Fresh Fridays: A Chili Recipe Straight from Grandma

For this week Joe shares his Grandma’s special chili recipe which took a little convincing as you’ll read below so make sure you try this recipe and leave a comment below.

After receiving several requests for a chili recipe, I have decided to give my Grandma’s chili recipe, just in time for football parties.  This is a special recipe to me because it is one of the first things I ever learned to cook that people thought actually tasted good.  And I learned a valuable lesson when I made it,  you don’t need a long list of ingredients or complicated techniques to make delicious food.  This recipe is a study in the “less is more” philosophy that I use when I cook.  This recipe will be pleasing to many because the ingredients work well together and there aren’t a lot of differing flavors or textures here.  The right combination of a few ingredients is often far better than something that is overly complex.  Chili powder has always been one of my favorite spices, and as the key flavoring ingredient in this recipe, pays homage to the flavor from which this food gets it name.

Every time I make this chili I eat at least half the batch myself and usually gain about 5 pounds the week I have this chili on hand.  In fact this simple recipe means so much to me I almost didn’t want to share it,  but after I “got over myself”  I realized that the point of dear recipes is to allow others to experience how good simple soulful cooking from the heart can be.   I hope you enjoy it as much as I do!

Ingredients

60 fl oz tomato JUICE (most important ingredient)  this is exactly 5 cans out of a six pack
3 12 oz cans of dark red kidney beans (drained and rinsed)
2 lbs ground beef
2 large white onions (diced to approx 1/4″)
1 clove garlic (minced)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
2-3 tbsp chili powder
1 tbsp vegetable oil

Preparation

Heat the veg oil in a large stock pot over medium heat.  Add the onions and saute till soft and starting to turn translucent.  Next add garlic and stir in to incorporate.  Immediately add the ground beef and brown evenly, stirring occasionally.  When beef has browned, drain out excess fat.  Add tomato juice and bring to a boil, stirring occasionally, reduce to simmer.  Add beans, salt, pepper, and chili powder (at this step you can also add cayenne pepper, hot sauce, or just more chili powder and black pepper, if you like it hot).  When this comes back to a simmer it should start to really smell like chili, reduce even further to a light simmer, cover, and let cook for 1 hour (or as long as you can stand to wait). Turn off heat and let cool 20 minutes before eating.

This is a thin chili by most standards but the flavor given by the tomato juice should be more subtle and makes a better broth or base than most tomato sauces. Eat with lots of friends, and several loaves of fresh Italian bread, and hopefully you will enjoy it as much as I do.

Enjoy!

You can download a PDF version of this Grandma’s Chili.

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Photo by: Starbuck

Make a Fresh Habanero-Lime Salsa this Sunday

We both have always loved salsa though Justin tends to be a little obsessed with it….really, no joke!  Justin seems to have become a salsa connoisseur and today he shares one of his favorite recipes for habanero-lime salsa.  Instead of buying some of that store bought jar stuff, take a little bit of time before sitting down for the football game this Sunday and make some fresh salsa.

Habanero-Lime Salsa

Ingredients

6-8 firm plum tomatoes
1 medium sweet onion
2 habanero peppers
1 tsp salt
1 tsp cracked black pepper
1-2 limes
1/3 c fresh cilantro, finely chopped
1/8 c fresh parsley, finely chopped
1/4 c rice wine vinegar

Warning: Be careful when handling habanero peppers.  You should wear gloves and be careful of where and what you touch immediately after handling habaneros.

Preparation

Remove the seeds from the plum tomatoes and then finally dice into small quarter pieces.  If you want the salsa to be very spicy then leave the seeds in the habanero peppers.  If you want it to be more mild, then remove the seeds and you can also add a dash of sugar to the recipe.  Finally chop onion, cilantro and parsley.  Combine all ingredients and squeeze the juice of the limes into the dish.  Stir all ingredients together and let rest together for approximately 20-30 minutes to allow all of the flavors to meld together.

Enjoy!

You can download a PDF version of this Habanero-Lime Salsa.

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Photo by: SuziJane

Meat the Press Mondays: Proper Grill Management

For Meat the Press Mondays, we bring you another episode of Prime Cuts TV.  Today’s episode focuses on proper grill management.  The ability properly manage a grill is essential especially when grilling various items at the same time or trying to cook several meats all to different temperatures.

We apologize in advance for the rough audio.  Unfortunately, the only time you can shoot a video about proper grill management is when the kitchen is busy therefore we had to have our hood fans on and other staff were working around us.  If you are viewing this post in a reader, you can view the video on Prime Cuts TV.

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How to Select the Proper Kitchen Knife

One of the biggest mistakes people make in the kitchen is not selecting the proper tools.  We’ve already discussed the importance of choosing quality knives and now bring you this video from the FoodGear team on selecting the proper type of kitchen knife:

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Do you have a favorite knife in your block?  If so, leave a comment below letting us know what type of knife it is and why it’s your favorite.

