Operation Chili

[AccountingDrone]

AD, I suppose it depends how one prepares the meat for the chili. I could see some applications with the caul, to be honest.

And Barracuda, you had me intrigued with that link, until I saw what they were. The first listing is a Chinese restaurant down here (one I order from frequently), not a grocery store. The second one is a grocery store, but not an Asian one...it specializes in Eastern European fare.

If you want fish sauce, or really anything asian, let me know before we head out - we have a killer good oriental grocery we use, and we are swinging through several areas along the way with china towns, little tokyos, little koreas and whatnot. Heck, if you need something from Arizona we can even stop in Phoenix if you have somewhere specific to get something =)

[Barracuda]

Ah. Sorry, Jester, should have checked them out more thoroughly. Here's an online store you can order all the sauces I mentioned from.

http://asia4umarket.com/

You can also order curry pastes or Asian cooking oils as well. It would be interesting to taste a chili that had (moderate) amounts of Mongolian Fire Oil added...... Perhaps you could cook meat in the oil, and then tip the whole mess into the chili? Hope I'm not hitting you with TOO many suggestions, I just love to cook and experiment and your threads on chili intrigue me, as I have never really experimented with it and have eaten some DAMN good chili. I also have a bit of a crazy idea after seeing how MANY hot, tasty Asian ingredients there are. What about an Asian fusion chili? Maybe even trying for a pure Asian chili? You could use fish sauce for a good base, add some other ingredients that are hot and mix well flavor wise...maybe an Asian seafood chili? This is really crazy---what about a squid or octopus chili with seaweed (or without) or maybe some fish that mix well flavor wise? It would be a real challenge to cook, but if you could pull it off...I think you would have perhaps a totally unique chili not ever made before. Ahi tuna might work well too--it has a good texture and nice flavor. Dang. Now I'M hungry for chili.

[Jester]

AD, it's very tempting to have you pick me up something in Phoenix, like real chipotles or a case of Four Peaks Kiltlifter. Although I don't know how a case of bottled beer would fare in a road trip through various climates. Not that March is that hot....hmmmm....now you have me thinking.

As for the alternative chilis, it's an interesting idea. I DID once collaborate with a friend and we came up with a killer white seafood chili, with clams, oysters, mussels, white beans, and Spanish pork, among other things.

And there is no such thing as "too many suggestions."

[Barracuda]

Thought you might find this article interesting--now there's a chili hotter than ghost chilies. Known as Trinidad Moruga Scorpion chilies, some individual peppers have tested as high as 2 MILLION scorvii (the average jalapeno is 5,000) and the average is 1.2 million.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation...PGR_story.html

[Jester]

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED!

And then some!

All modesty aside, I crushed it yesterday. People were coming up to our booth (my friend Sonic was helping me out) for seconds, thirds, fourths. It was AWESOME.

The bad news was that I found out that there was only one other amateur in the whole cookoff. That kinda pissed me off. I asked the organizers if I could pay the difference and move into the professional division, but since I was not representing a restaurant (and my bar doesn't serve chili, and certainly not MY chili), they said that that was not allowed. (And they said they are probably not going to even bother with an amateur division next time, which is fine by me, because for various reasons, I don't think I want to participate in this particular cookoff again.)

Fine. I still wanted to crush the professionals, because I was convinced, as was Sonic, that I had the best chili there. And there were some good ones, don't get me wrong. (Although the other amateur one clearly wasn't one of them. His was....eh.) So since the voting was being done by who had the most tasting tickets in their jar, Sonic took a stroll up and down the block, not just to try out the different chilis and wings (it was a dual cookoff), but to see how the other chilis were doing. He said by FAR our jar had more tickets than any other chili, pro or amateur, to the point of being about 2 to 1 to our closest competitor.

And here's where it gets funny. At 4:00, when the voting ended and the jars were collected, I still apparently had more tickets than anyone else...despite the fact that I had run out of chili at 2:30!

People were loving my chili. My best batch yet! Several people asked where they could buy it, as in what bar, and were surprised and saddened to find out they couldn't. One guy actually got MAD at me and gave me an earful that that just wasn't fair, that he couldn't go buy my chili anywhere. Hey, if someone's gonna get mad at me for something, I am all in favor of it being something like this!

Now, I did ask the main organizer if, just for my pride, she could let me know where I ranked in the tally as compared to the professionals. And she said that she would. And then, after the awards were handed out, when I asked her about that, she said that, after tabulation, they had thrown out the results. So she basically lied to me, or just didn't want me knowing the results, or whatever. I don't know if she thought I was going to lord it over the professionals (I wasn't; that's not my style), but it was pretty much a consensus by the people there that I absolutely killed it, and that I had the best chili there.

Now I am going to be looking to do larger chili cookoffs, something I've been considering for a while. Problem is, I'd have to go to Miami or some place like that. Another problem is, while I "only" made 10 quarts of chili this time, that was a double batch of my regular recipe, and it took up a LOT of space in my fridge....I don't know how much more I can make before I run out of fridge space for it! But still, I'd like to try my hand at competing with the big boys.

So, after we ran out of chili at 2:30, Sonic looked at me and asked if we should start breaking down our booth. He was pleasantly surprised when I told him, no, let's just sit here, drink beer, and gloat. Which was precisely what we did. I wrote "SOLD OUT. Thank you, Key West!" on my sign, and we just sat back in our chairs and enjoyed the day, and several cold Pacificos.

