/ck/ - Food & Cooking

>>14032479
>I miss granny.
OOooh, did the Corelle(?) bean canister come from Grandma? I vaguely remember that pattern from some point in my childhood from somewhere.

Need to upgrade that Sazon goya powder to the Sofrito/Recaito in the jar, anon. Keeps nicely in the fridge.
Also, Badia saffron isn't expensive, probably even less than those packets. Wine/vermouth, and I use sherry, is the secret yellow rice flavor, now you know. Add a deglaze step with some spirits there, right before adding the water/stock to your rice.

I use the tomato water from Rotel, no need to drain it out, just sub in for some of your water!

My favorite mexican dinner garnish is thinly sliced dried ancho chilies, snipped into a nonstick pan, and pan fried in a little olive oil. I sprinkle my chili crunchies on top of everything, from soup to breakfasts to chili.

That garlic device thing you have is EXCELLENT for grinding out some ginger into a stir fry sauce, fyi. I juice ginger on one for making my pumpkin cheesecake each Thanksgiving.

>>13567742
>Which method is the best to make popcorn? Are commercial popcorn makers worth it?
We have one in my office...kind of the Friday ritual. They're stupid and need to be wiped down without 18000 paper towels. No, I wouldn't own one in my house. They do make batch after batch, one pot, then another pot full, and so I can see in a bar, or a workplace the nice nature of that ability to just keep making more without stopping to clean anything or cooling it down between batches, nothing at all, just keep it cranking out corn.

At home, I just use a 4qt pot on my stove. I use Orville which is GMO and has like zero unpopped kernels to bust up your teeth. It's always fresh with the foil seal, which is important, because it's the moisture in the middle of each individual kernel that makes it pop. Go ahead and use their buttery oil, you don't need much, maybe 1Tbsp for the whole pot. When it's done, I drizzle microwave melted butter pats from a nice pouring pyrex measuring cup. Sea salt in my Old Thompson grinder on finest cranked down setting.

My secret family recipe is to finely scissor-up dried california or ancho chilies into a small nonstick with olive oil, sizzle the rings until crispy and starting to puff up, before they go black, and pourover the chili oil and strips with your butter. Lime juice and lime zest optional. Hot popcorn with those crunchy bites of sweet-hot chili rings every few bites is heavenly.

>>13465012
>My coworker(not poor at all) uses jars of marinara sauce and mushrooms in his chili, no garlic or onions. When I told him I use dried chili's I thought his head was going to explode.
A lot of people just have some poor sense of detecting flavors or trying to stick to the plan, and add things that go in other culture's "tomato pairings" such as cinnamon, bay leaves and borrow some italian spices like rosemary, basil, and such. I suppose it's possible that's how Mom made it. Their parents could have surreptitiously used available pantry items at home without going to the store, and that's how they ended up liking it.

My own mom insists on adding diced celery to chili. She likes the texture and flavor. Everything else is normal in her recipe, however. I have had a lifetime of travel, and I equally like texas style, chili con carne, even alternative chilies, and my own favorite at home recipe is my mom's basic chili con carne, which I brown better, and of course, minus the celery. If I'm cooking for family, who like varying degrees of hotness, I take out my dried chilies and fry up various sliced chilies in a small nonstick to use as one of the toppings. Ancho, california, guajillo and pasilla chilies all have their virtues, and a fried ring of dried chili topping every other spoonful is hot, sweet, spicy and fantastic.

OP, basic chili con carne recipe is ground beef, onion, green bell pepper, garlic, ground spices of salt, pepper, cumin, chili powder, and maybe a pinch of mexican oregano, canned tomatoes and drained kidney beans. In that order, actually. The trick to get more flavor is to brown the beef, drain the fat, sweat the onions and garlic, warm the spices in the rendered moist juices a bit before adding those tomatoes, and simmer a bit before the beans. Time saving tricks to reduce simmer time include buying preseasoned beans or preseasoned tomatoes, using 2 types of ground chili powder like blends like Mexena chili seasoning, and all those other 1000 additions you're talking about, pinch of coriander, deglaze with beer, or rich tomato paste or beef paste.
But, what I do, and get excellent flavor is ladle out a bit of the hot brothy juices right after I add my tomatoes, about 1 cup to my blender with a handful of my assorted (deseeded) dried chilies. Soak 5 minutes to soften the chilies, then whirl up, then add the chili slurry back into the chili pot. No, dried chilies are not expensive by the bag but kinda hard to find in stores. Each dried chili has a different flavor, but ancho is my favorite. I keep a separate ziploc bag of california, ancho, guajillo, pasilla, new mexico...whatever I pick up at Wal-mart or local markets. I do not like chipotle in chili, though, hate the smoke taint, but others love it, or bacon. I just want the pure chili taste of my childhood when I make chili. Nothing stops me from baking cast iron southern corn bread or beer quick bread with a sweet honey butter, or topping it with rice, oyster crackers, cheese, cilantro, chopped serranos, fried dried chili strips, whatever mood, sometimes rice, even.
If your chili isn't tasty in 20 minutes, yes it will be better the next day, but changes are the ratio is just off.

>>11011856
Start with dried beans soaked overnight if you're doing crock pot all day, no need to use canned in this instance. Then, simmer your dried beans in simple water. Consider a variety of beans to add some flavors like black, pinto, cranberry, great northern, black eyed peas. In cast iron, char and roast a couple veggies like onion quarters, a couple fresh chili peppers garlic cloves, and tomatoes if you have them (otherwise use whole tomatoes in the can).
Meanwhile soak some deseeded dried chili peppers such as pasilla, california, california, etc, process in blender with roasted veggies. and add to pot.
Add seasonings of your choice, from cumin to oregano to coriander to epazote. A nice addition is hominy for some corn flavor. Secret ingredients can include chocolate, coffee, pinch of brown sugar, sprinkle of corn meal, pureed nuts like pumpkin, or carrots in there.
Toppings vary, but a spoonful of fresh salsa is nice, as is cheese, sour cream, fresh cilantro, or fried rings of chile peppers. I always make regular beef chili, but I like chile con carne with rice, with southern style (not sweet) cornbread, and most especially with a fresh beer quick bread fresh from the oven.