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How to Fabricate a Whole Filet Mignon

Today we follow up to our Prime Cuts TV video earlier this week with another episode…this time on how to fabricate (cut-down) an unpeeled tenderloin into beautiful cuts of filet mignon.  Just like with buying a whole ribeye, this can be a great way to save some money while not sacrificing on quality.

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Meat the Press Mondays: How to Fabricate a Whole Ribeye

Today on Meat the Press Mondays we teach you how to fabricate (cut-down) a whole ribeye.  This is a beneficial technique to know how to do as you can save a lot of money by buying a whole ribeye from your local wholesaler such as Costco, BJ’s Wholesale, or Sam’s Club.

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Fresh Fridays: Cream of Butternut Squash Soup

For Fresh Fridays, Joe teaches you how to make one of his favorite types of soup, cream of butternut squash.

So, for a cool fall evening I thought I would write a bit about soups, and in particular the pureed soups that are ever popular with fall squashes, butternut, perhaps being one of the most common types.  These are easy soups to prepare, but the difficult work can come when you have to peel some of these peculiarly shaped squashes, such as buttercup, hubbard, and some pumpkin varieties…just to name a few of the more oddly shaped ones. The things that you will need to have are a good blender, a big stock pot, and an ultra heavy duty vegetable peeler (I find that the pull down type work better for rugged jobs than the side to side types).For the purposes of this post I will list the basic method to making a good cream of squash soup, and then follow it up with my recipe for cream of butternut.  This method was adapted from legendary French chef Joel Robuchon’s recipe for cream of pumpkin soup.  Chef Robuchon’s seasonal cookbooks have been a constant inspiration throughout my culinary career, as he tends to have an elegant yet simple style that makes common ingredients become incredible.

The rough idea to this soup is to have approximately the same amounts by volume of peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped squash, and stock, which you will be boiling the squash in (for squash soups, chicken stock is the natural choice).  Begin by placing the squash pieces into your large stock pot, pour in the chicken stock to just about cover the top of the squash, bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer and cook till the squash is tender, about 20 minutes.  Next, you will be pureeing this mixture in your blender, in small batches (you could use an immersion blender, but I find that the container-type blender results in a smoother soup).  Ladle a few scoops of the solids and then just a scoop or two of the liquid into your blender and puree till smooth.   Repeat this process till all the squash and stock are pureed smooth.  If it seems too watery, use less stock and more squash, if too thick do the opposite.  Now that you have all your squash and stock pureed, return to your cleaned stock pot and bring to a light simmer, add heavy cream, spices/flavorings (salt, white pepper, nutmeg, clove, cinnamon, honey, sugar, maple syrup, all work well in these type soups) and bring back to a simmer.   Remember when flavoring these soups that the squash themselves already contain a good deal of natural sweetness, so season carefully and think savory.  The last thing you want is to have an overly sweet soup that tastes like candy, or worse, one of those super sweet candied yam casseroles with the marshmallow fluff on it.  If your soup is this sweet, you may have trouble getting your guests to partake in the next courses of the meal. 😉

To finish the soup I like to whisk in some cold unsalted butter pieces which provides some additional savory richness and body.   If after all this your soup seems too thick, you can thin by whisking in some more stock.  If too thin then you can whisk in some cornstarch diluted in cold water, like finishing a gravy.  Some other types of squash/vegetables that work well for these soups are, acorn squash, buttercup squash, pumpkin, sweet potatoes, potato, and leek, and you could even do a nice creamed carrot soup this way.

Experiment with lots of different types of squashes/vegetables and seasonings, and enjoy!

Joe’s Fall Cream of Butternut Squash Soup

Note: These are restaurant size portions so either make a large batch or cut back on the portions.

Ingredients

4 large butternut squash, peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
2 large white onions, peeled and quartered
6 qt homemade dark chicken stock (store bought works fine too)
3/4 qt heavy cream
1/4 lb unsalted butter chopped small
1 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp white pepper
2 tbsp dark amber maple syrup
2 cinnamon sticks
2 or 3 small dashes freshly grated nutmeg

Preparation

-Boil butternut squash and onion in chicken stock till tender
-Puree all ingredients from previous step in blender
-Return to cleaned stockpot, add seasoning ingredients, whisk thoroughly to combine, bring back up to simmer
-Add heavy cream, whisk to combine, bring back up to simmer
-Add butter, turn off heat, whisk till butter is melted and incorporated, remove cinnamon sticks and taste for seasoning.

The finished product of this soup should be velvety smooth and more savory than sweet.  The texture should be that of warm baby food (sorry for the potentially appetite altering metaphor). The color should be a rich pumpkin orange lightly flecked by the grated nutmeg.  This soup will keep for up to a week in the fridge.

Enjoy!

You can download a PDF version of this Cream of Butternut Squash Soup.

