Carnivorous Chili & Vegetarian Chili | Basics with Babish

Hello friends, today's episode is sponsored by Bounty Paper Towels who are here to remind me that it's okay to make a mess in the kitchen, which I'm definitely going to do because today's episode is all about Super Bowl

chili

,

chili

The world's meatiest and least meaty, so no matter who you're watching the game with, there's a chili recipe for you, it's twice as absorbent and picks up spills faster than the leading common brand, so you can clean up. quickly and cook again now. Let's get down to the

basics

, so the first thing we need to talk about when making chili is the chilies.

I am using whole dried chiles which will impart much more and a greater diversity of flavors. I have some pasilla chiles here. which are earthy and chocolatey, some arbol chiles which are practically spicy, some chipotle chiles which are just smoked jalapenos so they are spicy and have a nice smoky and earthy flavor, they also smell good so make sure you smell them okay and then I have some guajillo chiles, these are a medium spicy red chile, they are a little fruity and a little smoky, they will give some of the brighter flavors to our chili paste and then the all important ancho chile, which is just a dried chili. poblano chile, so it's full of smoky fruity raisin-like flavor.

You can mix and match as you see fit, but a good mix of spicy, fruity, and smoky flavor is ideal. Regardless of which chiles you use, we remove the stems, seeds and break them. Then, to enhance their flavor, we'll dry roast them in a pan, which basically means putting them in a large stainless steel skillet without oil and stirring them over medium-high heat for three to five minutes until they're fragrant but not smoking, then We will lower the heat and rehydrate the chiles by covering them with enough water to comfortably cover the chiles, which we will then bring to a simmer and cover, turning off the heat and letting it rest for 10 minutes, at which time we will pour in all the chiles and their liquid. soak in a high-powered blender where we'll blend them at high speed for about a minute until they're nice and smooth, rewarding us with a thick, tasty fragrance. chili paste that will simply make circles around any powder you may have scooped out of a bottle.

It's a great all-purpose chili paste that could be used in countless recipes, including the ones we're making today, the heartiest and least meaty chilis in the world Let's start with the meatiest chili cone meat a chili that calls for a little meat , ideally a whole roasted piece that we're going to shred, remove any silver skin or excess fat, and cut it into bite-sized pieces about half an inch cubes now we're going to brown some of these cubes for flavor, which means we're going to want them good and dry. Enter today's backer reward. First, paper towels, we will place the meat in a single layer and salt generously. sprinkle it with kosher salt, let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes, and then use paper towels to dry it as much as possible.

Too much moisture in the meat equals steam, no browning and no browning, it's the opposite of what we don't do. I don't want to, before it gets too confusing, let's go to the stove where we heat up some vegetable oil over medium-high heat until it starts to give off wisps of smoke and then we'll brown about half of our meat on each. On the other hand, we don't need to brown all the meat, I repeat, we don't need to brown all the meat, just browning half of it will introduce a lot of flavor into our chili, mostly in the form of honey, you know, all that beautiful brown stuff on the bottom.

Pot back on the counter, we're sanitizing everything with undiluted white vinegar followed by hydrogen peroxide, which should keep a wooden cutting board nice and clean for the incoming onions that we're just going to roughly chop before introducing all that fondant flavor and fat in the bottom of the pot, sweating them over medium heat until they're soft and golden and then we're going to crush a bunch of garlic, about six cloves, which we're going to sauté with the onions until they're fragrant. a minute and then it's time to deglaze, in this case with chicken broth, preferably homemade chicken broth, but sometimes you don't have anything on hand and the box works just fine.

Four cups worth, make sure to scrape all the good stuff off the bottom. the pot and then it's time to add our seared and unseared meat alike, last but not least our lovely chili paste, add about a cup and a half. It will depend entirely on how many chiles and what types of chiles you use in your pasta. We put this type on low heat and then it's time to add some spices a good shake of cinnamon a shake of allspice a shake of ground coriander seeds a generous shake of oregano a very generous shake and two or three tablespoons of pasta tomato totally optional so I just have to partially cover and let the type simmer until the meat is tender and the stew has thickened between an hour and a half to three.

Now you may notice that as far as recipes go, this one is pretty lax and that's because I think the secret recipe. To get the best chili there is no recipe, just keep tasting and tweaking and seeing how the flavors change over time, feel the chili, let the chili flow through you and not that way, once the meat is tender, in the case of chili cone carne, that's how it is. It's time to thicken, for this task we use two or three tablespoons of masa flour and for a little acidity to cut all the richness, the juice of two limes, stir, let it cook for five more minutes to finish the thickening process and that's it.

Texas style chili cone meat, the meatiest chili in the world. Now I know I said not to follow a recipe and just look at it, but I will post a recipe for the

basics

on the Babish website with more precise measurements. I just hope this is something you experience. with and try to make it your own as you modify it and see what differences your adjustments make in the final product and look at this I'm just making a mess oh no what to do I just leave the counter like that lazy no I call it my best Dude, perfect paper towels for wiping up spills and the edges of bowls for a little better presentation.

Also enhancing that presentation is some freshly grated pepper jack cheese and a few slices of lime, but all the usual chili suspects. They're easy pickings cornbread sour cream tortilla chips avocado I've even heard of people putting olives in chili, and as crazy as it sounds, that's the great thing about chili: it doesn't belong to any one person or region and doesn't need to conform to any one person or region. none a given recipe or technique, I mean, now it's time to head to the opposite end of the chili spectrum, the world's least meaty chili,

vegetarian

chili, but this is not a tofu crumble knockoff, no, this is a Chile that speaks loudly and proudly.

