Cold Weekend - Chili Day

Day two of the cold weekend was dedicated to football and chili - after golf of course. 29 degrees in the morning and the first frost delay I can remember in Houston. So late afternoon chili was quite appealing.

• Chili a la Franey, Cuisine Rapide
  
• Green Chipotle Turkey Chili, Gourmet Cookbook
  

Also served leftover jicama and cucumbers, veggies and marinated tomatoes (see previous post).

The first chili is a long time staple from Cuisine Rapide (CR - the GREATEST COOKBOOK EVER PUBLISHED). It's not remarkable, and that's it's strong point. It's resplendent in fresh vegetables and flavor, has great balance and a nice little spicy kick. I substitute cayenne for red pepper flakes, but otherwise make this as written. Also the mix of 50/50 ground pork and ground beef seems to smooth the meat flavors and textures just a bit.

The Chipotle Turkey chili is a keeper. The body of the dish is four pounds of ground and chopped turkey, onion, garlic, green pepper and turkey stocks (I had rich homemade turkey stock still available). Key ingredients were two chipotles that were blended in a cup of water, allowing the chipotle flavor to be distributed into every bite evenly, via tiny flecks of pepper. Over a pound of tomatillos were blanched then blended - making up the majority of vegetable in the dish.

The chili was "thickened" with a tablespoon of corn meal. I wouldn't recommend that approach, and will revert to a cornstarch mixture, as in my regular white chili recipe. The only complaint about this dish is that it needed to be thickened more.

Both chilis were served with small pasta for 'chili-mac', sour cream and lime wedges.