*. Mesquite wood. It ROCKED!

Mine on dark rye bread please but not with caraway. Oh, & some hot mustard on the side if you would.

 

[TATTRAT]

What, no beans in the chili?

as stated, the ladyfriend doesn't care for them. I did add some lightly smoked kidney beans to my leftovers though. Hell, she isn't even really a chilli person, and went back for seconds, I figured that was a pretty good start.