Chili, a questionable success

This blog is pretty much dead, but I use it as a notepad mostly for recipes these days. If you like any of these, feel free to reuse them, and consider sending me a shout out on my twitter @nkedel

This came out really thick, and perhaps a bit too salty – unsure what to do to fix the salty, but the thick is an easy fix. Otherwise, it was really good.

Finely chop 1 large onion (maybe 1 1/2 if upping the amount of beef)

Peel a couple of chunks of garlic

One 2oz package Pasilla-Ancho dried chiles, with stems and seeds removed
– toast, then break up into moderate sized pieces
– put in food processor

mix 1tsp baking soda and 1 (or 2) pounds of ground beef thoroughly, set aside approx 15 minutes

Add spices:
– 1/2 tsp each spicy ones: chipotle powder, ancho powder, smoked paprika, cayenne [came out spicy, don’t double]
– 1/2 tsp functional ones: MSG, sodium citrate [don’t double]
– 1 tsp: celery seeds [or powder], dried oregano [new this time, was a win]
– 2 tsp black pepper [don’t double]
– 1/2 tbsp each: garlic powder, onion powder, cumin [double w/ 2lbs meat]
– 1 tbsp: chile california powder, sweet paprika, coriander [probably leave the same]
– 1 tbsp: cornmeal

Run all of the above in food processor until a uniform fine powder.

drain and puree 1 jar of roasted red peppers, set aside

Use an oven safe kettle or dutch oven

Preheat oven to 375f

2tbsp olive oil in pan (3tbsp if 1 1/2 onions)

Dump in onions

Cook onions until glassy

Add garlic via press

Add ground beef, brown

When browned, add spice mix, stir in

Immediately add pureed red pepper and mix

add 1 can tomato paste, and mix

add 1 can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, and mix

[if doing 2lbs beef, next time add a 2nd can crushed tomatoes or pureed diced ]

add one can of black beans, including liquids [don’t double – look for low sodium next time if you can find it]

add 1tbsp molasses, 1tbsp soy sauce, 1tsp worchestershire, 1tbsp beef base [low sodium if possible]

add low-sodium beef broth around 16oz [or maybe 12oz dark beer + 4oz of broth?]

Stir until uniform, then cover and put in oven

Bake for ~90-120 minutes, removing to check for separation and stirring every 30 min or so. Add liquid if it starts having an overly thick texture, should be stew like not casserole.

A breadmaking success

200ml room-temperature water
200g bread flour (gold medal; am out of King Arthur)
1/4 tsp breadmaker yeast
Run on dough cycle without pre-warm
(next time try sourdough starter cycle)

~3 hours ferment including the rise part of the dough cycle

120ml tap-cold water (try warm next time)
200g bread flour
100g white whole wheat flour
25g gluten (original recipe called for rye flour)
1 1/2tsp salt
1/2 tsp sugar (try slightly more next time)
1/2tsp yeast
Run on basic white cycle, without pre-warm
(next time, use pre-warm)

Macaroni and Cheese proportions

I’ve been making Macaroni and Cheese to roughly the same recipe of my mom’s since high school, and the result have been inconsistent. I tried making a creamier and less caserole-y version for Nadia compared to my usual-of-late proportions, and I thought I’d record it here.

I realized I had recorded one set of proportions here in the past and it looks like the proportions are almost exactly doubled:

  • 3 1/2 cups shredded cheese, plus extra for crust for baked portion (mixing some in and then crust) – inexact as was using the ends of multiple pregrated sharp cheddar; about a cup was jack
  • 2 1/2 cups milk, preheat to hot in the microwave
  • Roux: 4 tbsp each butter and flour; mix together over low heat until a paste forms
  • Add black pepper (one turn of pepper grinder) and MSG (1/2 tsp) to taste
  • Add milk slowly, no faster than will mix in thoroughly with a flat-bottom whisk; this seems to be the main trick, as adding too much milk at once will lead to the roux clumping together
  • When all of the milk is added, add 1tsp sodium citrate (optional, but makes for a smoother texture) and stir in evenly
  • Add cheese slowly stirring, until thoroughly melted
  • Cook pasta. This was 3 heaping cups of cellentani (ridged, corkscrew macaroni which ends up a bit less dense), a bit more than 3/4 of a box. I think for shells or smaller elbows 3 cups might be a bit much
  • Drain pasta, put in a 8×8 or 9×9 glass baking tray
  • mix in some extra cheese, cover top loosely with extra cheese
  • Bake at 375f (coincidental; we’d had a take-and-bake bread in while the pasta was cooking), checking after 20 minutes, until cheese on top just starts to brown.
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