Chili con Carne for Red Dead Redemption 2

So Red Dead Redemption 2 came out recently, and it looks amazing. I am one of the unhappy few that does not own a device that it is available so I hope that, this time, Rockstar feels like bringing the game over to PC. Sorry, PC gamer problems, you all are here for the food.

I was inspired by the games Southern setting to make this amazing Chili con Carne. My wife says it is the best chili she has ever had, but she is obligated to compliment my food. It is a really great chili and would serve equally well as an entrée or topping for chili dogs, eggs, or chili cheese fries.

I also need to add an obligatory apology to my friend Jay. He hates cinnamon in chili. I think it gives it a quick dash of sweet heat, he sees it as an abomination. Oh well, I will make him eat it anyway!

Ingredients:
¼ lb. of bacon, diced*
3 lb. of ground beef
1 large white onion, diced
1 tbsp salt
2 jalapeños, seeded and minced
2 red fresno chilies, seeded and minced
1 serrano chile, sliced
40.5oz can of kidney beans, drained
28oz can of crushed tomatoes
½ tsp ground red pepper
1 ½ tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp of cinnamon (sorry again, Jay)
1 tsp cocoa powder

Directions:
Heat a dutch oven or stock pot over medium heat and brown the bacon until all the fat is rendered out and the bacon bits are crispy. Remove, drain, and set aside for later. Next, brown the ground beef in the bacon grease in 1 pound portions, removing each portion after it is well browned. You are going to be simmering the beef later so it does not matter if it is not cooked all the way at this point.

Once you have evacuated all of your beef, add the onions and salt and sweat the onions over medium to medium low heat until they are translucent and soft. Next, stir in all the chiles and sweat down until soft.

Dump in all the spices and cocoa powder and fry them until they are looking toasted and are stinking up your house something good.

Finally, pour in the can of tomatoes and the can of drained beans, and add your reserved meat back in. Bring to a simmer and simmer, stirring regularly, for 20 minutes or until a nice thick gravy is covering your chili.

Optionally, serve with plenty of cheese, sour cream, and corn chips.

A really fun party idea is to keep your chili warm in a slow cooker and let your guests serve themselves in individual corn chip bags and load up on toppings. Some people call this a "walking taco" I just think its amazing.

*Pro tip: it is way easier to chop bacon up into a fine dice if you stick it in the freezer for an hour to get hard, not enough to freeze through, but enough to be stiff. That makes it way easier to dice up.

Mexican Risotto

In recognition of Hunger Awareness Month, I wanted to make a dish out of cheap, shelf stable ingredients. This is a slight modification of a dish I've made many times now and that I have dubbed Mexican Risotto. You can either serve this dish as a main dish, it's got plenty of protein, or a great side dish.

Ingredients:

1.5 tbsp taco seasoning
1 can black beans
1 can whole kernel corn
¼ C canned pickled jalapenos
¾ C arborio rice

Directions:

In a large skillet over medium heat, pour in all the ingredients and stir to combine. Don't drain the beans and corn, you are going to need that liquid to cook the rice. Bring the mixture to a simmer and simmer for 20 minutes, uncovered, or until the rice is cooked and tender. Serve.

If you can, some great additions are: chopped onion, chorizo, monterey jack cheese, sour cream, and/or crema. Alternatively, you could always stir in some chopped or shredded chicken and a dash of your favorite hot sauce.

Korean Spicy Pickles

When Evan and I went for bulgogi a few weeks ago, he introduced me to his favorite topping, spicy pickles. I used to not like pickles, and I still am not a fan of just eating pickles, but I love a good bread and butter pickle on a sandwich or a pit of relish on a good hot dog, and I especially love Korean spicy pickles on my bulgogi.

Ingredients:

2 mini cucumbers or pickling cucumbers
1 tsp salt
2 tsp rice vinegar
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp gochugaru
1 clove of garlic

Directions:

Slice the cucumbers as evenly and thinly as you can. Place in a bowl and sprinkle on the salt before tossing to make sure you have even coverage. Let the cucumber slices sit for 20 minutes to let the salt draw out excess water.

