Strict red chili.
All these recent comments about chili had me wanting some. This is strict Texas Red, made with dried chilies — anchos and moritas and arbol — and dried onions, plus garlic and tomato powder. There are no beans; the only substitution was venison for beef, but I added some tallow for beef flavor and for fat to brown the lean game.
I might try a touch of brown sugar on just one bowl to see how plausible that is, but it’s sweet enough for me without added sugar. The sugars already in the tomatoes are sufficient to my taste.
“Texas Red” always makes me think of this song:
You da man.
ReplyDeleteI might try a touch of brown sugar on just one bowl to see how plausible that is, but it’s sweet enough for me without added sugar. The sugars already in the tomatoes are sufficient to my taste.
ReplyDeleteFruit and hot peppers is a good combination. The classic Guatemalan Christmas hallaca (tamale) combines plums with hot peppers (Cobaneros: Small, round , smoky like moritas---which are a good substitute for cobaneros.)
A childhood friend wrote a cookbook whose emphasis was theme and variations. One of his stewed chicken variations combined jalapenos and prunes. Delicious. I asked him if he had gotten the recipe from somewhere, or if he made it up himself. He replied that he had made it up himself, but that it partook of the European Medieval and also Muslim custom of combining fruit with meat.
Did you ever try out my suggestion of star anise combined with hot peppers (in this case, w moritas)? I use 1 star anise w 3-5 moritas. Star anise pulverized, of course. Either dry, or after cooking it in the stew.
Gringo
I did, in fact -- as I recall you advised me to include it in refried beans. It took quite a while to find star anise locally, so I haven't made it a regular thing, but I definitely found it to be an interesting flavor profile.
DeleteI set aside a bowl of this stuff last night, added a touch of brown sugar and beans (as hers had beans) just to that one bowl. It's not my thing, but it definitely has a richer flavor because it's hitting the sweet sensors harder than just the tomatoes' natural sugars were doing.
Yeah, hot peppers and mango make a nice combo.
ReplyDeleteThe CD is also great.
- Tom
Or, I guess we've gone back to calling them albums now? I never know.
Delete- Tom
Do you know the story about this album?
DeleteMarty Robbins was an established country singer, at a time when "Country & Western" wasn't a thing: they were different genres with different histories and norms. He wanted to do a conceptual Western album because he loved the movies and TV shows, and his label was totally opposed to it. They thought it would ruin his image by diluting it with non-Country stuff.
He finally badgered them into it, but they only gave him a recording studio for one day for this nonsense of his. So they did the entire album in one long day.
One of the songs they recorded on that album was "El Paso." This was 1959, a year when many of the great movies and most of the television shows were Westerns. People loved it. "El Paso" went to #1 on the Country charts.
Then it went to #1 on the Pop charts. Then it stayed there for most of the year.
After that one day's work, Marty Robbins never had to work again. He loved music, so he chose to, but from then on he got to do whatever he wanted with whomever he wanted for the rest of his life.
Now that's a good day's work.
Delete- Tom