Chilly, Chile, Chili - When its chilly get some chile and make some chili! - Here's a Recipe.

New Mexicans are very particular about their chile and no New Mexican worth their salsa would ever call our wonderful chile pepper chili. Chili is that Texas style bean and meat or lack of beans or lack of meat thick stew sort of concoction that you pour into a Fritos corn chip bag. Nothing wrong with chili but don't get it confused with chile.

As much as I love my traditional style of making chile and all the various chile sauces there are times when a big ol' bowl of hot steaming chili is just the ticket, add cornbread, avocado and sour cream and this is a bowl of winter heaven. 

Christo's Big Cowboy Chili

1 lb ground beef (or chicken or turkey)
1 large onion diced
3 cloves garlic minced
3 Tbs cumin powder
4 Tbs (use as much or as little as you want for level of heat desired) red chile powder (get it from New Mexico) 
1 small can tomato paste
2 cups water
salt and pepper to taste
1 lb dry of cooked kidney beans (I cooked a pound of dry beans in the pressure cooker you could use canned and it would probably work out to 2 quarts of beans) Make sure you have at least 3 cups of liquid with your beans
Avocado, sour cream and green onion for garnish

Brown the meat in a large skillet. When meat is brown add the onion and garlic and saute until soft. When the onion and garlic have softened then add the cumin and the chile powder and stir till everything is coated (if its not spicy enough add more red chile powder). When all of this is a nice deep red color then add the tomato paste and water. Simmer gently for 15 minutes. Add this mixture to your cooked beans and bean broth and simmer for 5 more minutes. Serve with your garnish and cornbread of you have it.

This is by far the easiest and tastiest chili you will ever have. No need to add any sugar as the onions add all the sweetness you need but if you do find that your particular can of tomato paste was extra acidy then add a squeeze of honey. Enjoy

A bowl of chili is a soothing, warming and an inexpensive way to bring lots of flavor and nutrition for you and your family, make some.

Kingston

Its time for the 2nd Annual Kingston Chili Cookoff. Now if this statement isnt replete with incongruities I dont know what is. Seems like everyone is a chili professional and since there are so many pros we decided we should check it out as we are in the midst of such a gang bang of pros -we - as 'arm chair professionals' can certainly decide the fate of this - cook- off. Lets keep in mind that this style of chili is the same thing that comes in a can and is a topping for chili dogs. Off we go. There were a whopping 7 competitors. We bought our tasting braclets and got started. This is our first time at something like this so we just dove right in not knowing or understanding any of the protocol. As it turns out we did everything we were supposed to do - taste chili.



Two of the entries were just plain terrible, some chocolate and black bean chili thing and one with cocktail weenies as the meat. Two others just tasted bad - one was some green tomatillo with corn chili and the other had a bean assortment but they were way too tangy. One was too hickory flavored with too much cinnamon and that leaves two.

One by a fireman



and the other by a baker.



Both were good, well seasoned and complete in their flavors, just enough bean to meat ratio and not overwhelming with the tomatoe, spicy enough to be spicy but not spicy just for spicy sake. We chose hers as by far the best but it was way too hot and humid to wait around and find out who won, if it wasnt her then this contest is extremely disappointing, and since it was disappointing anyway we went to Opus 40.



But not before spraying the car down.








We then drove out on 212 and stopped at my 'egg lady' and bought 3 dozen farm fresh eggs. Cant beat these golden yolked babies, the chickens wander all over the place I wonder how she collects the eggs.

New Mexico Red

You can take me out of New Mexico but you cant take the New Mexican out of me. I have to eat chile regularly. And when I mean chile I dont mean chili. Chili is that tex mex product with beans and ground beef and it also comes in cans, many people make many kinds and it is stew or soup like. For me chili is a sauce that gets poured over things like eggs or steak or even mashed potatos. Chile is a staple. This is something that most people have probably seen and even enjoyed - rolled cheese enchiladas with red chile.

Update with an egg. It has corn tortillas that have been warmed then dipped in the chile and rolled up with two types of cheese - a mexican cheese similar to mozzarella and sharp cheddar. It then gets a generous ladle of chile and is topped with more cheese and then melted under the broiler and finally topped off with sliced scallions. I could eat three plates just like this.