Thread: Desert Island Chilli Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.


To visit this thread, use this URL:
http://forum.ship-of-fools.com/cgi-bin/ultimatebb.cgi?ubb=get_topic;f=70;t=027082

---

Posted by Pyx_e (# 57) on :
 
So if you were stranded on a desert island with everything you need for a good chilli: (and therefore able to live a complete life)

Beef. (from lovely plump cows)
Tomatoes. (from the vine)
Beans. (from the bean tree???)
Onions.
Chillies.
Pepper.
Salt (from the sea).
&
Rice. (from your very own little paddy)

What ONE luxury ingredient would you choose to add to this recipe?

Fly Safe,

Pyx_e
 

---

Posted by Chocoholic (# 4655) on :
 
Chocolate! (Honestly!) but you'd expect nothing else from me
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Dark Chocolate.
No, no, I am dead serious. Just enough. To where you almost cannot detect it. The chocolate enhances the chili flavours, adding a subtle complexity to the overall flavour palette.

ERA: See! The fact that a cross post agrees with me proves it. Thread over now, we have established the penultimate ingredient

[ 24. March 2014, 16:07: Message edited by: lilBuddha ]
 

---

Posted by TheAlethiophile (# 16870) on :
 
I'd be adventurous. I would add a boat, preferably with an outboard motor.

If I found I didn't like the taste, I'm sure I could find some other use for it.

Though if I were being less facetious, I would add chorizo. I like the smokiness of the paprika within. But it's better than adding just paprika.
 

---

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
I frequently leave out the tomatoes, in favour of beef stock. And I never serve it with rice - usually I surround it in a bowl with tortilla chips, scatter with grated cheese and finish under the grill.

Owing to the variability of the jalapeños you get in the supermarkets*, tend to go with chilli powder.

*I'm assuming this place has a Tesco, and, 50 yards away, a Sainsbury Local. If not, it'll be unique on the planet

[ 24. March 2014, 17:32: Message edited by: Firenze ]
 

---

Posted by Heavenly Anarchist (# 13313) on :
 
My luxury ingredient on the island would be Firenze to do the cooking, as I like the sound of her chilli (I'm not keen on tomatoes and love cheese).
 

---

Posted by ken (# 2460) on :
 
Good bread to mop up the splodge at the end.

A week of cooked meals with no decent bread is enough to drive a strong man mad.
 

---

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 
I'd hope there was bread around too. An extra in the chilli would have to be celery. I find that well-chopped celery goes well with chilli.

(For veggies you can ditch the beef and put another kind of bean in there to vary the taste and texture).
 

---

Posted by Og, King of Bashan (# 9562) on :
 
Granted, my desert island chili looks quite different from what you are proposing here (trade the beef for pork, leave out the beans and rice, and trade New Mexico green chili pods for whatever generic chilies you have in mind), but you can't chose what you get stuck in the island with.

Assuming that you just forgot to mention garlic because it is such a basic ingredient that one almost forgets about it, I'm going to go with cumin. Nothing like cumin to bring a nice, warming, homey taste to chili.

After that, I'd spend my free time trying to figure out how to use those cows to get some cheese to go on top of everything.
 

---

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
Amen to cumin. Also oregano. And please, it really needs eight oz of beer, Dos XX for preference, but any brown ale should do. Well, except Newcastle.
 

---

Posted by Miss Madrigal (# 15528) on :
 
Another vote for cumin. It's what makes chilli taste properly rounded.
 

---

Posted by Porridge (# 15405) on :
 
Rice? In chili? No. But garlic is essential. Beef, on the other hand, not so much. Tomatoes, chili powder, cumin, onions, garlic, beans (otherwise there'd be no chili con carne (chili with meat).

Some crusty Cuban loaves to sop it up, beer to wash it down. But what do I know? I'm from New England, and never tasted a spice beyond ginger, nutmeg, and cinnamon until I went to college.
 

---

Posted by Palimpsest (# 16772) on :
 
Cumin. Maybe some epazote which helps the digestion of beans. Cornmeal for chips or masa. Maybe some cheese...

[ 24. March 2014, 22:37: Message edited by: Palimpsest ]
 

---

Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :
 
Chilli is served (incorrectly) with rice in the UK.

I don't mind tomatoes in chilli, but only a little please. Og's green chilli sounds rather better though. And no beans! Horrid things and no good for my IBS.

Also cheese just needs salt, acid and time so that shouldn't be too hard if there's a cow - though you'd need a bull too....
 

