"Navajo Lamb and Golden Hominy Chili" -- Utah

This is the last night of skipping ahead to use up our habanero chiles. I am really becoming a fan of lamb. It isn't tough or grissly like many of the beef recipes and quite tender. This one had pasilla chiles, anchos and the habaneros. As you might guess, Ted thought Utah was too spicy; however, despite that in the mix, the chili scored a 3.7. Definitely on our menu for the chili party. We liked the addition of hominy.

I have to mention here that we had our traditional Thanksgiving dinner on Friday (since Mike works nights on Thursday). So we decided to make an untraditional dinner on Thursday. We chose a turkey mole from a magazine that used turkey drumsticks and dried guiajillo chiles. Of course, I had to send for these via mail order and, as usual, misinterpreted how many were in a bag and ended up with four huge bags of the things. Being food items, they are not returnable. So, if anyone has a need for these, please let me know and I will send you a large bagful. They are rated heat-wise on par with fresh jalapenos.

The recipe for Utah's chili is as follows:

1 dried pasilla chile
2 large dried ancho chiles
3 dried habanero chiles
1/4 c. chopped onion
4 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons corn oil
2 pounds lamb, trimmed of fat and gristle and
 cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 tablespoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 tablespoon sugar (we cut back on this)
One 15 1/2-ounce can diced tomatoes with roasted garlic
One 10-ounce package frozen corn kernels
One 15 1/2-ounce can golden hominy, drained (I could only find white hominy; worked fine)
1 tablespoon masa harina dissolved in 1/4 cup water
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1) Place the chiles in a large heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand 30 minutes, until soft; then seed and stem them. In a food processor or blender, puree the chiles with 1 cup water. Set aside.
2) In a Dutch oven, saute the onion and garlic in the oil. Cook until soft. Add the can full of water. Bring to a boil and reduce the heat to a low simmer. Cook, partially covered, 45 minutes, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat and stir in the corn and hominy. Cook, uncovered, over low heat for 15 minutes more. Add the masa harina mixture and cook 5 minutes more.
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Enjoy!!

By the way, we downed this chili with Dogfish Head Chicory Stout. It has Caffeine in it!!! Geoff said he actually tasted another beer recently that had caffeine added. Hm................................

Code 10 Chili -- Wyoming

We are a day late with our Friday Night Chili, postponed because we went to an Art After Five at the art museum last night to hear Greg Osby. If you ever have the chance to hear him play, don't pass it up.

Let me preface this with the fact that I came back from a three-hour yoga workshop to make this chili and, although the yoga instructor told us we would want to put nothing but healthy food in our bodies after our practice, all I could think about on the drive home was the cold beer waiting for me in the fridge and the spicy chili we were prepared to make.

As promised, we skipped ahead to Wyoming because we realized that we had to use the habanero peppers right away. The recipe called for 1 to 2 habaneros and since we ordered way too many we were going to use 2. However, when our throats started closing up just by dicing them, we chickened out and used only 1. This one deserves printing of the recipe and a couple of photos!

2 Cups chopped onions
1/3 Cup peanut oil
4 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 Cup all-purpose flour
One 14-1/2 ounce can chicken broth
Four 4-1/2 ounce cans chopped green chiles, with liquid
2 Cups diced red-skinned potatoes, skin on
1 to 2 habanero peppers, seeded and diced (be VERY careful; wash your hands thoroughly after touching these things!!) -- if you can't find habaneros, the recipe says you can use jalapenos
2 tablespoons chili powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/2 teaspoon dried Mexican oregano
1 pound sweet pork sausage, cooked and crumbled (remove the casing first)

Flour tortillas
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1) In a heavy skillet, saute the onions in the oil until soft. Add the garlic, then sprinkle in the flour, stirring constantly. Cook and stir over medium heat 3 to 5 minutes, until the onions just barely begin to brown.

2) Stir in the broth, green chiles, potatoes, habanero peppers (or jalapenos), chili powder, salt, black pepper, and oregano. Simmer 20 to 30 minutes, stirring and scraping the bottom of the skillet so the mixture doesn't stick, until the potatoes are soft. Add the cooked sausage and cook 5 minutes more.

3) Serve with soft flour tortillas on the side. We actually scooped the chili onto the tortillas and ate it like that.

We rated this chili a 3.3. Geoff felt that we could have added both habaneros, especially when scooping it up with the tortillas. Ted gave it a low rating, way too spicy for him. I gave it a 4. I know, everyone says I'm a little generous with the 4's, but I thought this one was one of the best yet.

We served up this chili with Magic Hat Winter lager. This was just right for cooling down the spiced-up taste buds! Enjoy!!

Chicken Chili and Cornmeal Parsley Dumplings -- Rhode Island

Let me start by saying the Rhode Island's chili rated a 3.7--a shoe-in for our end-of-project party. It did raise the discussion of what dishes can be termed "chilis," mainly because, although Ted really liked this recipe, he didn't think you could really call it "chili." He thought it was really chicken in sauce with dumplings.

According to Wikipedia, Chili con carne (literally "Chili with meat", often known simply as chili) is a spicy stew. The name "chili con carne" is taken from Spanish, and means "peppers with meat." Number one, many of our best chilis do not even have meat as an ingredient and, two, I have my doubts about using Wikipedia as a genuine source, (my children vehemently feel otherwise), but this is another discussion.

The only spice in this one was chili powder, but the dumplings were an addition worth noting. We took a picture of this chili on the advice of one of my followers. All I have to do is figure out how to include it in this posting.

By the way, we served this chili with HopFish India Pal Ale from Flying Fish Brewing Company. The first few sips were a little bitter but, after that, very nice. Yes, we did find another deli in Havertown with beers we haven't tried.

I am now going to try inserting the photo we took of this week's chili. If it doesn't work it's really no big loss. Let me know if you want the recipe of this really nice "chili."

We might be changing up the order of our Chili nights. We ordered Habanera chili's and I thought that when I received the order that it could sit there in the box until I had time to open it. Well it turns out that I ordered fresh habanerollo chilis and, since they sat there in the box for at least 2 weeks, they were not refrigerated as recommended. When I opened the box a lot of those chilis were getting MOLDY!  So Utah and Wyoming might be earlier than anticipated.

"Homage to Hershey Chocolate Chili" -- Pennsylvania

Just finished PENNSYLVANIA's Homage to Hershey Chocolate Chili. We've been waiting with much anticipation for our own state's chili and it fared pretty well. The meat was chicken and, of course, it had some Hershey's cocoa in it (even though I don't think Hershey even makes chocolate in Hershey anymore except in the little fake factory at the amusement park). The spice was from red jalapeno powder and packed a bigger punch than we expected.

Geoff thought that it would have been better served over rice without the beans because it was pretty soupy. Ted would have liked the chicken chunks to be smaller, but Geoff and I feel that when the chunks are small the meat gets dry.

It took a lot of parsley which was a timely thing because I got to use up my whole crop of parsley before it freezes. The final score was a 3.27--worthy of possibly making for our chili party!!

We served the Pennsylvania chili with Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale (seasonal). Not bad. The deli where we bought it recommended that we try serving it with orange slices. We didn't get that far and before we knew it, the beer was already gone!

Anyone who wants this recipe should let me know at lshane_schneider@yahoo.com and I'll send it to you.

By the way, we found maple pepper for our Vermont chili and ordered it from a Vermont seller (of course). $6.00 for the spice and $10.00 for shipping!!! I'm hoping we fall in love with it like the authors of Chili Nation claim.