Chili con Calabaza Asada (Roasted Pumpkin Chili)
Oven-roasted pumpkin, fried pork belly, fresh & dried chiles, onions, toasted corn, cumin and oregano..
Chili con Calabaza Asada (Roasted Pumpkin Chili)
Serves 2
1-2 small pie pumpkins, roasted
3-4 dried chiles such as Ancho, Pasilla, New Mexico and Chipotle
1 fresh poblano pepper, chopped
1 Serrano or 2 jalapeño peppers, diced
1/2 red bell pepper, chopped
1/2 small red onion, chopped
1/4 pound pork belly, diced (can eliminate if vegetarian)
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 cup corn kernels
1/2 cup black beans, cooked (optional)
3/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano
salt & pepper
water
Split the pumpkins lengthwise through the stem and scrape out the seeds and stringy material. Season with salt and pepper and roast in a 400 degree oven until softened, about 15 minutes. Set aside to cool, then scrape out the flesh with the edge of a spoon.
Meanwhile, place the dried chiles in a bowl of hot water for 15 minutes. Remove from water, split and remove stems and seeds. Process in a food processor until a smooth paste is formed., corn,
Cook pork belly over medium-low heat until crisp. Pour off all but 1 tablespoon of the fat, then add the cumin seed and toast until fragrant.
Add the peppers and onions and sauté until softened, about 5 minutes. Add the corn, garlic, pumpkin and oregano and stir to combine.
Stir in the the chile paste, then thin with a little water (use the soaking water if you like). Add beans if using, then reduce heat to low, partially cover and simmer until slightly reduced, about 15 minutes.
Season to taste with salt and pepper, then ladle into bowls and serve with fried corn tortillas.
This post is part of Real Food Wednesdays!
Beef Heart Chili
I’ve been making and eating chili for a very long time now (some examples here and here), but I can honestly say that this is the most intensely-flavored, beefy-tasting pot I’ve ever had. The secret? Well, there are a couple.
Beef Heart Chili
Let’s look at the ingredients..
its all about the ingredients
This is a fairly mild chili, but you can certainly increase the heat with jalapeño or Serrano peppers if you desire.
Clockwise from the bottom-left, we have 70% lean coarse-ground grass-fed beef, chiles Chipotle Dorado, New Mexico and Ancho, beef tallow, white onion, ripe plum tomato, Mexican Oregano, annatto seeds, cumin seed, sea salt, black pepper, long-neck garlic, coarse corn flour and freshly-ground beef heart.
Start by splitting the chiles with a scissors and removing the stems and seed clusters. Its a good idea to wear gloves while doing this- I keep of box of recyclable medical gloves for this purpose.
Lay the split chiles out flat on a dry comal or heavy skillet along with some whole cumin seeds and toast over medium-low heat until fragrant, about 8 minutes. Don’t let anything burn or it will be bitter.
Transfer the toasted chiles, cumin and annatto seeds to the bowl of a food processor and pulse into a semi-fine powder. Set aside.
Melt beef tallow in a heavy skillet over medium heat until shimmering, but not smoking. Working in batches so as not to crowd the pan, add ground beef and heart and sear until well browned. Transfer meat to a Dutch oven, then sauté onions and garlic in the same pan.
Add the onions, garlic, oregano and diced tomato to the meat along with about 2 cups of filtered water for each 1 1/2 pounds of meat. Reduce heat, cover and simmer stirring occasionally, about 30 minutes.
Stir in the corn flour and simmer another 15 minutes. Adjust seasoning with salt & pepper if necessary and serve garnished with finely minced tomato, white onion and cilantro. Offer beans and/or tortillas on the side if you wish.
Beef heart is very high in iron, riboflavin, selenium and vitamin B12 and high in niacin, phosphorus and zinc, and has an extraordinary amount of cancer-fighting CoQ10. The appearance, texture and taste are indistinguishable from that of high-quality ground beef, except that it has a beefier flavor than hamburger.
Deep Chili
Nobody knows for sure exactly when and where chili con carne was first made, but we can generally agree that the original recipes read something like this..
“Cut up as much meat as you think you will need (any kind will do, but beef is probably best) in pieces about the size of a pecan. Put it in a pot, along with some suet (enough so as the meat won’t stick to the sides of the pot), and cook it with about the same amount of wild onions, garlic, oregano, and chiles as you have got meat. Put in some salt. Stir it from time to time and cook it until the meat is as tender as you think it’s going to get.” –Texas, early 1800s
With deep, dark beef and chile flavors, this is an intensely flavored dish.
Deep Chili
Smoke onions, garlic, jalapeños and a plum tomato over mesquite for 30 minutes. Set aside to cool.
Meanwhile, roast a variety of chiles such as Guajillo, ancho, arbol and New Mexico in a slow oven for an hour.