---

Posted by Kelly Alves (# 2522) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
Amen to cumin. Also oregano. And please, it really needs eight oz of beer, Dos XX for preference, but any brown ale should do. Well, except Newcastle.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by no prophet:
Quinoa I think.

Probably would leave out the meat entirely. But would probably add a second and third pulse, i.e., lentils or maybe black beans. Some that would make me fart. A lot. After all, there's no one to offend on the island except myself. It was St Augustine who wrote in City of God that some people have such control of their intestines that they can produce fart-music. If I'm on a desert island I would have lots of time to study esoteric matters like this, using this man as hero (wikipedia link), perhaps only NSFW if your workplace is rather prudish.

(You didn't think you could post a chili topic without reminding us of Blazing Saddles and the wonderful cowboy fart scene did you?)

---

Le Petomane i knew about, but I had no idea about Augustine!

 

---

Posted by Kyzyl (# 374) on :
 
Here's a good chili link... ICS
 

---

Posted by cliffdweller (# 13338) on :
 
I would remove the superfluous "l" as well as the downright heretical rice. Add some sour cream, and yes, possibly, a bit of unsweetened cocoa. Shredded jack cheese on top, maybe a few diced avocados.
 

---

Posted by Graven Image (# 8755) on :
 
Lyda Rose has it right

quote:

---

Amen to cumin. Also oregano. And please, it really needs eight oz of beer, Dos XX for preference,

---

quote:

---

Even in our fallen state, everyone knows that there are human beings so unlike ordinary people that, whenever they want, they can do tricks with their bodies so unusual that practically no one can imitate them or even believe they can be done. There are people who can swallow an enormous number and variety of objects and then, by a slight contraction of the stomach, bring up as from a bag whichever object they want, and in good condition. There are even individuals who can make musical notes issue from the rear of their anatomy, so that you would think they were singing.

---

Rice is common in East Texas, where it's grown, though it's what you serve chili on, rather than a proper ingredient. Of course, if it's Texas chili, there won't be beans. I haven't heard of people—well, other than out East, where what passes for "chili" is often a ground meat soup or stew with green peppers in it, far removed from the thick, red, spicy dish I'm used to—ever including black pepper, however. Cumin is the standard spice, besides chiles; it's the use of cumin in chile con carne that gives Tex-Mex its reputation as going overboard on the spice.

So, hmm. I'm okay with the rice—though I prefer the absolutely most simple crusty cornbread, made without sugar—but am assuming I can get away with swapping cumin for pepper. Epazote is great for cooking chili beans (if I get to pick, I'm going to use New Mexican Bolita beans), but you have to use a fair bit of it to still be tasted when all is said and done—but that earth and anise flavor compliments and cuts through everything else so well, that I'm going to assume that the beans have already been cooked. Further, "onion" should also include "garlic," which is essential to a proper pot of chili, so I'm assuming our challenge poster meant all members of genus Allium. I use canned tomatoes in my chili (fresh tomatoes aren't in season during prime chili-making weather, so what's the point?), but I suppose I can make do with Cherokee Purples or Paul Robesons. Beef should be the shank, with the bone included in the pot; nothing gives such a thick, gelatinous "broth" as shank—there's not much liquid at all in chili, but what there is has to be the right consistency—and nothing has quite the same rich flavor. "Chiles" are going to be Chimayo, ground, about a third cup, and a few chipotles for smoke—but never so much as to overpower the New Mexicans. I prefer to get my salt from soy sauce or the canned tomatoes, but I can deal. Ditto the bit of balsamic vinegar I like to add every once in a while, and, if I have to, the Worcestershire, which is more common.

So now, a toss-up: a pound or two of hot Mexican chorizo (no, not anything with paprika, the actually hot stuff!); an ounce or two of dark, unsweetened baking chocolate for dark and bitter flavors; or a bottle or so of Anchor Porter. The chorizo only gets added when I'm in the mood, I don't get full control over what goes in it, and hey, it's mostly useful for the grease to fry the onions/spices in, so I guess it can get left first. But the chocolate and beer…boy, much as the chocolate will be missed (the bitterness is essential!), the beer is needed to deglaze the pot after frying/browning everything, and as a liquid for the long, uncovered braze. By the time I"m done, the beer's reduced to about two ounces of liquid, but, in that time, it provides about the whole of the liquid needed to cook the chili. Plus, I guess it provides the bitter/dark flavors of the chocolate anyway…and it means I have Anchor Porter on my island somewhere in the cold regions of the world.
 

