It just dawned on me tonight with the weather cooling that I haven't had a good bowl of chili in about ten years. Are there any restaurants that come close? Seems like Bar-B-Q joints would be a natural.
Posts: 13775 | Location: Texas | Registered: 10 May 2002
Many BBQ and other places have chili here in the Mid-South. It's usually seasonal and varies a lot in how good. The best is OK, but most I don't care for compared to home made. Some you get in restaurants is watery or way over spicy or lacks meat in serious amounts. If you get lucky, it may be on a par with Hormel's (which is not bad).
But, the best bowl of red? It's what we had tonight that my young bride fixed.
Vension chili. From the whitetail I got in the last hour of the last day of last season. Pre-1964 M70 '06 flavored.
We did it up as follows: one whole pack of ground deer meat, cooked and broken apart, two yellow onions rough cut, one red bell pepper and one green bell pepper both rough cut, two large cloves of chopped garlic, and cook until tender. Then add two cans of kidney beans with juices, a half cup of Hunt's tomato ketchup, one small can of Hunt's tomato paste, two cups of back yard garden tomatoes, salt and pepper, half teaspoon of red pepper flakes, as much chili powder as you like, and bring to boil and reduce by cooking low and slow for an hour, not forgetting to stir now and then. After that add a cup of good wine (we used white Riesling, but red's more popular for chili) and next to last is a tablespoon of real butter. And then one last little tweak, a secret ingredient I came up with.
When served we add some chopped onions and grated cheese on top and several dashes of Crystal or Louisiana hot sauce. And about the only side is crackers with real butter on them (the crackers are just an excuse to eat butter) and a very cold Beck's German beer.
This does not leave you hungry. And we've been doing it for decades. It beats the Hell outa anything we find at any restaurant.
The chili that stands-out in my mind was served in the Men's Locker Room Lounge at Abilene (Texas) Country Club back in the early 70s. Once in a blue moon my boss would gather some of us up and take us there for a big bowl. I remember you had to add a dollop of tomato ketchup to make it perfect. I used to feel guilty because I would always get a second bowl, and eat a half a box of crackers. If he had invited me more often I wouldn't have had to make such a pig of myself.
Posts: 13775 | Location: Texas | Registered: 10 May 2002
Chili withOUT beans?!? Gasp!!! You've actually seen it!?
Oh, I'm bach'ing it tonight while the world's best cook is out with girlfriends. No more chili left, so it's off to the pool hall for one of their award winning burgers. And more German beer...
Beans is about the biggest debate with chili. We used to hold Chili Cook-offs in Venezuela. Some with beans, some without, and some with beans on the side, just in case. Personally, I would probably choose, without beans, but I'm not a chili snob. If it has beans in it, I'm not picking them out.
Just a side note, I had my normal Thursday lunch at Big Ray's Barbeque today, the special two-meat potato and drink for $7.99. It's like a meal and a half. The potato is the size of a football.
I took the opportunity to ask them about chili. They told me it wasn't cold enough yet, but they probably would have some next month. I'll keep looking around 'til then.
Posts: 13775 | Location: Texas | Registered: 10 May 2002
That's a big 10-4. BEANS!!!! GEEESH!!!! Pretty quick they'll be taking a bath more than once a month.
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Posts: 17099 | Location: Texas USA | Registered: 07 May 2001
Ketchup? That brings on my "secret ingredient". You know, those little packs all fast food joints have of the real tangy tasting ketchup. I collect them, bring them home and use them to season just about anything. Especially our ground venison dishes, chili, meatloaf and the specialty of the wife's kitchen, venison taco soup.
That soup I've never seen duplicated at any restaurant, but it's delicious. And of course calls for more cold beer.
And the vension spaghetti that comes out of the kitchen honestly beats any I've ever experienced in any restaurant in any city.
I'm agnostic on the bean question having grown up on truck stop chili. My brother's recipe of cubed round steak, (not ground!) peppers and onions is perfect with a drop of ketchup. Beans and diced jalopenos on the side. Vive le differance!
Posts: 3174 | Location: Warren, PA | Registered: 08 August 2002
Well several years ago you would have found the best venison chili right here at my table.When I was raising my sons their high school buddies would come over for supper (damned frequent)I did'nt mind.Easier to cook for a multitude.25+ years have past + when ever I run into the young men they ask when I'm going to do another batch. Memory Lane. In answer to your Question,if you're in Austin try the Texas Chili Parlor. It looks like a dive,it is. It also looks like it was a beer joint before,it was.The stories I could tell.Not tonight. Also for what it's worth,Guy Clark mentions it in one of his songs. If you're in Austin you should go if not just for the taste of chili but for the taste of history.
I haven't been able to sleep nights since Shack admitted that he "collects" ketchup packets from fast food restaurants to put in his chili. There is something sick about that.
The fact that I "collect" motel shampoo is perfectly normal, but ketchup packets??? That's just wrong, in so many ways. Seek help Shack. I'm praying for you.
Posts: 13775 | Location: Texas | Registered: 10 May 2002
Any time I see a recipe that adds sour cream, I know it's not the real thing. Sour cream doesn't belong in chili, or Tex-Mex food. It belongs in pseudo-yuppie-California chili and pseudo-yuppie-California Tex-Mex food, but not the real thing. Also, chili has nothing to do with stew unless you think dry cereal is a stew since it comes in a bowl also.