Pull the stems from the peppers and shake out the seeds. Transfer to a food processor and chop into a fine powder. Add the roasted onion, garlic, jalapeños and a tablespoon of cider vinegar and blend into a paste.
Brown a couple of pieces of pork belly in a heavy skillet over medium-high heat. Add small chunks of grass-fed beef chuck or bison and sear until seriously browned.
Add 1/2 cup of the chili paste and just enough water to cover the meat.
Add toasted cumin seed, Mexican oregano, a little sea salt, a few shards of true cinnamon and 3-4 whole cloves. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer 1 1/2 hours, adding the chopped, smoked tomato during the last half hour.
Add 1 ounce of Mexican chocolate and stir until melted. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper if necessary.
Serve with beans, cornbread or tortillas on the side if you like.
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- Deep Chili
Codornices de Michella
In honor of my beautiful ‘Ella.. Pan-seared quail with guajillo honey glaze, mole negro Oaxaqueno and papaya jalapeño rice.
Split, stem, seed, toast and reconstitute 3 dried guajillo and 1 ancho pepper. When soft, purée with a little of the soaking water, olive oil, honey, toasted cumin, cinnamon and sea salt. If more heat is desired, add 1 or 2 chiltpín peppers. Marinate the quail in this mixture for 1/2 a day, turning occasionally.
Make the black mole 4 hours ahead. The mild, fruity chilhuacles negros are rare and expensive compared to other dried chiles, but they are the key ingredient, so use them if you can.
Make a Spanish rice in the usual fashion, adding minced fresh jalapeño, papaya and azafrán (Mexican saffron).
15 minutes before dinner, sear the birds in a little olive oil in a cast iron skillet over medium heat until cooked medium, about 3-4 minutes per side. Baste with marinade during cooking.
Rating ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
White Chicken Chili
Say, isn’t that a lot of peppers? you might ask. Yes, I’d say. Yes, it is. But this is about flavor, you see, not about sending a heat-seeking missile into your nasal cavity. We’ll do that some other day. I promise.
Adapted from a recipe by Cooks Illustrated
Onion, cilantro, chicken broth, chicken, white beans, scallions, garlic, cumin seed, corriander, Mexican oregano, guajillo (medium), jalapeno (medium), chile de arbol (hot) and ancho (mild) peppers.
Brown the chicken (in a little olive oil) in a Dutch oven. Set aside.
Soak the dried chilies in hot water, prep the vegetables.
Toast the cumin and corriander in a dry skillet then coarsley grind.
Mince the rehydrated chilies.
Sauté the onions, peppers, garlic, oregano, cumin and corriander. Add diced chicken and cook another 5 minutes, stirring often.
Add the beans and broth. Reduce heat and simmer until liquid is reduced by half, about 30 minutes. Adjust seasoning.
Serve garnished with scallions and cilantro.
Rating ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦
Chili
“…During the 1880s, brightly-dressed Hispanic women known as “Chili Queens” began to operate around Military Plaza and other public gathering places in downtown San Antonio. They would appear at dusk, building charcoal or wood fires to reheat cauldrons of pre-cooked chili, selling it by the bowl to passers-by. The aroma was a potent sales pitch…” (Wikipedia) Visit npr.org for more information about The Chili Queens of San Antonio.
Chili con carne, Texas-style chili, Pedernales River chili, white chili, Cincinnati-style chili, Louisville style chili, chile verde. All very different. All very good.
This unique chile selectively borrows from many of these traditions. It would, of course be immediately disqualified from any self-respecting Texas chili cook-off.
Tomatillos, cilantro, masa flour, tomato paste, crushed tomatoes, 3-bean chili beans, onion, queso Oaxaca bola (string cheese), Mexican oregano (related to lemon verbena, Mexican oregano is stronger than the Greek and Italian varieties), celery, Mexican dark beer, annatto oil, chipotles en adobo, 90% lean coarse-ground chili meat, dried ancho with cumin, pepper and cloves, red Frisco peppers, garlic, dark chocolate with cocoa nibs, cinnamon and chipotle and sweet white corn. Not shown: beef stock
In a Dutch oven, brown the meat in a little annatto oil. Drain any excess fat.
Chop the peppers, celery, onion, tomatillos and garlic and add to the meat. Cook about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally until vegetables are soft.
Add tomatoes, crushed ancho blend and chipotles en adobo. Allow the chili to come to a boil, then immediately reduce to a simmer.
Add beer and beef stock. Chili should be thin (lots of liquid) at this point. Simmer 30 minutes, stirring occasionally.
Cut the corn from the cob and toast in a skillet to intensify color, flavor and sweetness (this makes a nice contrast to the heat of the peppers).
Add the corn, cilantro, chocolate, drained beans and oregano to the pot, stirring until the chocolate is incorporated, about 5 minutes.
Add masa and tomato paste to thicken, simmer another 5 -10 minutes.
Serve with tortilla chips and shredded cheese.
Rating ♦ ♦ ♦ ♦ +