Pour off the water and then add the rest of the ingredients, stir well to combine. Cover and let sit in the fridge for at least 10 minutes and up to a week. The pickles will get less crisp but spicier the longer they are allowed to marinate.

Enjoy as a surprisingly refreshing snack or as a perfect compliment to some bulgogi.

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Cajun Seasoning Blend

I generally discourage buying pre made spice mixes. They usually have way too much salt in them, and will generally lumb most of the ingredients together under spices or natural flavoring to protect proprietary blends. Making your own can be a less expensive, healthier, and you know what you're getting.

A cajun spice blend is a great thing to have on hand if you want to add some concentrated flavor to a dish, blacken some seafood, or make a phenomenal piece of chicken or steak.

Like I have done before, I did this recipe out in parts to make it easy to make as little or as much as you want.

Ingredients:

1.5 of smoked paprika
1 of garlic powder
1 of onion powder
1 of thyme leaves
1 of white pepper
1 of dried basil
1 of dried oregano
1 of cayenne pepper
1 of chile powder

Directions:

Combine all in a glass jar and seal. Sprinkle on steak, chicken, seafood, or anything that needs a good kick of Louisiana flavor.

Deviled Eggs with Crab

Early last week I was talking to some of my co-workers, and as often happens with me, the conversation turned to food. One of them introduced me to a concept I had never heard of, deviled eggs with crab. I had already been on a bit of a crab kick (more of that to come later) and so I instantly decided that I needed to make those.

They turned out to be really easy to make, the hardest bit is to peel all the eggs, and they taste amazing.

Ingredients:

12 eggs

1 tsp mustard

1 tbsp fresh parsley

1.5 tsp Old Bay

1 green onion, chopped fine

½ C mayo

8 oz crab claw meat

Directions:

In a large pot, place your dozen eggs and cover with and inch of water. Optionally, add 1 tbsp of white vinegar to keep egg from leaking out of any that might have cracked. Bring to a rolling boil over high heat and then kill the heat and let them sit in the pot for 10-12 minutes. Shock the eggs in a water and ice bath to cool them quickly, which, in my experience, is the best way to make them easy to peel. Peel the eggs then slice them in half long ways and extracting the yolks.

In a separate bowl, combine the egg yolks, mustard, parsley, Old Bay, onion, and mayo. Mix well before adding in the claw meat and stirring thoroughly.

Spoon a heaping amount of the filling into each egg half and serve.

Agua de Limon with Chia

Right after we first moved to our current apartment, my dad stopped by to visit and took my wife and me out to eat at a local Mexican place. They had a great selection of aquas frescas, or fresh fruit waters, and we decided to try the agua de limon. It tasted great, but had this weird gel-like stuff in it. The waiter couldn't remember what it was, and that restaurant changed hands and stopped serving that drink.

It wasn't until a couple years later, when I was looking more into health foods, that I figured out that chia seeds had been the secret ingredient. I have recreated it here, so please enjoy my take on a really refreshing Mexican lemonade.

Ingredients:

6.5 cups water, divided
1 ⅓ cups fresh lemon juice
⅓ cup chia seeds
1 cup demerara or raw sugar

Directions:

In a large jar or pitcher, combine 6 cups of water, the lemon juice, and the chia seeds. Stir well to combine.

In a small saucepan, pour in the last half cup of water and add the sugar. Stir over medium heat until the sugar is just dissolved, making a heavy syrup. Add 1 cup of the heavy syrup to the lemon and water mixture and stir well to combine.

Let the mixture sit for at least 15 minutes before serving: this will allow the chia seeds to start to expand and make their gel, which is what gives this drink its unique texture. The gel will continue to thicken as the drink sits, so in my opinion it hits its peak after being stored in the fridge overnight.

Pour over ice and enjoy this refreshing and nutritious take on lemonade.

Maple Old Fashioned

Recently I got to go on vacation and spent a few days with some friends having a blast in Vermont. While we were there, we went for a whisky tasting at Saxton River Distillery where they have amazing maple infused whiskeys and some great gin. I'd been wanting to use my bourbon maple syrup in a cocktail and I think I found a great match in this maple old fashioned.