---

Posted by piglet (# 11803) on :
 
Basic ingredients as in the OP, plus garlic, tomato puree, a splash or two of red wine, a pinch of sugar and a square of dark chocolate if I have any to hand.

Served with rice, garlic bread and green salad (and the rest of the red wine).

I'd be the first to admit that my chilli recipe is about as authentic as the fake Rolexes sold out of suitcases by dodgy geezers in Oxford Street, but it's the one I've been making for the last 30 years and I quite like it.

Sorry about that.
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariston:
Plus, I guess it provides the bitter/dark flavors of the chocolate anyway

---

Are you daring me to call you to Hell?
Nothing. Supplants. CHOCOLATE!

You place the chocolate in the chili. If you need further instructions, I can tell you where to place the beer.


This. Is. Heaven. So I suppose a This. Is. Humour. disclaimer is necessary. All in fun, But seriously, replacing chocolate?!

Calls himself insane. This is true, but insane does not cover it. Does he not have taste buds? Does he not have a Tongue?!
 

---

Posted by Ariston (# 10894) on :
 
Does he not have access to chocolate stout? Does he not have a beer brewed with chocolate malt? Did he not eat all the chocolate before it made its way into the chili?

[ 25. March 2014, 01:38: Message edited by: Ariston ]
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Back to ingredients, has anyone used Harissa?

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariston:
Does he not have access to chocolate stout? Does he not have a beer brewed with chocolate malt? Did he not eat all the chocolate before it made its way into the chili?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariston:
Plus, I guess it provides the bitter/dark flavors of the chocolate anyway

---

Are you daring me to call you to Hell?
Nothing. Supplants. CHOCOLATE!

You place the chocolate in the chili. If you need further instructions, I can tell you where to place the beer.


This. Is. Heaven. So I suppose a This. Is. Humour. disclaimer is necessary. All in fun, But seriously, replacing chocolate?!

Calls himself insane. This is true, but insane does not cover it. Does he not have taste buds? Does he not have a Tongue?!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Ariston:
Does he not have access to chocolate stout? Does he not have a beer brewed with chocolate malt? Did he not eat all the chocolate before it made its way into the chili?

---

This is heavenly.

 

---

Posted by Welease Woderwick (# 10424) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Back to ingredients, has anyone used Harissa?

---

Harissa is of the Gods - a wondrous concoction and certainly a spoon or two enhances many a dish!
 

---

Posted by Timothy the Obscure (# 292) on :
 
Rice? Rice?!?! The kids these days....

Beef (diced, not ground, well browned in bacon fat)
Onions
Peppers (poblanos, jalapenos, red and yellow bells, just one serrano, and an ancho and a chipotle thrown in whole and removed at the end)
Tomatoes (not too many)
Beef broth
Garlic
Mexican oregano
Thyme
Basil
Cumin
Bay leaves
1 bottle of beer (minus a couple of swigs to cool off the cook)--it really doesn't matter what kind, though I prefer something dark myself...
6 ounces of strong coffee
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Simmer (never let it boil) for about an hour and a half, drinking beer while you watch. Then taste and "correct the seasoning" with salt, various chili powders (pasilla, chipotle, New Mexico, smoked paprika), vinegar, brown sugar, orange marmalade--whatever flavor it seems to need. This is where the cook becomes a free jazz improviser. Let your imagination run wild ("Free your mind and your ass will follow" --George Clinton)

Let it simmer for another hour while you make the cornbread.

Beans are OK, but you cook them separately and add them at the last minute....That's a whole 'nother recipe.
 

---

Posted by Lyda*Rose (# 4544) on :
 
Whoa. I just discovered that the guy who achieved a twofer in the World Championship Chili Competitions put prunes in his. But the recipe does say to remove them after the chili has cooked for two hours otherwise they might explode, or so he says. And I like the last touch. After using seven tablespoons of seven kinds of chile powder (seven TBs in total chile, that is), if it isn't hot enough for you, at the end you may add Tabasco sauce to taste. Aaaayyyyiiiii!!!

Just. Wow.

[ 25. March 2014, 04:57: Message edited by: Lyda*Rose ]
 

---

Posted by Firenze (# 619) on :
 
What strikes me about that recipe is 'onion powder' and 'garlic powder'. Why not simply onions and garlic?
 

---

Posted by la vie en rouge (# 10688) on :
 
KenWritez of blessed memory ( ) once posted a chilli recipe that included a bit of sweet fruit juice. I tried it and he was right. A splash of orange of pineapple juice in your chilli lifts it beautifully.
 

