Drunken Irish Chili

I didn't remember to take any pictures of the cooking process while making this chili, so my words will have to paint a vivid picture. Come March Chili is in the air, the subtle hint of slow cook beef, beans and spicy chili flows in as the snow recedes. Therefore it is this time every year that our group of friends throws the annual chili cookoff. For the past 4 years I have put my sweat and tears into making unique chili's that I hoped would capture the crowds votes and provide me with that ever elusive first place prize. Sadly, year, after year, after year, after year, I am left hoping for redemption next year. This year I managed my best performance yet, but still came up second. Chili is a cruel dish indeed!

Since the chili cook-off was on St. Patricks Day I used this as inspiration to make a alcohol infused chili, incorporating whiskey, beer and wine. This is a fairly sweet chili, that starts off with a traditional beef stew base, but then throws in chili powder and cumin to bring that traditional chili flavour.

3 Swig Chili

1 kg Beef Brisket

BBQ Sauce:
1/2 Cup Whiskey
1/2 Cup Soy Sauce
1/2 Cup Ketchup
1 Cup Brown Sugar
1 Tsp Garlic Powder

Chili Base:
2 Tbsp Oil
2 Red Peppers, roasted and chopped*
2 medium onions, finely chopped**
1 Carrot, diced
1 2 stalks Celery, diced
1/2 head garlic, roasted
1 Can Chopped Tomatoes
1 Cup Red Wine
1 Cup Guiness Stout
1 Can mixed beans
2 Tbsp Chili Powder
1 Tsp Ground Cumin
1 Tsp Ground Coriander
1 Chili in Adobo Sauce, plus 1 Tbsp sauce
Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:
Combine all ingredients for bbq sauce in medium sauce pan and heat on medium for 10 minutes. Place brisket in casserole dish and pour bbq sauce over top. Refrigerate overnight.
Pre-heat oven to 325 degrees. Take meat out of fridge 1/2 hr before cooking, cover with tin foil. Place brisket in oven and cook for 3 hrs, flipping meat over once every hour.

In a large stockpot cook onions, carrots and celery in oil over medium heat for 5 minutes. Add red peppers, cook for 1 minute. Add spices and cook for 1 minute. Add red wine and allow to reduce by half. Add tomatoes, guiness, chili, adobo sauce, beans and garlic. Bring to a boil, then lower to a simmer for 1 hr uncovered. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Remove brisket from oven, drain and discard bbq sauce. Shred brisket with forks and add to chili base. Let sit overnight. Reheat and serve!

*To roast peppers, cut in half, deseed and lay cut side down on a baking sheet. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 15-20 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and remove skin.
**To roast garlic, cut top off head of garlic, place on a tin foil sheet add a drizzle of oil, wrap up foil and bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes. Allow to cool slightly and squeeze out garlic.

Moroccan Out

An email from the library inspired this past Sunday’s dinner of a Moroccan Beef Tagine, or basically a beef stew with a hard hit of eastern spices. This stew blends together spice and sweetness that when topped over the nutty flavour of couscous was all kinds of tasty. The recipe is from Jamie Oliver’s Food Escapes, a recent addition to the Jamie Oliver collection where he travelled to Morocco, Stockholm, Venice, France, Greece and Spain in search of inspiration. I would say overall I was not overwhelmed with a plethora of recipes I want to try from the book, but there were a few that caught my eye. I am glad it was free from the library though and a lot of the recipes can be found online at Jamie Oliver’s website.

Now for the alterations:

If there is one herb that is not welcomed into this household it has to be fresh coriander. The somewhat soapy taste of the herb can add a fresh vibrancy to a meal but does not please everyone’s pallet. All of that to say I left out the coriander in this recipe. Substituting some fresh flat leaf parsley may also add that nice fresh hit.

This recipe calls for prunes. We did not have prunes, and to be honest I am not sure what part of the store they are sold in. We do however have a boat load of raisins, not enough for big boat but enough to fill a dingy. So to replace the sweet flavour the prunes would be adding I threw in some raisins instead.

Lastly the recipe called for a table spoon of ras el hanout spice, which the cookbook describes as a mixture of anywhere from 10 to 100 spices ranging from tumeric to smoked paprika. The mix of spices, outside of this foreign mixture of unknown substances, was more than enough to coat the beef and had extra to dump into the stew once all the liquid was added.

Recipe: Jamie Oliver’s Beef Tagine

Slow Braise and Short Days

With the winter solstice just past the days will be getting longer and we can look forward to all the fresh fruit and vegetables that come with the spring and summer season. In the meantime we will have to make due with the wide array of root vegetables readily available this time of year. One of my favourite cook books I received last year was Michael Smith’s Chef atHome. His simple recipes are easy to follow and have a good base of knowledge that you can apply to other recipes. It was from this cookbook that I started checking on his website quite frequently and one of his recipes of the day last week was Beef Stew. This incited a craving for the slow braised beef and rich red wine and tomato sauce that accompany it. It also has a wide variety of vegetables, of which we have been lacking lately.

Recipe @ http://chefmichaelsmith.com/Recipe/beef-stew/

 I altered this recipe in a few a ways. First I removed all of the vegetables that Katie isn’t a fan of: Peas, Parsnip and pickled baby onions. Second, I found that the sauce did not thicken naturally over the cooking time, so at the end I mixed 2 tbsp corn starch with ¼ cup red wine and added this to the stew to have a thick gravy like sauce.