With vegetables as such we want to cover them with many different vegetable flavors, starting first with a vegetable broth, so we are going to borrow a technique from the people at Chef Steps and finally shave all of our vegetables using a mandoline. Here we have onions, celery, fresh fennel, parsnips, carrots, leeks, cauliflower and even some beets which should add a nice color and earthy flavour. All of this is shaved thinly on the mandoline and then placed in a large bowl where we can toss them with a little vegetable oil, make sure each piece is evenly coated to preheat the oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit, spread them evenly into a couple of large rimmed baking sheets and roast for 30 minutes to about an hour, depending on how deep and dark it is.

If you want your vegetable broth to be just be sure to take them out and stir them a little every 15 minutes or so to make sure no one burns. Try not to let them overlap too much and take them out once they are nicely browned. caramelized and they smell like everything that makes vegetables great and now, for the relatively simple task of making broth with them, since they are sliced ​​so thin, we are not going to have to do it for long, about 45 minutes of cooking over low heat, we are also I'm going to add a few sprigs of fresh thyme, a small head of garlic cut in half, some freshly rinsed parsley, a couple of dried bay leaves and a couple of whole black peppercorns.

Cover your tasty mixture with cold water and bring to a simmer. I'm also going to add the first of several umami enhancers, a handful of dried porcini mushrooms and a couple of kombu leaves, both excellent and natural sources of glutamates that will give a tasty touch to our vegetable broth that we will let simmer over low heat. slow for 45 minutes. at an hour that should be enough time to extract all the flavor that those thin little vegetables have to give, go ahead and strain that because now it's time to compete with some fresh chiles, in this case three poblano chiles and three nice jalapenos to the ancient.

Jalapenos are pretty much just for heating, but poblanos are full of flavor, especially if we roast them, which is exactly what we're going to do over a blazing stove, make sure you have the top vent on maximum and your windows open while you place the poblano chiles directly over the flame. Our goal here is to completely char the skin of these peppers, so let them sit for as long as you can and then, using oops, with metal tongs, turn them over and make sure every inch of the outside is covered in char, once they're blackened enough, it's time to remove them from the heat and wrap them in aluminum foil, you will let the peppers cook a little so that their flesh softens and their skin loosens, that sounds strange. go ahead and wrap it up really well and then set it aside for at least 10 minutes or until the peppers are nice and soft, that reminds me go ahead and put on some gloves because it's time to cut some jalapenos in half, scrape out the seeds. and the ribs and chop them finely go ahead and set them aside because our poblanos are steamed and it's time to peel them and what's the best way to do that.

So with paper towels, of course, they help you get a little bit more traction on the pepper. You can remove the skin in one go once you've gotten rid of most of the burnt stuff. I like to leave a little bit there. I know it's not very good for you, but what can I say? I love the char, just cut it into a bite. size chunks and then it's time to start assembling our chili starting first with the usual procedure of sweating two large chopped onions and a little olive oil in a large pot over medium-high heat until soft and translucent and then we're crushing in garlic needed, six or seven cloves worth making a mess that we'll have to clean up later using paper towels and sautéing for about a minute or until fragrant and then it's time to start adding all the other stuff first , even our two chopped peppers. or three tablespoons of tomato paste, letting those flavors know briefly and then adding some spices, meaning a few big pinches, about two or three teaspoons of freshly ground roasted cumin, which has a really nice florality to it that the packaged stuff just No.

If not, we'll also add some ground coriander seed and a few big shakes of dried oregano and now it's time to add the most controversial ingredient: beans, most people say beans don't have a place in Chile, but especially in

vegetarian

chili, I say the opposite, oh, cheese and crackers, I forgot to leave the stupid bowl, thank God for the generosity and its double absorbency, and I selected a size technology that makes this stupid mess be very easy to clean for anyone who goes ahead and drains three cans. of beans, I'm going to use kidney cannellini and pinto for a wide variety of beans.

I'm also going to add a 14 ounce can of crushed tomatoes and crushed fire roasted tomatoes for a little more smoky flavor along with about three cups of our greens. broth or enough to make the chili a little more watery than you'd like, which of course will take care of itself during the next simmer. Last but not least, we're adding our chili paste, which I've also mixed in a couple of those dry ones. porcini mushrooms now it's time to let this guy simmer for 45 minutes to an hour, just long enough for everyone to get to know each other without overcooking the beans and then just before serving it's time to add a couple of secret ingredients, first some liquid amino acids for another. umami boost and several tablespoons of nutritional yeast flakes which will give you a delicious Parmesan cheese-like bite and with that it's time to serve up to this point this chili has been made completely vegan so if you want to stay vegan stop here .

I'm not vegan, so I'm going to go ahead and add a little sour cream here and maybe some additional sliced ​​jalapenos for a little color and flair, and there you have it, avegetarian chilli to end all vegetarian chillies, a strong standalone chilli. that doesn't need meat arachnid spicy hearty healthy rich tasty satisfying not trying to clumsily fill some meat-shaped hole in your heart but forging a new one in the shape of a chili and with that I want to thank bouncy again for sponsoring this episode and helping me quickly clean up my Cook while I'm filming, head to the link in the video description for more information on Bounty, and stay tuned during Super Bowl 4 to see which of these chili recipes are special. appearance