---

Posted by Lucia (# 15201) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by Welease Woderwick:

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Back to ingredients, has anyone used Harissa?

---

Harissa is of the Gods - a wondrous concoction and certainly a spoon or two enhances many a dish!

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Firenze:
What strikes me about that recipe is 'onion powder' and 'garlic powder'. Why not simply onions and garlic?

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Lyda*Rose:
Whoa. I just discovered that the guy who achieved a twofer in the World Championship Chili Competitions put prunes in his. But the recipe does say to remove them after the chili has cooked for two hours otherwise they might explode, or so he says.

---

Some mole recipes call for raisins, so I buy it.

Timothy, have you ever tried opening that ancho and toasting it in a dry skillet just until it crackles before tossing it into the pot? Toasted red chiles are pure magic.

Now if you really want to get serious and have a day to burn, make a jar of this stuff and add a tablespoon or two to your chili. Added bonus: if you use a cast iron pan to make the paste, the next thing you cook in there is going to taste amazing.
 

---

Posted by Marvin the Martian (# 4360) on :
 
To the question in the OP, I'd have said cumin and garlic as well.

When I make chilli, it's:

Chopped onion
Crushed garlic
Beef
Chopped tomatoes
Water
2x beef OXO cubes
Cumin
Paprika
Chilli powder (courtesy of Pete and Wodders )
Splash of Worcestershire sauce
Kidney beans
Rice
Sliced jalapenos - garnish with these as required

It may not be authentic, by by crikey it's tasty
 

---

Posted by DonLogan2 (# 15608) on :
 
At last someone mentions Worcestershire sauce!

How about a dollop of Marmite too?
 

---

Posted by lilBuddha (# 14333) on :
 
Worcestershire sauce and marmite? And you wonder why Britain is never listed as a country with great cuisine....
 

---

Posted by Jade Constable (# 17175) on :
 
Actually Worcestershire sauce is a great favourite in Mexico (they call it 'English sauce') and is regularly added to mole and other dishes which resemble chilli. And marmite is simply another way of adding umami - I don't see why it should be treated with any more suspicion than adding chocolate.
 

---

Posted by Sioni Sais (# 5713) on :
 

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Worcestershire sauce and marmite? And you wonder why Britain is never listed as a country with great cuisine....

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Sioni Sais:

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:
Worcestershire sauce and marmite? And you wonder why Britain is never listed as a country with great cuisine....

---

More cheeses than France, the World's greatest puddings (apple crumble rocks, as Kelly would say and she should try it with Cornish ice cream) and my personal favourite, the Melton Mowbray Pork Pie*. Then there is fish (well, there was before the Spanish stole it all with their 2,000 ton seagoing hoovers) and beer. Sorry planet Earth, for variety and excellence, we have you beaten for beer and thanks to Scotland for whisky too.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Jade Constable:
Actually Worcestershire sauce is a great favourite in Mexico (they call it 'English sauce') and is regularly added to mole and other dishes which resemble chilli.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Meerkat:
Hate to tell ya, lilBuddha, but Scottish Whisky (Scotch) does not have the 'e' ;-)

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by la vie en rouge:
KenWritez of blessed memory ( ) once posted a chilli recipe that included a bit of sweet fruit juice. I tried it and he was right. A splash of orange of pineapple juice in your chilli lifts it beautifully.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Meerkat:
Hate to tell ya, lilBuddha, but Scottish Whisky (Scotch) does not have the 'e' ;-)

---

It isn't worth drinking, it isn't worth fighting spell check.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Mertseger:
The one addition in my family chili is a different starch: thin spaghetti or speghettini pasta. I know it's wrong at a fundamental level, but my folks were introduced to chili via an apparently short-lived fad in the 1950's Mid-West of the US for "chili bars" - fast food restaurants where you'd purchase a mild, generic chili and add a variety of toppings and other things. Pasta was a cheap filler, and so that's what my Mom knew as chili.

---

quote:

---

Originally posted by Kelly Alves:

quote:

---

Originally posted by lilBuddha:

quote:

---

Originally posted by Meerkat:
Hate to tell ya, lilBuddha, but Scottish Whisky (Scotch) does not have the 'e' ;-)

---

It isn't worth drinking, it isn't worth fighting spell check.

---

OOOOooo I hope Alan doesn't see that....

---

If Da can't manage to get me for it, I think I can dodge Alan.
 

---

© Ship of Fools 2016


UBB.classic^TM 6.5.0