Because this is a sweeter old fashioned it's not much of an aperitif (before dinner), I'd recommend it as a great after dinner cocktail.

Ingredients:

1 tsp bourbon maple syrup
4 dashes angostura bitters
2 oz maple bourbon
Ice
Maraschino cherry

Directions:

In a lowball glass combine the syrup, bitters, and bourbon and stir well. Add several large ice cubes and garnish with a maraschino cherry.

Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

Miso Soup

Earlier I wrote about wanting to make my own ramen, which means I had to start with making dashi, a Japanese seafood stock. Once I'd made that, it was just a little bit more to make miso soup so I decided to try my hand at that too.

Like plenty of Japanese cooking, this isn't about using a lot of ingredients, it's about making the most from a few. It's about balance. In miso soup, you are balancing savory with salty and smooth with crunchy.

Serves: 1
Cook time: 10 min

Ingredients:

2 cups dashi
1.5 tbsp white miso
½ tbsp red miso
1 scallion
3 oz firm silken tofu

Directions:

Bring your dashi to a simmer and pour ¼ cup into a bowl. Add the red and white miso into the same bowl and stir well until all lumps are gone. Pour the miso mixture back into the rest of the dashi and heat on low to keep warm.

Cut your scallions into small slices and your tofu into small cubes and place in the bottom of your soup bowl, mug, or bucket. Pour the hot broth in and let sit for a minute to allow the tofu to warm up before enjoying with some sake or green tea!

Please note: the combination of miso flavors is up to you. White miso is lighter in color and flavor but has good body and mild sweetness. Red miso is much more flavorful, but too much will have your soup tasting like soy sauce. This 3:1 ratio is my preferred ratio, but feel free to experiment to find what you like.

Dashi

Like most of my generation, I spent a lot of time in college eating ramen. Ever since then, I've wanted to make my own from scratch, which, for most ramens, means starting with dashi. Dashi is an extremely simple seafood stock that is the base of many Japanese soups, but it's also great for sipping on if you've got a cold or need something to warm you up.

This recipe is sized for a single serving and is about as small a batch as you might want to make. This means it should be easy to scale up for any application.

Cook time: 20 min.
Serves: 1

Ingredients:

2 cups cold water
1 gram kombu (approx 2"x4.5")
5 grams bonito flakes (about ½ cup)

Directions:

Place the kombu into a small saucepan and pour two cups of cold water over it. Put over medium heat and cover for about 10 minutes. Remove the kombu just before it starts to simmer. I wait for bubbles to form on the bottom and take it out just before they start to break. If the kombu boils, it can turn bitter.

When the bottom of your saucepan looks like this, it's time to remove the kombu.

Add the bonito flakes to the water and bring it to a simmer. Hold at a simmer for 1 minute. If it simmers for too long, it will make the stock cloudy as the flakes fall apart. After 1 minute, remove from the heat and let it steep for 7 minutes. Strain and add enough water to bring it back to two cups.

Use immediately or refrigerate for up to a week or portion and freeze for up to a month. Large portions can be used as a soup base while small portions can help fortify sauces and stir-fries.

Bourbon Maple Peppery Salmon

I think my favorite thing about crispy skin salmon is that it looks quite impressive, but it's actually quite easy. This recipe takes advantage of the fact that maple goes surprisingly well with all different kinds of peppers. I'm still using my amazing bourbon maple syrup, but don't worry, this one works brilliantly with regular syrup too.

Since I've already put up a more in-depth guide on how to make crispy skin salmon, I'm not going to bore you with repeating all the details (just the basics here). I'll simply leave a link to the previous recipe here in case you need a refresher.

Ingredients:

4-6 oz salmon filet with the skin on
Salt
Pepper
1 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp bourbon aged maple syrup
⅛ tsp red pepper flake
⅛ tsp ground white pepper

Directions:

Lightly score the skin of the salmon and salt and pepper both sides. Pour the olive oil into a cast iron or nonstick skillet over medium heat. While the oil heats up, mix together the syrup, red pepper and white pepper.

