Welcome to Steve’s Kitchen. In this week’s episode we will make experimental chili. Taped to the inside door of my spice cabinet is a weathered brown 1981 championship chili recipe that I have been using most of my adult life. It hits the spot. My polite and blunt friends both say it’s excellent, so all these years, I’ve worked my way down the same ingredient list, tossed in a few personal items, and ended up with tasty chili.
I’m tired of it. It’s too easy, and I’m getting old. It’s time to rebuild my chili from scratch, even if my first few attempts fail miserably. I have a big Fiesta Luau party planned this weekend (it was yesterday for readers, and the results are in) for 40-50 people and chili is my staple contribution. I must experiment now.
Today is Thursday. I began soaking beans and simmering stock last night. Tonight my wife and friends, Gino and his cool, new, hippy-chick girlfriend, Patricia, will sample my first attempt behind closed doors.
Tomorrow is Friday and the chili goes public. We are hosting a Jaysin Cabrol Memorial Happening for a departed student friend at our house and one of the foods to be served to a dozen people will be version two of my chili, which I will replenish with new, modifying ingredients, depending on the outcome of version one.
Saturday follows and the Luau begins in late afternoon. Racks of ribs will be smoked and ready, chicken will be cooked in the outdoor 14-quart deep fryer that Amazon just delivered, Gino will be grilling shrimp on our wide-iron-plate grill, and inside next to the individual dishes brought by guests for this spring beggars’ banquet, will be a vat of version three chili, based on the outcome of version two.
Chili research began a month ago on the Internet. Call it old-school educator’s curiosity but I pull out a notebook and write things down. After reading through a few hours of recipes and anecdotes, I watched a handful of how-to videos. My cooking notebook now has a chili chapter.
Mostly I was curious about the odd and unique ingredients people add to their chili. I made a list of the more interesting items. Note you would not use all of these ingredients at the same time. If you did, you would be lonely.
Potential chili ingredients: cinnamon, taco seasoning, Ro-Tel with chilies or habaneros, hot salsa, coffee, Mexican chocolate, ancho peppers, wide-variety peppers, pre-roasted garlic and onion, brown sugar, white sugar, masa harina or a fistful of crushed corn chips that will dissolve completely into the sauce, smoky barbecue sauce, shredded brisket, chorizo, beef marrow bones, blackstrap molasses, suet, vinegar, liquid smoke, cilantro, grape jelly, and my least-favorite but most interesting ingredient, cigar ashes.
For my new recipe I highlighted a few items. I brought together cinnamon, hot salsa, a multitude of peppers, roasted garlic and onions, and corn chips. As of this writing, I’ve yet to acquire marrow bones or suet, which were not at the local groceries. I will scour Vallejo markets this afternoon. My version one stock was made with soup bones that simmered until dawn. As the saying goes, “Closer to bone, the sweeter the meat.”
Pinto beans soaked overnight in water, garlic powder, cayenne, and beef broth, which I poured off this morning. I pulled the bones from the stock. The meat fell back in. With a teaspoon, I dug out some reluctant succulent marrow. In the oven, I’ll roast onions and garlic. Maybe I’ll pop them into the smoker. If I’m unable to locate suet, Jamie Oliver suggests freezing and shredding lard, which I keep around for oiling iron skillets.
Version one chili today is all about the beef stock starting fluid. That’s my new main ingredient. It’s seasoned with onions, bullion, and choice spices. It will cook down until it can all but disappear as the foundation for the other chili ingredients. Beyond the traditional chilies, chili spices and tomato ingredients, version one will also contain cinnamon, hot salsa, multiple chilis, roasted onions and garlic, and pulverized corn chips. That should be enough changes for one version. Any more and it will be difficult to know what went right or wrong. If the stock works, or needs work, I’ll adjust that on Friday in version two.
Version two will likely center on new meat and heat varieties. I need me some brisket. Some friends don’t like spicy hot chili, but there are many types of hot. I want a chili that doesn’t burn like a match on your tongue, but warms like an electric blanket around your belly. The burn shouldn’t totally settle in until the chili is swallowed. Then it should ebb out in pulsating waves from the inner sanctum. It should go radiating like that for a few days.
We also bought an outdoor deep fryer for this year’s party because people wanted fried chicken and freshly deep-fried chicken outside from a bubbling vat is the best. Once-used oil is considered best for cooking, and homemade potato chips are an excellent way to break in new oil, so I brought home a sack of russets for my mandolin slicer. Friends have offered to batter up some other vegetables, so I’ll leave that to them.
Happy spring time.

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