Cooking help
 

I need some help. Im cooking chili tommorow in my crock pot. I bought some habinaro peppers to spice it up a little. But i have never used them before . How many should i use ?. Im not looking for super hot with no flavor . But i would like a litte heat with flavor. I will be using 2 pounds of meat with 6 cans of beans & 1 large onion. The peppers are about 1 1/4 by 1 1/4 in size.

Be careful.
 

All I can say is be careful. I learned the hard way that you always start out lite and work your way up. The first time I made my mom's famous chillie I got a little bit crazy with Jallopinio peppers and ended up having to throw the entire pot away:eyes:. I had no idea that just a little tiny bit of pepper would make it so hot:gasp:. It was so hot that just touching it to our lips was painful:surprised:. No one could eat it and we like hot food, so in the garbage disposal it went:diablo:.

I would only add one or two of them shredded:rules:, and see how it works out for you:neutral:. Then if you want more "heat" you can add more after it is already cooked:mdr:. I only use red hot chillie pepper powder in mine now. One teaspoon is enough to put just a bite into the mix. Anything more than that makes it almost uneatable. I also add a couple tablespoons of sugar to sweeten up the taste just a tad. The rest is a family trade secret. Good luck with your chillie treat.

:party:
These are hotter than the jallopinio peppers thats for sure . I was thinking one or two for the whole pot as well. I can chop them up small . It is going to cook all day long in my crock pot :party:. I like the idea of adding some sugar .

You better send me some when you're finished! :lol:

I dont know if it will be any good :lol:. This is my first time cooking chili that was not in a can :lol:.

Awe, it's not that hard. Just dont burn it! Yuck! :rofl: The nice thing about slow cooking is that you can taste it every now and then until it's right.

Yes burning it would blow :lol:.

I agree with Jerry. Start with a little bit at first. You can always add more, but you can't take away once its in there.

I would also wait until the last 30 minutes to add the chilis since the flavor might concentrate too much over the course of the day and you may end up with something that's a lot spicier than you first thought. 30 minutes should give it enough time to cook, and still control the level of heat to exactly how you like it.

As for the prep... wear gloves... make sure to take out the seeds and only use the flesh. You could also roast them and take off the skin which will give it a nice smokey flavor. Don't touch your eyes.

Too much prep
 

I try to keep things simple when I cook, and I am quite good at it. Our family has come to love the dishes I create, and our extended family are always trying to get recipes out of me. I do as little prep as possible because I just do not like doing things that are not required to make a good meal. Don't cut your onions up too small either. That is part of the fun. Too much detail makes the experience overwhelming. Quick & Easy. I would just put the pepper or peppers into a blender or use a hand chopper and dice the pepper up seeds and all to a size that befits your taste, and add them to the mix right from the start. At what point you add them is not going to make that much of a defference to really matter. The amount is what counts here. I always brown the meat first and get the flavor of the beef where it needs to be first, then start adding your ingredients one by one. I try to have everything ready and standing by just like you see on those TV cooking shows. It just speeds things up. Once you get everything into the slow cooker, then you can do all of your clean up so when teh meal is ready there is nothing to do but eat and enjoy your creation. Don't over think it. Just do it and remember what you did for the next time. If anything was not quite right, then stash your thoughts and make changes the next batch to improve your skills. Before long it will become as easy as opening a can of soup. Good luck with your chillie treat.

My next door neighbor suggested to only start with one pepper . He has cooked with then before. He also said they are pretty hot & you can always add more latter if the chilie is not hot enough .

Star with half and go from there. After the initial half, keep on tasting the chili every so often so you can gauge how much more you need. It's a lot easier to add some more than to take out some if it becomes to hot for your taste.

The recipe said cook on high for 4 hrs. Is it better to cook on a lower temp for a longer time, 8hrs on low ?.

Idea...
 

The whole idea of cooking over a longer period of time is that it tends to make everything melt in your mouth. It softenes up whatever you are cooking. The 8 hour time is best, but if you need it to be done in 4 then use that. The good thing is that when it reaches its limit, then it just keeps it warm so nothing gets burned. Let us know how that works out. Lito is right about starting with half of a pepper for safety reasons. By the way what kind of beans are you using?

Jerry i am unemployed so i have more time than i know what do with :lol:. I using 3 cans of bush hot chili beans & 3 cans of dark red kidney beans.

Mmm Chili.

If you want some heat and don't want to be too worried about overkill. There are plenty of other great peppers out there. Annaheim is what I use for chili, mild heat, good flavor. I usually roast them over the stovetop before cutting them up. Dry pepper pwoder can also be a good source for heat, if you want to sneak it in with out the obvious chunks of peppers.

Crock pot method, start everything raw and cook it all together for how ever long you want.

