Thursday, December 16, 2010

Chili

A friend recently asked me if I had a secret for great chili.  She had access to fresh elk meat, and she was asking me for help?

I started writing, then my response got longer and longer, and before I knew it, it was more of a cooking class than a recipe for chili.  The problem was, I don't do recipes and I don't hold secrets.  Food inspires me, so I look for things that people have written about or times when I have tried something and liked, and I put those things together in my head while I'm in the kitchen.  The ingredients fly out of the pantry, the refrigerator, the cupboards and line up on the counter, asking me to cook them.  When something happens at my stove and it's not complete gruel, I like to share with others.  So here's my non-recipe, non-secret answer to chili.


Gorgeous looking pot (the chili doesn't look bad either!) from whatscookingamerica.net

Jo,

I have some general tips about cooking and some specific tips about chili that I employ.  If they are already common knowledge, don't take offence.

General:
Never use water.  EVER.  There is always some more flavorful liquid that could take the place of any recipe's call for water.  Ugh.  Can't stress this one enough.  I use chicken stock, wine and beer probably more than anything else, but I have used somethings that sound way too odd for most people.  Look around your pantry/fridge and experiment.  imagine the flavors you are trying to create, and if you need to increase one of the flavor components of your dish, look for a liquid that will aid you.  Many times, I add several liquids, with at least one that will add a contrasting component to what I am creating.  If the dish has a lot of savory (salt) and sweet flavors already, I will add a vinegar based liquid to give the overall flavor some acidity.  My wife may cringe here and wish that I applied this more to every day life, but I think about balance and harmony at no other time in my life more than when I am cooking.

Maillard reaction.  It's a real thing, and one of the most important thing's that make vs. break a dish in the making-your-taste-buds-turn-into-a-temporary-erogenous-zone department.  In chili's case, caramelize the heck out of that elk. If you add fresh onions to your chili (vs. dehydrated onion chips/powder in the seasoning packet), make sure they get a healthy dose too.

Ok, that's enough general preaching.

Beautiful or Delicious?  Why can't it be both?

Specific:
Not sure if you use ground elk meat only, but I typically have less than 30% of my total meat be ground.  Some is good, as I personally respond both to the visual impact of many different sizes of food in my chili (nothing appeals less to me than the stuff some people call "hot-dog" chili and comes out like watery brown hummus) and in my mouth different textures add to the fun.  Chili should be about many many different things going on at once and to a very introspective eater, no two bites should offer the exact same flavors.

What I'm trying to get to, is that cutting up two to three different cuts of the same animal or two to three similar cuts from different animals into bite sized pieces will make a great start to the main focus of your dish: the meat.  I have limited experience with cooking elk, so I'm assuming you use a tougher cut of meat and save tender loin type parts for "prettier" dishes.  Some fat is ok, and I don't think elk has many very fatty cuts, but stick with the parts of the animal that have good flavorful meat, but may not be suitable for steaks (quick, dry heat cooking) because they are known to be "tough" (collagen-wise, not tendon/sinew-wise).

Brown the heck out of all of your meats.  This should mean you can't do it all in one batch.  I make chili in a single pot, but the browning stage takes at least four and as many as eight-ten batches of browning the bite sized chunks, then setting them all into a bowl after they have been browned (they don't have to be cooked through at this point).  Take your time with the browning; it will be worth it.  HOT HOT HOT pot with a little bit of your cooking fat of choice, sear the chunks (leaving them on each side you want browned a minimum of 30 seconds W/O stirring!), then chuck each type of meat into it's own "stand-by" bowl.  Let the pot heat back up (don't rush this), add more cooking fat, sear batch #2.  Rinse/repeat until all meat is browned.  Do this for onions and any ground meat you are using. Ground meat goes into its own bowl as well, onions can stay in the pot.  I laughed when you said your mother "browned" the beef; too many people throw too much meat into the pot at once and it ends up "Greying" or sweat cooking, instead of true browning.  Ground meat browns fast if you don't make a thick layer of it on the bot bottom.  Allow room for the steam to come up/through, and with good high heat and a 'lil fat, you'll be brown almost crunchy in no time.

