Pass the White Bread

While I'm nuking my lunch, I may as well type some more self-indulgent drivel.

I made chili yesterday, using the recipe from my book. I really love that stuff. I'd probably be eligible for the death penalty if I tried to serve it in Texas or some other place where chili nuts inflict their narrow notions of chili on everyone else. But it's great.

The original recipe calls for a small amount of sugar. I put that in because the tomatoes used in canned products aren't very ripe, and they tend to be really acidic. But a reader told me you can cut tomato acid with a small amount of baking soda. I've used it in pasta sauce, and it works very well. But when I tried it in chili, it didn't make me happy at all.

I think chili needs to be acidic, because otherwise it's just spicy meat. Whatever the reason, using baking soda in yesterday's chili turned out to be a big mistake. I had to add acid (in the form of balsamic vinegar) to bring it back to where it needed to be.

Vinegar was the only thing I could think of to use. Naranja agria is too sour. Red wine isn't acidic enough. It worked all right, but I think the best solution is to leave the acidity in there when you make the chili.

The original recipe calls for chopped jalapenos. I like them because they're mild, and you can use a lot of them, so you end up with a fair amount of vegetation in the chili. But when I switched to habaneros, I had to make changes. This time, I used a chopped-up red bell pepper. I think it was a good choice.

Some day I should try browning the meat instead of just cooking it until the grease runs out. I know it would be better, but I'm too impatient to wait.

Because my recipe is intended to be a White Boy version of chili, I included regular old chili powder in it instead of specifying ingredients like cumin and so on. Maybe I should make a new version and change that.

I got a Penzey's catalogue in the mail this week, and it has a bunch of yuppified chili powders in it. Bet those are good.

The microwave beeped. Time to scorch my innards just a little.