:diablo:Then again you could always add some ghost peppers:diablo:

Never tried
 

I've never tried the hot chillie beans. I hate using anything that is pre flavored. I only use the dark red kidney beans and flavor everything myself. All you need to do is add one large onion, a can of tomato paste, one can of stewed tomatos, and one can of diced tomoatos. I sometimes even use forzen mixed peppers in my chillie to save time. Then add your own concoction of spices to get things the way you like. Oregano, garlic, salt, pepper, sugar, and chillie powder. I also use Acsent on the beef while browning it. With five of us in our home I use about 8 to 10 cans of beans in our Chillie. I have noticed that the amount of beans you get per can has deminished over the last year or so. I guess even the canneries are cutting to save money. They just add more juces to keep the weight up to par. Cheap bastards.

They had the annaheim peppers there . But i all ready spent about $30 to make this chilli . so This time i'll just start with half a pepper & go from there . Thje recipe stated to brown the meat first .

If it is ground beef surely. I use sirloin chunks. Ribeye is nice too. I like to chew a bit, though it comes out pretty tender. Chili can't be too much like soup.

Secret ingredient: Hoisen Sauce, sweet, savory, yummy.

Yes it is 2# on ground beef . I have never heard of that sauce . I dont want to try to much for the first time . I have all ready changed a little from the recipe i got from all recipes .com . I may try jerry's trick of adding a table spoon or two of sugar .

I agree Jerry, no pre flavoured gunk is required if you use a good recipe & reasonable ingredients

If you hold off adding the chilli until you have the batch correctly seasoned (maybe an hour or two before finished in the slow cooker you plan on using) & the acidity dealt with. Slow cooking meat disolves chewy connective tissue & relaxes the muscle fibres which is excellent for the type of cuts that go into chilli. If you like chew, add the meat about 4hrs (half way) into the cooking

Here's a handy link www.chilliworld.com/index.asp the Scoville Heat Index makes for an interesting read...

Mom's recipe
 

This all makes me think of when I was just a kid asking my mom how to cook. She used to tell me that some day I may have to cook for myself, and then she would ask me if I wanted to eat well, or starve. So she sat me down in front of the stove on a little setp-stool to watch her cook. She never measured anything and no two recipes were the same. So I learned at an early age to fend for myself. I began cooking meals for the family when I was like 11 or 12, and through the years have modified some of her goodies to sute my own taste. The wife & kids rave about how good the food is here at home, and most of them are also healthy. Life is good. So each time you cook you just have to try something a little bit different to spice things up and not let dinners get boring for anyone. Now I can whip up just about any meal in about 30 minutes to an hour. We do have a slow cooker and I am trying to get used to doing things that way, but I am home most days anyhow so it really does not get used a whole bunch. WOrking at home and being a stay at home father has its perks.

Her is what im am going to use . I will cook on low for 8 hrs.

Two pounds ground beef
6 cans of beans 3 kindney & 3 hot chili beans
1 very lage onion maybe more
3 cans diced tomatoes 2 green pepper & onion flavor & 1 roasted garlic flavor
1 pouch of macormicks slow cooker chili seasoning

What do you think is one pouch of seasoning enough ?.

Never
 

Never heard of it. McKormicks slow cooker chillie sauce? My point is that you have no idea what all they put in that crap. Make up your own chillie flavoring and work on improving it each time you make this dish. Don't use someone else's factory made ingrediants. Mix and match your own. You will be proud of your accomplishment and can share it with friends next time around and blow their minds. Thats how you learn to cook. You also need some tomato paste to thicken it up a bit.

The McKormicks ingredient list;

SPICES AND HERBS (INCLUDING CHILI PEPPER AND BLACK PEPPER), SALT, ONION, MODIFIED CORN STARCH, GARLIC, GREEN BELL PEPPERS, AND SILICON DIOXIDE (ADDED TO MAKE FREE FLOWING)

Hippie, you could do a lot better than this...a recipe from the link (untested by me) so just posting up ingedients not an endorsement...

3 tablespoons butter or olive oil
1 large onion
Two cloves garlic
One pound chopped beef
3 cups water
11/3 cups tomatoes
1 green pepper
1/2 teaspoon celery seed
1-2 teaspoon Hot Pepper Sauce
1 teaspoon cumin seed
1 small bay leaf
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/8 basil
11/2 teaspoon salt

If you're using 2lb of meat, you'd need to double these ingredients

You can get that sauce from the Oriental/Chinese section of your grocery store. Sugar or corn/maple syrup( I like Maple) provides a nice contrast and actually gets rid of the slight bitter taste of the beans and pepper especially when cooked over low heat for a longer amount of time.

I personally like using dry kidney beans. What I do is washed and soaked them in lukewarm water with a bit of salt to soften the coating and also let them soak up the salt to make it even more flavorful. For herbs such as oregano, I go for fresh ones from the Japanese stores.

