Making really good Chili, the authentic TexMex variety, is really not too much of a mystery. Like many recipes, it's really just a few basic ingredients. The trouble comes when people try to doll it up with all of their "secret ingredients". It's easy to fuck up a good thing by getting too cute with it.
First off, let me say that if you want to add things to this recipe, feel free. It's a very basic start. I think it's great the way it is, but if you want to be the guy who adds a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or a can of pears or beer or whatever, you go right ahead. Good luck at the next chili cook-off. Secondly, I'm not going to get into the "beans vs. no-beans" debate. If you like beans in your chili, go ahead and make it like that. This recipe doesn't have beans. This recipe has no tomatoes or tomato sauce either. You may feel free to add that as well. Thirdly, this chili is hot. Not habenero chili hot, but plenty hot enough that if you aren't into hot food, you're going to want to tone it down some. I hate the "n-alarm chili" bullshit. It's a scale designed by people who find catsup to be spicy (1-alarm), i.e., pussies. If I had to put it on that scale, I'd say it was 4-5 alarm (see, they made me do it any way. God damn I hate that). Fourthly and finally, this is pork chili. You may feel free to use beef, chicken, or even tofu. I don't think it'll matter so damned much.
OK, let's begin...
2 lbs of pork chopped into acorn sized pieces
2 Dried ancho or New Mexico chili peppers (it is chili, after all)
1 large onion, chopped
4 good sized jalepenos (fresh. Canned won't work)
5 cloves of garlic minced finely
2 Tbsp ground cumin
1 Tbsp dried oregano
A few chicken bones to make stock
some bacon fat or olive oil or beef suet or a combination of any of those.
First things first. Get those Jalepenos into the toaster oven and start roasting them at 450 or so. While that's going on, put the chicken bones in two cups of water on the stove and bring that to a boil. Chop the anchos and remove the stems and add them to the stock as it's heats. Once it boils, bring it down to a simmer and remove the scum from the top. When the jalepenos have blistered (it should take about 20 minutes) drop them into cold water and then remove the celophane-like skins. Cut the stems off and place them into a blender. By now, the stock should be good. Fish the bones out and let the liquid cool. While that's happening, start browning the pork (with the onions). When the pork is almost done, add the garlic and the cumin, stir it well and then remove from the heat. When the stock is cool, pour it into the blender with the ancho chili and the jalepenos that are already in there. Puree it and then pour it back into a large pot. Add the pork and onion from the skillet. Bring this to a simmer and let it cook for an hour. It doesn't need to cook all day, but that wouldn't really hurt.
You can serve it as-is, like a stew, or you can serve it with some hominy. You could put it on rice (my favorite), on corn bread, or over a couple of tamales. It's all good.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Taco shells, the hard way.
Making your own taco shells is not that difficult. Especially if you start out with store-bought corn tortillas. That's how your favorite restaurant does it, by the way. Making your own tortillas would keep you in the kitchen all damned day.
When I was a kid, I had a friend who's mom used to make tacos the old fashioned way, in the frying pan. Of course, the way she did it was to fill the soft tortilla first and lay it in the hot grease to crisp up on each side. Those were good tacos, but a bit greasy. I didn't care. We're going to make the taco shells empty, and once they cool off a bit, you can fill them any way you want.
The way I make 'em is to take my smallest non-stick pan, and fill it about 3/4" to 1" deep with oil (the oil is still usable after you fry the tortillas in it, so save it all in a jar when you're done), heat it up and lay a tortilla in there for a couple of seconds, turn it over and quickly form it into the taco shape with your tongs and a spatula. This takes a bit of experimenting to get the shape just right, and your first couple may come out a bit odd. Fry it for about a minute on each side so that it's crispy, then set it upside down on some paper towels to cool.
The Good: These are the best taco shells ever. They are crispy, but they still have a bit of "give" so they don't crack in half when you bite into them. Store bought taco shells don't have the same texture, and they're really too pricey considering how many of them are broken.
The Bad: It takes some time to make them. It takes me about an half hour to make a dozen, and you can't do much else while you're doing it. This is when your kids will decide to cause the most trouble because they have an innate sense that you can't drop what your doing, so they should be able to get away with a lot of shit. I find threats of physical violence necessary when I'm occupied like this. "I'm going to beat your asses up around your shoulders" seemed to do the trick last time. Feel free to use that one.
The Ugly: Getting the tortilla to cooperate in the hot oil with just tongs and a spatula is sometimes (hell, all times) maddening. You want the fold to have a nice radius to it so that you can get more stuff into the finished shell. It sometimes takes both hands to hold it in the proper position while it cooks. Plus, there's a lot of oil on the stove top when you're done.
When I was a kid, I had a friend who's mom used to make tacos the old fashioned way, in the frying pan. Of course, the way she did it was to fill the soft tortilla first and lay it in the hot grease to crisp up on each side. Those were good tacos, but a bit greasy. I didn't care. We're going to make the taco shells empty, and once they cool off a bit, you can fill them any way you want.
The way I make 'em is to take my smallest non-stick pan, and fill it about 3/4" to 1" deep with oil (the oil is still usable after you fry the tortillas in it, so save it all in a jar when you're done), heat it up and lay a tortilla in there for a couple of seconds, turn it over and quickly form it into the taco shape with your tongs and a spatula. This takes a bit of experimenting to get the shape just right, and your first couple may come out a bit odd. Fry it for about a minute on each side so that it's crispy, then set it upside down on some paper towels to cool.
The Good: These are the best taco shells ever. They are crispy, but they still have a bit of "give" so they don't crack in half when you bite into them. Store bought taco shells don't have the same texture, and they're really too pricey considering how many of them are broken.
The Bad: It takes some time to make them. It takes me about an half hour to make a dozen, and you can't do much else while you're doing it. This is when your kids will decide to cause the most trouble because they have an innate sense that you can't drop what your doing, so they should be able to get away with a lot of shit. I find threats of physical violence necessary when I'm occupied like this. "I'm going to beat your asses up around your shoulders" seemed to do the trick last time. Feel free to use that one.
The Ugly: Getting the tortilla to cooperate in the hot oil with just tongs and a spatula is sometimes (hell, all times) maddening. You want the fold to have a nice radius to it so that you can get more stuff into the finished shell. It sometimes takes both hands to hold it in the proper position while it cooks. Plus, there's a lot of oil on the stove top when you're done.
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