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January 29th, 2006
10:04 pm - Breaking the silence
I don't want to make any promises or anything, but I really must start writing. Therefore, take two at food journal ...
Today we made Chiarello Chocolate Chili con Carne from Easy Entertaining with Michael Chiarello on Food Network. Often when we make recipes we make quite a few changes to the original to meet our various dietary restrictions. You see, A is on a low-salt diet and allergic to shellfish, and I am allergic to carrots. To deal with the salt issue, I tend to go heavy-handed with the spices and often add some low-sodium chicken or beef boullion to liven up favors. For the carrot issue, I usually replace carrots with celery. So instead of a mirepoix, I just have celery and onions.
In the case of this chili, I didn't really need to change much other than to not add salt, and just add a bit more of each of the spices. I also couldn't find masa harina at our local grocery store, which I found bizarre. This is Northern California, and I know that I used to be able to find it at my local grocery store in Chicago. I used cornstarch instead.
When the initial preparation was done and it was time for the hour and a half of simmering time, I'll admit I was a bit skeptical. I had to keep in mind, though, that I had just poured the beer in, so it was kind of overpowering at that point. Also, beans and chocolate were to be added at the end.
In the end, the whole thing came together quite nicely. The chocolate and the cumin were quite nice together, I thought. The beer had completely mellowed, and the beef was nice and tender. The chili went very well with a cabernet, probably because of the chocolate. A noted that this recipe tasted very similar to a Michael Chiarello recipe he made last year, which was a pork loin with a chocolate spice rub. We liked that a lot too, so it was no surprise that this chili met with our approval.
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