Respect The Chili

Like Jerry Maguire's "You had me at hello," Sean had my heart with his haiku-ending line, "Respect the chili."  I wanted to do a post that included a recipe that I had covered, but hey, it was a lazy Sunday.  Instead, I will keep this short and sweet, and simply end with Sean's winning comment.  Let me know what you bought!

Beans are vegans' meat.
Chili needs to have real meat.
Respect the chili.

Contest Update and Sirloin

Hey!  Weber got me third place!

Speaking thereof, a winner for the giveaway will be announced late this weekend.  So far there are already 3 comments, so if you are interested in winning a $35 shopping spree, you better get on it!  Comment on this post to enter.

In other news, I took advantage of the fact that tonight looks like the only night in the next few days that will have clear skies.  So I took advantage of this by grilling up the Molto Bene Sirloin Steak on page 112, and had the Eggplant Roll-Ups on page 82. 

 I had stopped by Findlay Market on the way home from school, and asked for a 1.5 inch thick top sirloin steak.  The butcher followed through.

I made the decision to cut this bad boy in half, so that it would cook more evenly, especially in the middle.

I pulled together the marinade and set it and the steak in a Ziploc bag.  Meanwhile, I got together what I needed for the Eggplant Roll-Ups.

The first step is the cut the eggplant into quarter-inch planks.  The mandolin is perfect for this.

It was time to try a new olive oil that a friend gave me.  He explained to me that this is really premier stuff, and the olives are pressed within 90 minutes of being harvested.  The Bride and I tried some right out of the bottle. 

WOW!  This stuff is HUGE!  In fact, it's HOT, as in spicy.  It has a gentle burn, but in such a good way.  This olive oil should not be used for cooking, instead being reserved for final drizzling and dressings.  It WILL be noticed.  Glorious stuff!  I used a lesser olive oil, along with salt and pepper, to season the planks.

 

A word on tomatoes.  In Cincinnati, in the bitter month of February, you cannot buy ripe tomatoes.  The stuff in the grocery store is picked when green and then gassed so that they turn pinkish.  I learned a long time ago that it's just better to buy canned tomatoes.  They are picked at their height of ripeness before canning, and I have seen multiple blind test tastes where participants try the same recipe - one made with "fresh" tomatoes and the other made with canned tomatoes - and invariably the canned tomato recipe wins.  So until summer, it's canned tomatoes for me!

I set them to drain for several minutes.

I chopped up the parsley and mixed it in with the goat cheese.

I also got to try out a new toy.  I recently acquired a citrus juicer.  It is a little menacing to look at, but it works great!

First, use the palm of your hand to roll the lemon on the counter to break up the juice chambers inside the lemon.

Insert the juicer and squeeze away.  Here is what it looks like when you are done!

I was able to get 12 - yes, count them, 12 - teaspoons of juice from one regular-sized lemon.  This thing worked amazingly well.  The juice went into the dressing for the Roll-Ups.

The steaks came off the grill, looking perfect.

While the steaks were resting, I quickly grilled the eggplant planks.

 The goat cheese mixture started to tear the delicate planks apart, but after 20 seconds in the microwave it behaved much better.

Then I rolled them up, putting the more narrow side in the middle so that it remained hidden.

After that, it was just a matter of plating and dressing.

The steak was, again, perfect.  It was cooked to the perfect temperature, and I'm glad I had cut that monster steak in half.  I would have liked to have marinated it longer, but such is life.  I didn't want to start cooking after 10:00 p.m.  The Eggplant Roll-Ups were also pleasant.  The heat from the olive oil really played off goat cheese and tomatoes well, giving a nice contrast of textures and flavors.  It was even fun to rub a little of the steak in the dressing for extra flavor.  I'd like to try this again, only with a longer marinade time.

A Contest For A Contest

One of my favorite times of the school year is here, The Annual Chili Cookoff!  Eleven years ago I won, but have only placed as high as second or third since.  When I noticed that Weber had a couple of chili recipes, I decided to reserve them for this occassion.  This year, my entry will be the Chili On The Grill on page 120.

In honor of this contest, I am proud to announce another giveaway contest!  The details will be provided below!

First up was to roast the tomatoes for the sauce.  I did see at the store the other day that you can now buy "fire-roasted" tomatoes in a can, but that rather takes the sport out of it.

The skins came off, leaving the roasted goodness to be placed in the blender.  It only took a couple of seconds on a really low speed to get them to where I wanted them.  I learned the other day that you shouldn't over-blend tomatoes, as they become mealy if you do. 

While this was coming to a simmer, I started grilling the aromatics.

From here I had to put together a simple rub of chile powder (my homemade stuff), salt, and pepper. 

I found it interesting that the recipe called for both pork and beef.  I've done this in the past, but only with beef and a ready-made pork sausage.  This was using two rather lean cuts of meat, so I was a little apprehensive.  Regardless, I seasoned the meats to get them ready for The Forge.

 After only eight minutes they were ready, and had to be cut up and added to the sauce.

The second round of seasoning was pulled together and added to the sauce mixture.

