Mike got me thinking about stretching out and exploring even more chili recipes, so I dug out an old cookbook somebody bought me as a gift some years ago. It's a very good one. I have only minor quibbles with it, and I think I might have gotten my "Deviled Beef" chili from it originally (although the version in the book is quite different from mine as it has evolved, and as I wrote it up here a few days ago).
The book is The Chili Cookbook by Robb Walsh. It contains the oldest surviving chili recipe (a lobster chili encountered by Spanish explorers on the coast of what would come to be known as Latin America). It contains Native American recipes, New Mexican recipes, Texan recipes, and then a whole lot of regional American variations.
I made one last night that I'm just trying today, now that the flavors have melded overnight. It's a classic Texas "Bowl of Red" style recipe, with no peppers in it stronger than ancho, and otherwise just paprika. It was still spicy enough to cause the wife to load it down with sour cream though, because it uses a whole two ounces of ancho in the pot. Of course you can always add more of whatever you want, as I always say when talking about recipes.
8 comments:
Sounds good! I was reading this to my wife (who will eat a non-spicy, bean-free chili) and her eyes widened at the lobster chili mention. I'll need to look into this book.
"Of course you can always add more of whatever you want, as I always say when talking about recipes."
Let's just say I'm a dangerous man to leave lurking around the garlic when the pot's uncovered and no one's looking.
RonF, my recipes tend to be "small dollop" or "large dollop" when it comes to measuring out garlic. I have a huge jar of minced garlic in the fridge and I'm not afraid to use it.
LittleRed1 (Doin' her best to keep the Texas Panhandle vampire free)
There is a reason why the Leg declared Chili the official state food of Texas. Everyone regardless of ethnic origin makes it, and everyone has a particular way to prepare it.
And the amount of heat is always a matter of contention. Those native to Texas, or those acclimated to Texas, like heat more than those from "away." One time in Guatemala I was correctly identified as being from Texas because of the nonchalant way I piled heat on some beans.
my recipes tend to be "small dollop" or "large dollop"
I use the TLAR+ system of units in my cooking.
Eric Hines
“‘Til Levels Are Ridiculous, plus”?
Close. It's from a hoary old USAF acronym, primarily for visual attacks against other aircraft: That Looks About Right, and maybe a little more.
Eric Hines
I love books like this that are ostensibly one thing- in this case a cookbook- but are also another - here a history- and fully both. Another like that is "Tools of the Trade" by Jeff Taylor. It's about basic tools and their use, but is also a book about how objects become imbued with meaning and repositories of memory. He's a good storyteller and it's a great read.
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