Carnivorous Chili & Vegetarian Chili | Basics with Babish

Carnivorous Chili & Vegetarian Chili | Basics with Babish

Hey, folks, today's episode is sponsored by Bounty Paper Towels, who are here to remind me that it's OK to make a mess in the kitchen, which I'm most certainly about to do because today's episode is about Super Bowl chili. The media's chili in the world and the least meaty. So no matter who you watch in the game with, there's a chili recipe for you. Bounty is two times more absorbent and picks up spills quicker than that leading ordinary brand so you can clean up fast and get right back to cooking. Now let's get down to basics.

So of the first things, we have to talk about when making chili are chilies. I'm using whole dried chilies which are going to impart a whole lot more and a wider diversity of flavors. Here I've got some perceived chilies which are earthy and chocolaty, some Arbel chilies, which are pretty much just hot. Some Chipotle chilies which are just smoked Holle opinions. So they're hot and they have the nice, smoky, earthy flavor. They smell good, too. So make sure you give them a nice sniff. Then I've got some Gallahue low chilies. These are medium heat, red chili. They're a little fruity, a little smoky. They're going to bring some of the brighter flavors to our chili paste. And then the all-important ancho chili, which is just a dried poblano chili. So it is positively packed with a smoky, fruity raisin-like flavor. You can mix and match as you see fit, but ideally, you want a good mixture of heat, flavor, fruitiness, and smokiness. Whatever chilies you use, we are moving their stems, seeds and tearing them into small pieces. Then to amp up their flavor, we're going to dry roast them in a pan, which basically just means put them in a large stainless steel skillet, no oil and toss them around over medium-high heat for three to five minutes until they're fragrant but not smoking. They were to lower the heat and rehydrate the chilies by covering them with water just enough to comfortably cover the chilies which were then going to bring to a simmer and cover, killing the heat and letting steep for 10 minutes, at which point we're going to dump everything chilies and they're soaking liquid into a high powered blender where we're gonna blend them on high speed for about a minute until they're nice and smooth.

Rewarding us with a thick, flavorful, fragrant chili paste, which is just gonna run circles around any powders you could have gotten out of a bottle. It's a great all-purpose chili paste that could be used in myriad recipes, including both of the ones that we're making today, the meatiest and the least meaty chilies in the world. Let's start with the Mediaset chili cone. Karney A chili that requires some karney ideally a whole chuck roast that we're gonna break down traum of any silver skin or excess fat and cut into about half-inch bite-sized cubes. Now we're gonna be searing some of these cubes for flavor, which means that we're gonna want them nice and dry. Enter today's sponsor bounty paper towels. First, we're to lay the meat out on a single layer and generously salted with kosher salt. Let it sit at room temperature for about 10 minutes and then use paper towels to block them as dry as you can. Too much moisture on the meat equals steam equals not Browning. And not Browning is the opposite of what we don't want. So before it gets too confusing, let's head over to the stovetop where we are heating some vegetable oil over medium-high heat until it's just starting to give off wisps of smoke.

 

And then we're browning about half of our meat on each side. We do not need to brown all the meat. I repeat we do not need to brown all the meat. Only browning half is going to introduce plenty of flavor into our chili, primarily in the form of fond, you know, all that beautiful brown stuff on the bottom of the pot. Back over on the workshop, we are sanitizing everything with undiluted white vinegar, followed by hydrogen peroxide, which should keep a wooden cutting board nice and clean for incoming onions, which we're just going to roughly chop before introducing to all that fondant flavor and fat in the bottom of the pot. Sweating those out over medium heat until they're soft and golden. And then we're gonna crush in a whole lot of garlic. Talking like six cloves that we're going to say, let's say with the onions until fragrant about one minute and then comes the time to deglaze. In this case with chicken stock, preferably homemade chicken stock. But sometimes you don't have any handy and the buck stuff works fine for four worth. Make sure these scrape up all the good stuff on the bottom of the pot and then it's time to add our meat Sered and Unser to like.

Last but not least, our precious chili paste at about a cup and a half's worth. It's going to depend entirely on how many chilies and what kinds of chilies you use in your paste. Bring this guy up to a simmer and then it's time to add some spices. A nice shake of cinnamon to shake off allspice, a shake of ground, coriander seed, a generous shake of oregano, a very generous shake, and two to three tablespoons tomato paste, totally optional. Then we're just going to partially cover and let this guy simmer until the beef is tender and the stew has thickened anywhere from one and a half to three hours. Now, you might notice that as far as recipes go, this one is rather lax. And that's because I think the secret recipe for the best chili is no recipe at all. Just keep tasting and tweaking and seeing how the flavors change over time. Feel the chili. Let the chili flow through you and not in that way. Once the beef is tender, in the case of Chili Con Khani, it is time to thicken for this task. We use two to three tablespoons of Mazzarino, and for a little acidity to cut through all the richness, the juice of two limes, stir it, let it cook for five more minutes to finish the thickening process. And that's a Texas-style chili con. CARNEY The meatiest chili in the world.

No, no, I said to not follow a recipe and just eyeball it by. I will post a recipe on the basics with the Babish website with more precise measurements. I just hope this is something you experiment with and try to make it your own as you tweak it and see what differences your tweaks make in the final product. And look at this. I am just making a mess. Oh no. What to do? Do I just leave the counter like this like a slob? No. I call on my best friend bounty paper towels. Perfect for cleaning up spills and the rims of bowls for a little bit nicer presentation. Also improving that presentation is a little bit of freshly grated pepper, jack cheese, and a few lime wedges. But all the usual chili suspects are fair game. Cornbread, sour cream, tortilla chips, avocado. I've even heard of people putting olives on their chili. And as crazy as that sounds, that's the great thing about chili. It doesn't belong to any one person or region or needs to conform to anyone. Given recipe or technique to which it is now time to head to the opposite end of the chili spectrum, the least meaty chili in the world, vegetarian chili. But this is no tofu crumble knockoff. No, no. This is a chili that is loudly and proudly all about the vegetables. As such, we want to layer it with lots and lots of different vegetable flavors.

