Liveblogging Mule Breath’s chili

August 18, 2010 by
Filed under: Food 

Via Ambulance Driver, I found a link to Mule Breath’s “Hell on the Bravo” chili recipe.

I am always up for a challenge, and I love good chili.  My usual chili fix is Alton Brown’s pressure cooker chili, which has the advantage of being quick, quick, quick.  Since NewbieMom started teaching today, leaving me home with NewbieDaughter, it seemed like a good time to give it a try.

ND loves cooking with me.  She is a beast in the kitchen.  She even can wield the chef’s knife, under supervision, of course.

So far, so good.  The meats are seared, and we are on dump one.  We had to make a few modifications:

1) No Texas 1015′s in North Carolina.  We substituted Vidalias.

2) Browning the meat was a bit of a challenge.  Normally I would brown in batches to prevent overloading the pan.  Beef gives up a lot of water when it cooks, and with all that water it is hard to get a good sear.  “Simmer” seemed to imply that that was the point.  So I compromised.  I simmered until the meat was browned all over, then poured off the excess and did a quick sear.  The browned beef went into the reserve bowl with its juice.

3) We went with a nice piece of chuck that I got at Costco.  We trimmed most of the fat.

My onions and garlic are simmering in the stock.  Sadly, an error in reading the recipe has left me with one flat beer, and four warm ones, a situation I am rectifying as quick as I can!

Update #1:

Dump 2.  Man, that’s a lot of cumin.  Normally I’m not a fan.  I hope you know what you are doing, Mule Breath!

Update #2:

Dump 3.  In go the chilis.  We went with dried Ancho.  The stock has reduced quite a lot.  I’m going to add a bit more (say 1/4 cup) and back off the heat a bit.  It smells amazing.

Update #3:

Dump 4.  Back in the pool, everyone!  It was a bit of a trick to get back to a simmer, but now things are bubbling nicely.  I was concerned about the liquid level, and added another splash of stock.  Mule Breath says water, but that doesn’t bring much flavor.

I decided to split the difference and go with 2 jalapenos and 2 Serranos.  If it was just me, it would be habaneras, but I have the kid to think about.

Smells wonderful.  I added some seasoning: sea salt, just a pinch, and some pepper.  I might add a splash of lime at the end, just to brighten the flavor a bit.

Update #4:

Things are progressing nicely.  I decided to lid up for this part of the simmer.  I want to make sure the meats connective tissue dissolves properly.

Update #5:

Lid is back off.  I’m going to let it reduce a bit more.

Update #6:

OK, we are off the heat.  I can’t wait for tomorrow!

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Comments

5 Comments on Liveblogging Mule Breath’s chili

  1. Dod on Wed, 18th Aug 2010 11:44 am

    2. Nothing says good morning like a little chili!

  2. Mule Breath on Mon, 23rd Aug 2010 3:10 pm

    3. Mule Breath comments…

    I use 1015′s out of Aggie pride. Vidalia’s are just as good, as are Noonday’s or even Maui’s if you can get them. Most of the country suffers from a dearth of good, sweet onion, but in chili the sweetness is less important than on a hamburger. You earn points for just understanding the terminology.

    Browning the meat can prove to be a challenge if you don’t have the right equipment. My real preference for this is cast-iron, and a #10 Griswold chicken fryer works fine. Sans that, I’ve resorted to batch frying.

    Oh, I hope my directions weren’t unclear and thereby caused the beer mishap. Perhaps I should be more pointed it that particular point.

    If you’re not a fan of cumin, the load I suggest might overwhelm… but I’m betting not.

    I use water, more beer or stock depending on what is on hand. The small amount of water necessary for maintaining consistency won’t affect the flavor at all, and stock could overdo the salt content.

    Your mix of chilies will be fine. It should produce a mild to medium spice.

    So far so good. I await your review with bated mule breath.

  3. Mule Breath on Thu, 26th Aug 2010 8:26 pm

    4. This is worrisome. A week later and no update. Did it kill you, NS?

  4. George on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 8:52 am

    5. Ugh…no, just slammed at work. Daughter started school, and wife started school twice: once as a teacher, and once as a grad student.

  5. Chili update : Newbie Shooter on Fri, 27th Aug 2010 9:02 am

    6. [...] Breath reminded me that I didn’t finish my [...]

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