Then the last step was to add the beer and broth. 

After a bit of simmering, we have a chili!

But wait! 

That's right...Weber and I have a major point of contention.  I was born and raised with the notion that beans have absolutely no part of any chili.  I cannot comprehend why you would ruin a perfectly good chili with legumes.  However, the point of this exercise is to let Weber teach me a thing or two, an exercise that has been quite fruitful for the last year.  Thus, I forged ahead and did the dirty deed.

Other than a minor salt addition, this tastes like a well-balanced chili.  It's got a decent amount of heat, good texture, and a nice ratio of solids to sauce.  It's not much like a chili I would normally make, but again, the point of this blog is for me to step outside my box.  I can't say that this chili has a smokey flavor, but it definitely has that grilled flavor that permeates throughout the flavor profile.

So, on to the contest! 

This is the same company that gave away a $35 gift card to multiple online stores that they operate back in October.  They want to give away another $35 gift card, and you have plenty of options!  The winner from last time picked out an awesome gift for her kid that she was even able to personalize through the website!

Because they run so many sites, and a wide variety of products, you can get anything from baby stuff (like Bru did), to cookware, to an awesome Eames lounge chair!  Again, I personally like the cookware stuff, but start browsing their sites and see what you may like!  Click on the link above, and then near the top-left of the screen you can click where it says you can shop all 200+ of their stores.  As for some minor details, this is for U.S. and Canadian readers only (let me know if you are reading this from another country, as I'm really curious), and there may be some International Shipping charges for Canadian addresses that the gift card cannot cover.

Personally, I'd use the gift card towards one of these.

So how do you enter?  Well, of course I'm going to make it interesting.  I would like to further delve into the beans/no beans debate for chili.  Leave a comment on this blog (not Facebook), explaining your stance on whether beans have a place in chili or not.  Although it is not necessary, extra consideration will be given to those who can phrase their opinion in the form of a haiku.  A winner will be announced in about a week!  Don't forget to leave your name (and email if I don't know you that well) in the comment so that I know to whom I can award the prize!

102 Days Later

So it's been 51 days since my last entry, and 102 days since I last cooked for this blog.  Shame on me.  Then again, the Midwest has been above freezing only a handful of those days, and with several inches of snow and ice to boot.  This week the weather finally began to break, so I took advantage of it.  I was also motivated by the fact that I was contacted again to run another giveaway contest!  More on that later....

I started this year with the goal of covering at least 100 recipes this year.  To begin, I ran down to Findlay Market to pick up what I needed for Greek Hoagies With Creamy Feta Dressing on page 202.

The first step was to begin roasting the red bell pepper, as this would take the longest to accomplish.  I've roasted many a pepper in the last couple of years, and I followed the same basic procedure.  After grilling for a few minutes on each side, I placed the pepper with its now-charred skin in a bowl.

To help alleviate the pepper of its skin (which can be tough, chewy, and stringy if not removed), I covered the bowl with plastic wrap.  As the pepper releases steam, the plastic wrap will trap the steam and help separate the flesh and skin.

From there I began making the dressing.  Remembering to double the ingredients, I readied them for the immersion blender.

After a brief whir, I was concerned that this was less of a dressing, and more of a paste. 

 This was nothing that a little olive oil couldn't fix.  Finally, the dressing began to loosen up and resemble something more like what I had in mind.

With the dressing in place and the bell pepper doing its thing, it was time to bring the rest of the ingredients to the grill.

While these were on the grill, I cut my bread in half and dug out a "canoe" for later.

 Finally, it was time to finish prepping the pepper.  Notice the condensation on the plastic wrap from the steam?  This was a good sign.

The skin came off quite easily, and from there I cut it into little strips.

These strips were put into a bowl with the dressing.

The onions, eggplant, and lamb looked lovely.

The vegetables were sliced up and put in the mixing bowl with the bell pepper.  I then sliced up the lamb and added that in as well.

With a little gentle tossing, everything came together.  The residual heat from the grilled items loosed up the dressing further so that it easily coated all of the hoagy ingredients.  I also quickly toasted the bread for further texture contrast.

Okay, so it looks a little funky (meat covered in green dressing), but I swear it's good.

This was delightful.  To be honest, this made me think of sitting in an outdoor European cafe on a mild summer day, and not so much of an overcast chilly afternoon in Cincinnati.  I would have enjoyed it more as a lunch than a dinner, but it was still quite nice.  The best adjective I could come up with to describe this hoagy is refreshing.  The mint and dill with the lamb is a classic combination, and the feta's creaminess added a nice layer of flavor.  This recipe will be reserved for late springtime weekend lunch.

Back to the contest!  The marketing team that sponsored the last giveaway I ran was pleased with the turnout I received, and offered me another opportunity.  I talked with the last giveaway's winner, and she stated that she was very happy with her purchase.  I know that this is short notice, but tomorrow I will be cooking Weber's chili recipe for my school's Annual Chili Contest.  I figure that it would be interesting to have a contest for a contest.  Look for details tomorrow!