Once the oil is shimmering, place the salmon in the pan, skin-side down, making sure to lay it away from you. When the salmon is in the pan, give the pan a little shake to keep the skin from sticking.

Once the salmon is cooked about three-quarters of the way through, flip onto the flesh side and lightly brush the skin side with the peppery syrup. After 30 seconds, flip the salmon out onto a plate and brush the flesh side with the remaining syrup.

Curry Flavored Roasted Almonds

Almonds are a great source of fiber, protein, and vitamins. These are oil roasted almonds which makes them slightly less healthy than raw almonds, but this is my meal plan and I need some flavor. Whether eating raw or roasted almonds, serving size is key; only ¼ cup is about 170 calories, mostly from fat. If you're roasting your own almonds, the sky's the limit on flavors, so feel free use this recipe as a base or jumping off point to your own combinations.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp sesame oil

1 lb raw almonds

½ tsp salt
1 tsp curry powder
½ tsp ground ginger
½ tsp garlic powder

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350
In a non-stick skillet pour in the olive and sesame oil and heat until shimmering. Add the almonds and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5 minutes or until lightly toasted.

Pour your almonds into a large mixing bowl and sprinkle on the salt, curry powder, ginger, and garlic. Stir to thoroughly coat the almonds. Lay your almonds out on a baking sheet, making sure they are in a single layer.

Bake the almonds for 10 minutes, until toasted. Put the pan on a cooling rack and let them cool for 30 minutes before moving into air-tight containment. Enjoy my first Healthy Living recipe in moderation!

Ground Beef with Taco Seasoning

Well, I wanted to make nachos again, and I decided to make a more Americanized version with ground beef, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to make my own taco seasoning. Dear lord, this stuff turned out great!

I'm going to write this recipe with parts, like a cocktail, so it is easy to scale and you can make as much or as little as you need. I made mine with teaspoons as the base, but you can use any measure of volume, as long as you keep the same ratios. I'm also providing directions on how to properly use this stuff with ground beef, but feel free to use what ever protein you would like!

Ingredients:

Taco Seasoning:

3 parts chili powder
3 parts ground cumin
2 parts salt
2 parts cornstarch
1 part garlic powder
1 part onion powder
1 part cayenne pepper
1 part smoked paprika
½ part ground black pepper

Ground Beef:

2 tbsp of olive oil
1 lb of ground beef
2 tbsp taco seasoning
½ cup of water

Directions:

For the taco seasoning, add all the ingredients to an airtight container and shake well to combine.

For the ground beef, pour the oil into a nonstick or cast iron skillet and bring to a shimmer over medium-high heat. Add the ground beef and cook, stirring frequently, until thoroughly browned. Drain off the extra moisture and fat and return to medium heat. Add the taco seasoning and water, bring to a boil, and then simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. Serve with your favorite taco toppings, on nachos, or how ever you feel like. Enjoy!

Chocolate Covered Peppermint Popcorn

Chocolate covered popcorn is a great host or hostess gift for all the holiday parties going on this time of year. The only problem is that it is outrageously expensive to buy in store. Luckily for us, it is incredibly simple and easy to make, and really quick too. My second time making it took me just 20 minutes from walking through the door to a tray of delicious popcorn.

The directions I include are for making stove-top popcorn. If you have a popcorn popper, or another method you like better, please do whatever is most comfortable for you, this is just the method I like best since I don't have to store a unitasker and can just use the pots and pans I own.

Ingredients:

2 T oil

⅓ C popcorn kernels

Salt

1 C dark candy making chocolate

¼ C peppermints, crushed

Directions:

Popping the popcorn:

In your widest pan with a lid, pour in the oil and add a couple kernels of popcorn. When those kernels pop, add the rest of the popcorn and place on the lid, making sure to keep it slightly ajar so the steam doesn't make the popcorn soggy. Shake the pan gently to make sure all of the kernels get coated with oil. Once the popcorn starts popping, make sure to shake the pan occasionally so that the unpopped kernels get even heat.