The icing on the cupcake of the day? Without even setting out to do so, I somehow got the phone number of this lovely young thing that was working the tasting ticket booth. Yeah, she's half my age (literally; she's 20), and yeah, probably nothing will come of it, but the fact that (A) she thought I was 28, and (B) even when I told her my real age (41), she still gave me her number.

All in all, the celebration of Arizona's Centennial ended on a very positive note.

Viva Arizona!

Gracias, y buenos noches!

[AccountingDrone]

AD, it's very tempting to have you pick me up something in Phoenix, like real chipotles or a case of Four Peaks Kiltlifter. Although I don't know how a case of bottled beer would fare in a road trip through various climates. Not that March is that hot....hmmmm....now you have me thinking.

As for the alternative chilis, it's an interesting idea. I DID once collaborate with a friend and we came up with a killer white seafood chili, with clams, oysters, mussels, white beans, and Spanish pork, among other things.

And there is no such thing as "too many suggestions."

And it is only from Arizona to Florida through NM, TX, LA and MS, all roughly the same temperature range.

[Jester]

AD, pm me. I do want some items, but I would prefer to talk to you about it privately. (No, people, nothing illegal...relax. Well, other than the Tahitian slave boy and marijuana-flavored Captain Crunch.)

Still riding the high of yesterday. Most relaxed and most confident I've ever been for a cookoff. Normally I stress out like no one's business. I described it to a friend like this: "You know when you see a man with four loaded guns walking into a building and you just know that no one in there is going to come out alive? Well, I was the man with the four guns, and NO ONE at the cookoff was coming out alive!"

In other news, I texted the girl who gave me her number, inviting her to join my friends and I for bloody marys at a local bar. Sadly, though not surprisingly, I never heard back from her. (The great thing about having zero expectations is that it is impossible to be disappointed!) Other than that and my boneheaded parking ticket (don't ask), it was a pretty killer day. Bloodys with bacon, great huge breakfast, new bar, new beer (from Turkey), great dinner with friends, new great wine, and finishing at a bar with a hilarious musician while we played Giant Jenga, of which I was the eventual champion. An undefeated weekend...how awesome is that?

[MystyGlyttyr]

Jester, sounds to me like you just had your own chili-fied version of The Judgment of Paris I would say you could have sold your recipe, but I've tried that a few times myself, and yet people still insist the stuff I make tastes better when I make it, even if they follow my instructions.

So far as your worry about turning down suggestions, I didn't take anything personally from it, I sort of already figured exactly what you said you were doing. Hell, I'd rather be told "eh, no" when I offer my advice, because I know what I offered was at least looked at, as opposed to when I try to advise people on stuff and after they do exactly the opposite of what I've said, I don't know if they didn't listen to me at all or if they looked at what I said and purposely set out to spite it. Not to mention I'm rather used to chefs and cooks being very INTENSE about their recipes and what they want from them, heh. At least from me, no harm, no foul.

[Jester]

I have no idea what the Judgment of Paris is, actually. Sounds familiar, though. Are we talking Iliad here?

As for selling my recipe, no chance. When I die, it goes to my niece Dragon or no one.

And since I asked for suggestions, I should be willing to listen to them, even if I don't necessarily use any or all of them. I did use at least one, and it worked really well, and is one that is now, in my mind, a permanent part of the recipe.

And I am still tweaking the recipe, ever so slightly, but will be revisiting this thread for ideas for a future different chili recipe.

[Barracuda]

Nice. Glad one of the suggestions we gave worked out well. Wish I could TASTE your chili! I'm so curious now.

[Mytical]

Let me share what little I know about my cousins 'Ghost Devil Chili' (he named it not I). He is not forthcoming on the specifics, but I've managed to see a few things..and I have to say though it is hotter then blue blazes .. it is really really good.

He takes a ghost pepper, cuts it into strips, and then using hamburger he does not use in the chili..makes some grease..(he makes patties out of the hamburger for his wife who does not like spicy things). Taking the grease, he puts the strips of pepper in it and lets it simmer. Removing the physical pieces of the pepper from the 'sauce'..he adds it to the chili. I know he puts other spices in this concoction, and if I ever figure out what I will let you know..but I do have to warn that this make some VERY spicy chili. Though not as bad as if you added the actual peppers.

[Jester]

Rather than pepper-infused oil, he's using pepper-infused beef grease. Very creative, very imaginative. And would blend right in with the meat from the chili. This idea has applications far beyond just making ghost pepper-infused grease. This idea is something a lot of newer cooks could learn from. In short, it's fucking genius.

[Mytical]

You should try his baked spaghetti, it makes your eyes roll back in your head in pleasure it is so good. He is an amazing cook..but he doesn't share his recipes..even with me. He can't make taco though..for some odd reason..*shrugs*. If he ever decides to give me the rest of the spices I'll pass them on.

[MoonCat]

You should try his baked spaghetti, it makes your eyes roll back in your head in pleasure it is so good. He is an amazing cook..but he doesn't share his recipes..even with me. He can't make taco though..for some odd reason..*shrugs*. If he ever decides to give me the rest of the spices I'll pass them on.

Mmmm, baked spaghetti.... And he won't share the recipe? Aww....

[MystyGlyttyr]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judgmen...ris_%28wine%29

Essentially, there was a big blind wine-tasting contest in France, where the snooty French judges declared Californian wine to be the best tasting, and when they realized what they'd done, they lost their collective minds.

Basically I'm insinuating that the judges in your contest were miffed that the "amateur" dared to be better than all the professionals