I have a great chili recipe (crock pot) that includes chopped onion and green pepper, minced garlic, chili powder, cumin, coriander, chili flakes, oregano, basil, salt, and brown sugar.
But I have never cooked these ingredients with the beef. The beef gets browned in a little butter and EVOO, and then stirred into all of the above plus San Marzano tomatoes and S&W chili beans into the crock pot. The results have always been something I’m really happy with, with great texture on both the onions and bell pepper.
But lately I’ve been thinking about browning the beef with all of the first paragraph ingredients… hence blooming the spices and getting more flavor in the aromatics.
What say you? Gonna make a batch tomorrow and wonder if this will improve things.
beef cannot be properly browned if there is water in the pan - the water limits the pan temp to less than crisping aka the Big M.
so, I always brown the beef separately. as it becomes done, I add the onion bay leaf and finally the chili powder
some spices/herbs “extract” in oil, some in water, some in alcohol. adding bay leaf to boiling water, for example… gets you no where.
did chili tonight. beans soaked over night, simmered separately to tender. drained, bean “juice” reserved.
the beans then added to the beef/onion/green pepper/spiced tomato/fresh tomato/tomato paste . . .mix
Got a late start this morning so here’s what I did:
Prep’d everything (garlic onions peppers, tomatoes, beans, spices) and threw it in the stand mixer and mixed well with the paddle (smelled great). Sealed it with plastic wrap and threw it in the fridge. My experience with most of these ingredients when combined together are usually better the next day.
I’ll brown the beef tomorrow morning and add it to the mix, then throw it into the crockpot for 6 hours. We’ll see how it turns out tomorrow evening, and if I actually notice a difference over what I’ve always thrown together in a single day.
I’m not a trained chef, just a happy amateur cook.
But here’s how I would do it.
Brown the beef in a little grape seed oil or other high smoke point neutral oil - I own several extra Virgin Olive oils, from first batch to cheaper refined EVOO, but I try to avoid browning meat and searing meat in these oils, as I find it a waste of good EVOO.
Brown the beef until all excess moisture has steamed away from the meat and you start to see a bit of a Maillard reaction on the beef - the beef starts to get a bit dark browned.
Now add the onions and let them sauter with beef for a few minutes.
Add the dry spices, except the basil, oregano and dry chilli. Avoid burning the chilli, oregano and basil
Let the spices open up by heating them up with beef & onions.
Add the garlic and fresh chilli.
Let it sauté with the meat and onions for 1-2 minutes until you can smell the garlic. Avoid burning the garlic.
Now add the dry chilli powder, dry basil and dry oregano. Let it sauté for a few minutes
Add the sugar now. Avoid burning the sugar.
Add the chopped bell peppers now. Let it sauté for 3-4 minutes.
Now add the tomato paste, and stir it in to eliminate the bitterness from the tomato paste.
Now it’s time to add the alcohol.
I never do a chilli without adding a bit of alcohol.
Typically I’ll add a glass of whisky or a glass of dry vermouth to a chilli. Let it cook for a few minutes until you feel most of the alcohol has evaporated from the mix.
Now it’s time to add any kind of stock to the chilli and the San Mariano tomato’s. Stir it all in
Add the beans now.
From here and on it’s all about simmering the chilli at low heat for a few hours or less with or without lid and monitoring the level of liquid from time to time and adjusting the seasoning (salt & pepper)
I typically brown the ground beef and remove it from the pan, leaving the fat behind. Then I use the fat to cook a bit of tomato paste and add the spices to the pan for the last few minutes of cooking. Deglaze with beer or beef stock, and that becomes the soup base. I don’t use a slow cooker, but you could just throw those two elements into the crock at that point with your peppers and onions, etc.
If you like the texture you get by cooking the onions and peppers from raw in the crockpot, I would not suggest sautéing them with the beef beforehand. They will likely end up too soft, if not fully disintegrated.
Chili, stews, some soups . . . all taste better ‘the day after’
I quite intentionally make such ‘the day before’ - refrigerate overnight - gently reheat next day.
chili here comes in two varieties. mine - with 1/2 inch (10-12mm) diced beef chunks
and DW’s version which is 90/10 ground beef. both are pan fried to get about 50% covered with a dark Maillard crust. imho, beef without that kind of crust just does not have a ‘depth of flavor’
I am curious as to the need for a stand mixer . . . big bowl, wood spoon . . .
No need, just convenience as it is always on the counter. I use it to stir everything but the meat, then add it and stir again. It not only helps break up any remaining clumps of cooked meat, the handle makes it super easy to transfer every little bit of it into the crock pot.
I also use it for stirring sauces/dressings (especially those that have a lot of sugar, corn starch, etc.) as it does a really good job of evenly incorporating it. Not anything else to wash (except rinsing the paddle) so why not?
This was not good idea. I chose to do it on High for 4 hours as that is how I do it when I make it all in one day, and didn’t want to introduce another variable. It was saltier (less sweet), and noticeably more liquid. Guessing the salt overnight had a lot to do with this.
Texture of everything was good. And while I suppose I can prep the peppers and aromatics the day before, I think just setting up a mise en place will save just as much time.
With all due respect, a stand mixer with a paddle on it, set on the lowest setting (stir) doesn’t break a single cooked bean in my chili. It combines everything but the beef evenly in 20 seconds or less, and after the beef is added, combines five quarts in just a handful of seconds, and does not affect the texture in any discernible way.
I’ve never in my life heard of anyone who used a stand mixer for a chilli.
You don’t just combine the ingredients in a chilli, you provide heat, sautéing and searing to the ingredients in a certain specific order, which I have stated very precisely in my previous post to optimise the taste of the stew/chilli.
Unfortunately this just shows how people use assistant cooking machines the wrong way and more often than not cooking results reveal this.
Same with stews cooked in instant pots.
Kitchen machines can screw up so many good old recipes and people often wonder why the taste of their food is slightly off…………
Precisely what a stand mixer should be used for, Tim.
But stirring a chilli together in a stand mixer instead of in a pot with a spoon, and by that missing the important opportunity to sauté the ingredients in the right order can mess a chilli and stew up badly.
