Day Two Hundred and Forty Seven - Chilli

Dear all,

This evening, Darren had invited over the tribe for Poker so I took this opportunity to embrace my inner hostess and cook up enough food to feed an army!

I decided to cook up a chili as it seemed like a good idea to fend off the rampant chill and frigid weather that had descended during the last few days and perfect for hungry boys about to embark on an evening of poker.

I started off making with the obligatory Corn Bread. Brits reading will be puzzled by this move as Corn Bread is not something you would find in any bakery aisle at Tesco or even think about making will preparing a Chili Con Carne. Here, it is big news, so I found a recipe and got baking!

I ironically used a recipe found on the BBC website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/cornbread_86386.

• 375g/13oz plain flour

• 225g/8oz cornmeal

• 1 tsp salt

• 4 tsp baking powder

• 110g/4oz sugar

• 480ml/17fl oz milk

• 2 free-range eggs

• 110g/4oz butter, melted, plus extra for greasing

• small tin sweetcorn kernels, drained (or use fresh sweetcorn)

• 

  I have gotta say, it was very straightforward; I just poured everything into a mixing bowl and then popped it in the oven. I did have one stumbling block in that I 'forgot' to grease the baking tins... so upon removal of the bread, instead of neatly disembarking, the insides fell out leaving the outer crust 'glued' to the pan. the classic baking error. It still tasted great thou!
  

  To make amends I cooked up a tray of apple muffins and a cobbler: the classic crowd-pleasers.

  I was going to then head out for a quick 20k run but on skim-reading the Chili recipe and seeing that it took THREE HOURS TO COOK, I immediately went into crisis mode and got busy with the beef!

  The recipe was apparently a 'world class' formula for chili that had won various awards and used a plethora of fabulous 'surprise' ingredients. http://www.momswhothink.com/easy-recipes/best-chili-recipe.html

  

  I started out with 7 pounds of beef and 4 pounds of pork ( I was doubling the recipe). I browned the meat and then added the garlic and onions.

  2 1/2 lb. lean chuck, ground (Beef?)
  1 lb. lean pork, ground
  4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
  1 cup finely chopped onion
  8 oz. hunt's tomato sauce
  1 cup water
  1 can beer (12 oz.)
  3 Tablespoons chili powder
  2 Tablespoons instant beef bouillon (or 6 cubes)
  2 Tablespoons cumin, ground
  2 teaspoons paprika
  2 teaspoons oregano leaves
  2 teaspoons sugar
  1/2 teaspoon coriander, ground
  1 teaspoon unsweetened cocoa
  1/2 teaspoon Louisiana hot sauce
  1 teaspoon cornmeal
  1 teaspoon flour
  1 teaspoon warm water

I used a couple of bottles of Moosehead's Cracked Canoe [http://crackedcanoe.ca] and Metro Chopped Tomatoes as opposed to the specified 'Hunts'.

I added everything apart from the cornmeal to the meat, mixed well and then simmered for 2 hours! Darren had come home in the meantime and stepped in with a few tips including draining off a little of the fat and turning the heat down. He was however, already very impressed with the chili and its flavor!

What a triumph! The chili was a total success and everyone loved it. Dave was particularly complimentary with glazed eyes ( after his fourth portion) waxed lyrical about the perfect combination of the hot chili and the sweet corn bread. A momentous occasion for the Domestic Goddess in training!

And in other news:

1. A great website for browsing if you have a spare moment: found by Darren this morning whilst surfing through Reddit. http://www.ted.com/