Dont forget a touch of cayenne pepper- its a different kind of heat really adds to the dish - and definately start with plain kidney beans - taste as you go you can add heat with dried spices if it ends up too mild

The chili tastes AWSOME :party::yipi::lol:.

WOOOHOOO! :yipi:

Don't forget to write down the recipe!!! :lol:

I all ready printed it out. I added a 1/4 cup of sugar 4hrs in to 8hr cook time .

I told you so.
 

I told you that the sugar would make the difference. Not many people use sugar in their recipes because they think it is a bad thing, but it really does make a huge difference in the taste. Glad to hear that your first batch turned out great. Now you can be more adventurous and try a few different things to change it up. What a bunch here on RCM, eah?

One of my first meals to learn was oven baked chicken. I always get the boneless/skinless chicken brests, because I don't like dealing with the bones. At first I just put some butter on top and a little bit of seasoning and bake it in the open oven for about 30 minutes. Great cheap meal with some mixed veggies. Now I put a whole slew of stuff into an oven casserole dish and season it with some of my favorite things. The whole family just loves it, and it only takes about 90 minutes from prep to serve. Easy meal to throw together in a short time.

Last night I wanted to celebrate with the wife. So I grilled two Filet steaks along with two lobster tails and baked potatos and in 45 minutes we had a superb meal, with a bottle of wine of course. The kids ate leftovers.

Wow, coming from the state the originated chili I am a purest and I like a good simple chili.

Chili powder, not a name brand but local brands that take more care making the powder is best. Meat, preferably venison, but beef is fine, not ground but chopped up. Salt to taste, garlic, and onion. Mix and slow cook all day. It's best about 5 days after it's made.

Beans go on the side and should never be put in the chili, and the only acceptable ones are pinto beans. No kidney beans like my friends in Tennessee use, that's just freaking nasty and sacrilegious to chili fanatics. No tomatoes, no bell peppers, not other crap like that.

Eaten over hot steamed rice is fantastic or try it Texas spaghetti style over spaghetti noodles. My favorite is with home made tamales!

Some of the best recipes I have found tend to surface around central to south Texas.

Yea yea yea
 

YEA YEA YEA We know everything is done bigger and better in Texas. Just a bit biasd don't you think? This is one recipe that has been around for a very long time and there are surely 100 versions of how to make it. I am sure that none is all that much better than any other. I have tried various versions and alot of them are pretty good. Of course we all settle on what we tend to like best and stick with it. A good effort none the less hippie.

Don't take it personally, just my opinion. :D

I just get tired of places claiming things are chili when they are wild creations of god knows what and taste more like some kind of stew concoctions than chili. Plus, it's funny when some have chili with no chili powder and or chili peppers in it.

Down in San Marcos, TX in the second week of September there is the big Chilympiad competition which features all sorts of concoctions from around the world. The winner their goes the the World Chili Championship in Terlingua, TX.

I also forgot the cumin in my last post.

Same here man.

I love cooking too. Always creating new recipes, but I never write them down. I can go on and on....Food porn is addicting:whistle:

Some older pics of stuff we make at home.http://cid-a56d77a3a3fbcf6f.skydrive...food?ct=photos

Im cooking my second batch of chili tommorow. I bought a couple of those annaheim peppers you mentioned . How much should i use ?. Im just looking for a little flavo & maybe mild to low heat . Im cooking in a 6 quart cooker . That will be filled to the top . Also do you take out the seeds or leave them in ?.

OMG man, all that stuff looks amazing. I'm sitting here waiting for my rice to finish cooking, and I'm dying looking at that.
I'm not really into sweets, but everything looks great.
What is this? http://cid-a56d77a3a3fbcf6f.skydrive...d/DSCF6816.JPG Some chicken and shrimp recipe? Looks fantastic and the onions are done perfectly.

What type of food is most of that? Looks Vietnamese or so to me.

I love cooking too, and I would be very happy when my things come out looking half that good. :great:

I roast them, 4-6 depending on size, over the stove tops flame a bit for some smoke flavor. Then I usually let them cool before I slice them up, I remove the seeds, but try to leave most of the insides intact. This adds the initial heat to my chili, then I use dried chili powder for the rest of the heat. I vary from cayenne to a few asian dried peppers. My recipe serves about 6-8 people in a 4 quart cooker. I rarely use beens in mine. I am not too much of a fan of beans. I usually serve it on buttered white rice with bread for dipping. I know two carbs in one meal but what the heck.

If you have left overs, stick in a package of cream cheese and let it melt down to a stable consistency. Serve with tortilla chips, perfect game day snack.

I bought two of them . They are 6 1/2 by 1 3/4 . so how much should i use ?. I cant roast them on the stove because mu stove is electric & not gas.

Both, no worries on the roasting.