Dragoon’s Beef Chili with Beans

Dragoon’s Beef Chili with Beans

1 can (28 oz) tomatoes, diced
1 lb thin sliced beef (stir-fry beef works great)
2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cans (15 oz) pinto beans
1 each onion (diced)
1 each red bell pepper cut into ¼-inch cubes
1 bottle beer (I used coors)
4 cloves garlic (chopped)
2 tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp Ancho chile powder
1 Teaspoon chipotle chile pepper
½ tbsp cumin seed, ground
½ tbsp oregano
⅛ tsp cayenne pepper
⅛ bunch cilantro (chopped)

• Diced onion and red bell pepper and chop the garlic.
• Heat oil in a large pot and add onion and red bell pepper. Sauté until onion starts to get soft.
• Add garlic and all of the spices and tomato paste to the onion mixture and stir to combine and coat the vegetables. Cook until the spices have bloomed and it smells wonderful.
• Add the meat into the mixture, stirring occasionally until the meat is browned on all sides.
• Add the beer, the tomatoes and beans and stir it all together. Bring to a brisk boil and turn down to medium low and simmer until the beer has cooked out, 30-45 minutes, depending on how strong the beer is.
• If you like it soupier add beef or chicken stock or even another beer, but I like it thick.
• Add the cilantro.
• Check flavor and add salt and pepper. I needed about 1 tablespoon of kosher salt and a teaspoon of ground black pepper to bring the flavors out.
• Garnish with sour cream, cheese and/or jalapeno peppers, but I needed no additions.

Recipes Lie

Recipes

Now, I love reading recipes. I collect recipes. I have two entire three ring binders of recipes in document protectors. Someday I will get around to organizing the things in a meaningful way but I am not retired yet. That said, as Anthony Bourdain said, “Recipes lie.” They lie in many ways.

First, is the number of servings you get out of the recipe. If you are serving children then maybe you can feed eight with a chicken, but more like four to be safe and even that may not be OK if one of those persons is me. I love chicken, especially a brined, well baked whole chicken.

Second, you cannot “caramelize onions” in under 45 minutes, and I like an hour. OK? So forget about that right now. You can get them a softened up and limp in about 10-15 minutes, but they will be pale and lack the flavor of truly caramelized onions until they are mahogany in color and have no crunch left. Got that? This is an article about the various levels of caramelization.

Not only do they lie about how long it takes to do many things, they may use ingredients like “Reduced sodium chicken stock” and (horrors) low fat butter substitutes. Just ignore that. Use unsalted butter, full fat chicken stock and full fat milk and cream (half and half works well for this as well). These have more flavor and are more healthy for you.

Everything in moderation. We all love sweets and many people love alcohol. You can’t eat sweets or drink if you are healthy, right? Wrong. A piece of pie or other dessert when you are out for your birthday or anniversary are fine. A large bowl of ice cream every night is not. Yes, that is a sacrifice, but there you have it. Enough of this preaching.

Do I follow recipes? Yes, no and maybe. If I am baking, then I follow the recipe to the ounce, gram or teaspoon. Baking is that way for me. If I am cooking most recipes are inspiration for me, not the gospel. A great example is the Pizza Sauce you will find in this book. Wine and red pepper flakes were not in the recipe. It used only chicken stock for deglazing the pan. Italian type food without some wine in the red sauce is just wrong as well as the pepper flakes. I did not think twice about using them, but in moderation. The sauce is awesome. It probably would have been fine without my additions, but I know it was better with them, and yours will be too.

There are some authors who simply really write good recipes. Bobby Flay, Ree Drummond and Jamie Oliver are some. Fuchsia Dunlop for Chinese food. There are others, many, but there are also a lot of hacks. Anyone can write a recipe, but it takes practice, testing and tasting to make really good, replicable recipes. The first web site I ever used for food was allrecipes.com. Chef John (not sure of his full name) is a great guy for home cooking recipes. Nothing I have made from his recipes has failed to impress me. The chili in this book is a riff on his Spicy Turkey Chili, but with beef and other stuff, but I learned to mix chili powder and other spices from this recipe, as well as they way to put the chili together in a way that tastes great.

You probably have recipes, cookbooks or memories from grandparents, parents or friends that are your favorites (as you see in this book) and that is great and I encourage it. These all invoke memories and connect us to our heritage. Keep them and used them, making them your own by making small changes or simply mastering them completely. It is really fun.

It has been nearly 10 years since I blogged here about food. Hahahaha.. I thought I knew food then. I didn't. Since then I have fucked my life up and recovered. I have a degree in culinary arts now, but that was just the beginning of my rediscovering and maturing as a cook. Also, I found some old recipes I had forgotten about, which is cool, especially the Chicken Adobo. I need to review the rest of the posts and work on this blog.

Let's talk food for a moment. When I was writing this I was willing to buy frozen food in the supermarket and heat it up for dinner. I literally do not by anything frozen except fo vegetables or fruit now and then they have to be just that, no additives. All my food is made from scratch and I eat at most one fast food meal a week, and then from a known, trusted source. I am leaned to cook using very few recipes and rarely look at a cookbook any longer and if I do they are for inspiration.

Here is an example: Meatloaf

One to 2 pounds ground beef
2 TBSP oil
One medium to small onion (minced)
3-4 gloves garlic (minced)
2 TBSP worcestershire sauce
1/4 cup ketchup divided
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
1/2 cup panko or bread crumbs
1/2 or so cup milk

Preheat the oven to 350 F.

7Mince the onion and garlic (a small food processor is great for this) and heat the oil in a frying pan. Saute the onions and garlic until they are soft and fragrant. While this is going on mix the panko and milk in a small bowl and let it soak. Mix everything together in a bowl (reserving half the ketchup). Grease a medium loaf pan and slide the mixture into it. Smooth out and slather the rest of the ketchup on top. Put into the oven and cook for 45-50 minutes or until the center is about 155 degrees or more. Take out and let sit for about 15 minutes before slicing.

Serve with boiled yellow potatoes and more ketchup and some roasted green beans.

Roasted green beans? Trim a pound of green beans. Toss with oil, salt and pepper and spread on a sheet pan. Put in the oven when the meatloaf is done and roast, stirring after 10 minutes, then taking out when they begin to caramelize (show brown spots). Delicious.