 

Starting first with vegetable stock. So we're gonna borrow a technique from the folks over at chef's steps and finally shave all of our vegetables using a mandolin. I have your onions, celery, fresh fennel, parsnip, carrots, leek, cauliflower, and even a few beets. We should add some nice color and earthy flavor. These are all getting shaved nice and thinly on the mandolin and then getting placed in a large bowl where we can toss them with a little bit of vegetable oil. Make sure that every piece is evenly coated to get your oven preheated. Three hundred seventy-five degrees Fahrenheit. Spread them out evenly on a couple of large rimmed baking sheets and roast anywhere from 30 minutes to about an hour, depending on how deep and dark you want your vegetable stock to be. Just make sure to take him out and give him a little toss every 15 minutes or so to make sure that nobody burns. Try not to let them overlap too much and take them out once they're nice and brown and caramelized and smell like everything that makes vegetables great. And now for the relatively simple task of making stock out of them, since they are so thinly sliced, we're not going to have to do it for very long. About 45 minutes of simmering. We're also going to add a few springs of fresh time. A small head of garlic sliced in half. Some fresh parsley, freshly rinsed.

A couple of dry bay leaves in a couple of whole black peppercorns. Cover your flavorful Malone's with cold water and bring to a simmer. Also, I'm going to add the first of several Amami boosters, a handful of dried pork, sini mushrooms and a couple sheets of combo both excellent and natural sources of glutamates that are going to pack a savory wallop in our vegetable broth, which we're going to let simmer for 45 minutes to 1 hour, which should be enough time to extract all the flavor that those thin little vegetables have to yield good and strain that because now it's time to contend with some fresh chilies. In this case, three poblano peppers and three good old fashioned Holle opinion is developing is a pretty much just reheat with the poblano as are packed full of flavor, especially if we fire roast them, which is exactly what we're going to do over a raging, fiery stovetop. Make sure you've got the overhead bins set to maximum and your windows open as you place the put blotto peppers directly over the flame. Our goal here is to completely char the skin of these peppers to just let him sit for as long as you can and then using metal tongs, flip them over and make sure that every inch of the exterior is coated in char. Once they are sufficiently blackened, it's time to remove them from the heat and wrap them up in aluminum foil.

It's gonna let the pepper steam a little bit so their flesh softens and their skin loosens. That sounds weird. Gordon, wrap that up real tight and then set it aside for at least 10 minutes or until the peppers are nice and soft out. That reminds me. Go ahead and throw some gloves on because it's time to cut some Pollyannas and half scrape out the seeds and ribs and finally chop it and set those aside because our poblano is they're steamed and it's time to skin them. And what's the best way to do that? Why? With paper towels, of course, they'll get a little bit more traction on the pepper so you can remove the skin in one fell swoop. Once you've gotten rid of most of the burnt stuff, I like to leave a little bit on there. I know it's not very good for you, but what can I say? I love carbon isation simply chop into bite-sized pieces and then it's time to start assembling our chili. Starting first with the usual procedure of sweating too large chopped onions and a little bit of olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium ie heat until soft and translucent. And then we're crushing in the requisite garlic six or seven cloves worth making a mess that we're gonna have to clean up later using paper towels. So let's aim for about one minute until fragrant and then it's time to start adding all the other stuff.

First up, our chopped peppers 2 3 tablespoons worth of tomato paste, letting those flavors get to know each other briefly and then adding a few spices, namely a few big pinches, about two or three teaspoons worth of toasted, freshly ground human, which has a nice plurality that the jarred stuff just doesn't have them. We're also going to add a little shake of ground, coriander seed and a few big shakes of dried oregano. And now it's time to add the most controversial ingredient. That's right, beans. Most people say beans do not have a place in chili, but especially in vegetarian chili. I say otherwise. Ow! Ow! Ow! Ow! Cheese and crackers. I forgot to put the stupid bowl down. Thank goodness for bounty. And it's double absorbency and select sized technology that makes this stupidness a breeze to clean up. Anyhoo, go ahead and drain three cans of beans. I'm going with Kidney Castellini and Pento for a wide being variety. I'm also going to add one 14 ounce can each of crushed tomatoes and crushed by roasted tomatoes for a little extra smoky flavor along with about 3 cups of our vegetable stock or enough to make the chili a little bit water here than you'd like it to be, which will, of course, be remedied during the ensuing summer. Last but not least, we are adding our chili paste, which I've also blended a couple of those dried pork Cheaney mushrooms in two.

 

Now it's time to let this guy simmer for 45 minutes to an hour. Just enough time to let everybody get to know each other without overcooking the beans. Then just before serving, it's time for a couple of secret ingredients. First off, some liquid Amano's for another Emami boost and several tablespoons worth of nutritional yeast flakes, which will give it a nice, funky, cheesy parmesan like the bite. And with that, it's time to serve up until this point. This chili has been made entirely vegan. So if you want to stay vegan, just stop here. I am not vegan. Some of to go ahead and there are some sour cream on here and maybe a few extra sliced. Kenya's for a little color and flair. And there you have it. A vegetarian chili to end all-vegetarian chilies. A strong independent chili that doesn't need any meat. Speidi spicy, hearty, wholesome, rich, flavorful fulfilling not trying to awkwardly fill some meat shaped hole in your heart, but instead 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 kitchen while I'm shooting. I did link in the video description for more from Bansi and keep an eye out during the fourth quarter of the Super Bowl to see which of these chili recipes makes a special appearance.