Chili

My sister went to a work party and bought me a new cookbook. How nice, but the only catch was that she wanted me to make her the chili from the book since she enjoyed it that much from the party.

Specifically, the recipe is called "Chili for a crowd". A crowd of 35-40 people and involves 8 lbs of beef and 2 lbs of Italian sausage. I am not sure if I have a pot big enough to host all that meat, and I didn't have that many people coming to dinner so I cut the recipe down to 25% and followed it as close as possible.

I bought a nice chunk of chuck roast from Whole Foods and asked the guy to ground it up for me. I am not sure if it's Whole Foods or the nice meat, but the grounded beef didn't gross me out as they normally did.

The recipe contains a few uncommon chili ingredients such as basil, oregano, dill and Italian Parsley. Overall, the chili was one of the best I've had. The flavor was very vibrant and delicious, but there was too much meat and too little beans for me. I will try this recipe again with half the meat and twice the beans. And maybe more tomatoes too.

Beef Stew

When I bought the fancy kobe style beef from a Japanese store I was just going to make a simple beef soup for my girls. Then I realized that I didn't really know how to make a tasty beef stew. Of course I went straight to Cooks Illustrated and found this "Best Beef Stew" recipe.

Here's my modified ingredient list:

American Kobe style beef
1/2 onion, sliced
1 carrot, chunk
tomato paste + minced garlic
Port
Chicken broth
1 Bay leaf
Dried thyme
Potato
Frozen sweet peas
Israeli couscous

Mainly, I am missing the anchovy, salted pork, pearl onions and the gelatin part. I followed closely the cooking time indicated in the recipe except for the potato part since I was running late.

The stew was served with Israeli couscous which was cooked in chicken broth. It was delicious and hearty. The stew was thick enough that I didn't feel the need to do the gelatin step. One day I'd like to try this recipe again with all the secret ingredients and maybe serve it with homemade spatzle.