Once all meats are browned, get the sauce started.  If you have a recipe you like, follow it.  If you want the chili to taste it's best, every time you have an opportunity to use fresh over dried herbs, do it.  The only time I prefer a packaged product to a fresh version (this example comes up in chili) is for tomatoes.  If you are going to cook with tomatoes, not eat them raw/cold, there is almost no equal to high quality canned tomatoes.  Fresh tomatoes you buy don't have the luxury of tasting ripe and delicious when they are picked.  They have a much more important job of having to look good when they hit the retail shelves.  Canned tomatoes can be picked when they actually taste good, because they are going to be simmered and peeled and shoved in a can with sauce before they make it to your grocer.  It doesn't matter what they look like; well, not in the way it matters for a whole, fresh tomato.  Buy the whole canned version versus the chopped or diced or smashed because the whole tomato ensures just that: that you will get the whole tomato.  Cans full of diced can be full of tougher ends of tomatoes while the best, ripest "middle" of the tomato went on to another product that can fetch a higher price while you are left with a can of tomato "reject" parts.


So, buy them whole, with or without peel, and try to find the words "San Marzano tomatoes" on the label.  This is a region in Italy, and is something that I get a little bit snooty about.  Buy a can of SM and then a generic version of the same type (whole, peeled) and taste them side by side out of the can.  I get a big mouthfeel and taste difference.  If you don't taste a major difference, you can save money on the more generic sourced tomatoes.

Back to the actual chili.  Add all types of herbs and aromatics to the onions as early as you can and then add the tomato sauce base.  I've read about some people even caramelizing the tomato sauce or browning some tomato paste and adding it.  That is a nice touch, and you can do that, but I feel if the meat and onions are well browned, you don't need much more help.  I just crush up the tomatoes with my hands as I add them to the pot, because I like the non-uniform chunks that end up in the final product.  If you do beans in your chili, hold those off until the very end, but add everything else now.  If your recipe says to add water to your sauce, now is the time to add your replacement liquid.  You do have a replacement liquid in mind by now, don't you?  Ok, I'll help you out; I usually add a 12 oz bottle of rich stout or porter and some chicken stock if I need more liquid for the size batch I'm making.

Mix everything well, and then you will be ready to add all of the meats back into the main pot with the sauce.  Before this step, try a piece or two of each of the meats you are adding and have browned (or hopefully, you snuck a chunk or two right when they came out of the browning pan and were still hot).  Note the flavors you get off each type of meat, and make a big note of the texture of each.  If you have a type that is very tender and tastes incredible as is, you may not want to change that taste too much.  If you have another type that is tasty, but a bit chewy, add that bowl now as it will need time in the pot with the sauce on a low, slow heat to break down and become more like a stewed meat in texture.  The ground meat won't need any more cooking, and could get dried out if cooked much more (or at too high a temp), so add it toward the end.
Essentially, you will be adding to this base sauce the meats in order of those which need the most cooking, all the way up to those that are ready to eat as is after the browning, with the optional beans as a last step.  I usually do ground meat in with the beans on that low and slow temperature about 30 minutes before I want to be done cooking and start serving.  I'm not much more precise than that, so you'll have to play around with the tougher cuts to see how long it takes for them to break down and taste like you want them to be in the finished product.  Compare with what they tasted like right after the browning and you will figure it out in short order what's right for which type of meat/cut, and make some notes for the future.

Not sure if I missed much, or if you still have some questions, let me know.  I'm not a huge "here's my exact favorite recipe" kind of guy, so I don't have a step by step for you to follow.  For something as full flavored and rounded as chili (and the fact that it's a one bowl type food), I follow the ingredients as they come together through the process, and they tell me what else to give it.




Blog posts in the works:  Pancetta, Craft Beer, Duck Prosciutto, and Venison Sausage

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