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Photo by: Divine Domesticity

How You Can Help to Fight Poverty on Blog Action Day

We know, not the title you were expecting to see show up in your RSS reader or inbox from us is it?  Well today we are taking a minute to use this blog as a voice for an important cause on Blog Action Day.  It is amazing to see the blogging community band together to support solving poverty!  There are over 9,700 blogs registered (as of 2:20a est on 10/15) to be a part of Blog Action Day.  These 9,700 blogs will reach over 10.7 million people through RSS feeds along, not including email subscriptions and non-subscribers.

Most people understand that poverty is an extremely serious problem that is plaguing the entire world.  However, a lot of people probably don’t understand just how tragic of an issue it is.  For those in that group, take in some of these stats compiled by GlobalIssues.org:

• Over three billion people live on less than $2.50 per day while over 80% of humanity lives on less than $10/day.
• Approximately 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty.
• There are 1.1 billion people living in developing countries who do not have adequate access to water while approximately 2.6 billion people lack basic water sanitation capabilities.
• Every 2nd child born in this world is born into poverty.

Stats like those we highlighted above are just a few of the many horrific stats that are part of our world reality.  One of the major problems is that people don’t understand how their small contributions can help such a massive world issue such as poverty.  However, what many fail to realize is that there are groups out there such as Heifer International which provide you the ability to donate small amounts which can go towards purchasing livestock such as a flock of chicks ($20) or a water buffalo ($250 or a shared donation of $25).  Such a contribution can feed easily feed an entire family and sometimes even a whole village.

So, instead of going out to a restaurant today, take a few dollars of that money and donate it to a charity like Heifer who will use it to provide sustainable foods/technologies to families and villages who can’t even provide something that we take for granted such as clean drinking water for their young children.

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Meat the Press Mondays: Learn Your Cuts of Steak – The Beef Digarams

A few weeks ago we discussed some of the most popular cuts of steak.  For today’s Meat the Press Mondays we wanted to further your knowledge of the different cuts of steak by presenting you with the beef diagram.  These diagrams will show you where the cuts come from on the cattle as well as the typical shapes of these cuts.  There are a lot of different versions of these diagrams but the following two are the most simple but informative.

It seems that everyone I talk to has a different favorite cut of steak.  So, I’m curious to know what your favorite cuts of steak are and why?  Please post your responses in the comment section below.

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Fresh Fridays: Corn and Potato Chowder

It’s starting to get cold (and fast!) here in New England which starts to bring the thoughts of crackling fireplaces and hot soups, chowders, stews and chili.  Therefore, for this week’s Fresh Fridays we are going to provide you with an excellent recipe for a corn and potato chowder with a kick.  If you don’t like either of the main ingredients, corn or potato, feel free to omit from the recipe and substitute with more of the other ingredient.  If possible, try to buy fresh and local corn though it’s not necessary.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons butter
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 sweet onion, diced
1-2 jalapenos, diced
3 garlic cloves, minced
6 sprigs fresh thyme, leaves only
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
5 cups canned vegetable stock
2 cups heavy cream
2-3 Idaho potatoes, diced
6 ears corn
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
1 lb bacon
¼ cup scallions
¼ cup cheddar cheese
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

Cook the bacon until crispy then remove from the heat.  Allow the bacon to cool for approximately 5 minutes so you don’t burn yourself.  Once the bacon has cooled, dice into small pieces as the bacon will be used to top your chowder.

Heat the butter and 1 tablespoon olive oil in a large pot over medium heat. Add the onion, garlic, jalapenos and thyme.  Cook these ingredients for approximately 8-10 minutes or until the onion appears to have softened. Evenly add the flour over the vegetables and stir to coat everything well. Pour in the vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Add the heavy cream and potatoes.  Increase the heat to medium-high and bring to a boil.  Boil hard for about 7-10 minutes until the potatoes soften.

Cut the corn kernels off the cob and add to the soup.  To help thicken the soup, you can take the back of your knife and scrape the cob into the soup however this is not necessary to the overall preparation of the soup.

Season with salt, pepper and parsley. Lower heat and simmer until the corn is soft, about 10 to 12 minutes.  Once the soup is done, let it rest for approximately 5 minutes which will allow the chowder to thicken. Next, ladle into serving bowl.  Top the chowder with the chopped bacon, scallions and cheddar cheese.  Allow the cheese to melt and serve.

Note: Whether you peel the potatoes is up to your preference.  Also, feel free to modify the ingredients in this recipe to fit your palette.  Many people will wonder if the jalapenos will make the chowder spicy.  Since the jalapenos have the seeds removed and are cooked down from the start of the cooking process, they add some kick but does not make the dish spicy overall.

Enjoy!

You can download a PDF version of this Corn and Potato Chowder.

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Original Recipe by: Tyler Florence
Photo by: fille_de_photo