When the popping slows to 2 or 3 seconds between pops, remove the pan from the heat, but don't take the lid off until the popping stops entirely or you will be picking up a shower of popcorn from the kitchen floor. Once the popping has stopped, pour the popcorn onto a baking sheet lined with wax paper, parchment paper, or my favorite, a silicone baking mat. Make sure to get the popcorn into 1 layer. Lightly salt the popcorn and then let it cool while you melt the chocolate.

Chocolate and peppermint:

Put the chocolate in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high for 15 second intervals, stirring very thoroughly each time, until nice and liquid, about 90 degrees. With a spoon, drizzle the chocolate over the popcorn, making sure to get a bit on every piece. Before the chocolate cools, sprinkle on the crushed peppermints. Let the chocolate cool (I stick mine in the freezer to speed this up) and then break the popcorn pieces apart and store in airtight containment, or just eat it right away!

Quinoa Salad with Candied Walnuts

I love quinoa, as I'm sure you can tell if you are a regular reader of my blog. But, I have generally limited myself to serving it as a hot side. With spring upon us and unseasonably warm temperatures here on the east coast, I decided to branch out and try my hand at making a cold quinoa salad. Quinoa is a wonderful grain for making cold salads since, unlike many other starches, it doesn't get rock hard once it gets cold.

Ingredients:

1 C dry quinoa
2 C water
salt to taste

¾ C dried cranberries

¾ C candied walnuts

3 T basting oil*

Directions:

Cook your cup of quinoa in the water and salt to taste before refrigerating it to get to down to room temp or cooler. Gently stir in the cranberries and walnuts (which I made from my previous recipe, minus the sesame seeds) before drizzling on the basting oil and tossing to coat. Serve immediately for the best crunch on the candied walnuts.

*Basting oil is delicious herb infused oil that is great on everything from meat to pasta. If you live near a Wegmans you can easily pick some up there or you can follow their recipe, in the link provided, or make your own by combining some of your favorite fresh or dried herbs with a neutral flavored oil.

Southwestern Meatloaf with Southwest BBQ Sauce

A couple weeks ago I decided I wanted meatloaf cause I had some ground beef left in the fridge that needed to be used up. It was a fine meatloaf, but it was a bit bland and not very exciting. I thought about adding some regional flavors to it and settled on southwest style as I was in the mood for chili at the time. I was talking to a co-worker about trying to make a southwest style meatloaf, we bounced around some ideas, and I settled on combining American chili flavors with Mexican pico de gallo flavors to capture a more full range of southwest flavors, and it turned out delicious.

Like anything southwest style, it demanded a sauce so I doctored up my favorite bbq sauce to add a bit more flavor

Ingredients:

Meatloaf:

1 t chili powder

½ t paprika

½ t cayenne powder

¼ t cinnamon

1 t cumin

¼ t garlic powder

½ t ground black pepper

½ red onion, diced

1 tomato, diced

¼ C packed chopped cilantro

1 C crushed tortilla chips

1 T Worchester sauce

1 egg, beaten

1 c milk

1.5 lb ground beef

¼ C BBQ sauce

2 T brown sugar or demerara sugar

Sauce:

1 C BBQ sauce
3 T of brown sugar or demerara sugar
½ t of cumin
½ t of chili powder

Directions:

Preheat your oven to 375.

Combine the spices then add the produce and stir in the milk and eggs. Add the ground beef and gently work in the mixture. I recommend using your hands, but a spatula will do if you don't want ground beef and egg all over your fingers. Place in a greased loaf pan and use a spatula to smooth the top and work into the corners. Baste the top with the BBQ sauce and sprinkle with brown sugar or demerara sugar. Bake for 1 hr and then let rest for 15 minutes.

While the loaf is resting combine the 1 cup of BBQ sauce with the sugar and spices in a small sauce pan and stir over medium heat until smooth. Serve alongside the meatloaf.

One of the interesting things about this recipe is that, as long as you use a gluten free BBQ sauce, this is gluten free.