I think my body is still set to Chicago weather, because despite the fact that it is a beautiful sunny 80 degrees (26 C) in Adelaide, I still feel like it should be snowing (which is funny, because I moved to Australia to get away from the snow). This is the first year of my entire life it has not snowed on my birthday or the Super Bowl, and while I love it, I find myself craving winter stews and a seat next to a roaring fire. What the hell is wrong with me? I have definitely been craving a nice big bowl of chili, American chili, and lots of it. So I did what any respectful food lover would do: I held a chili cook-off. I make one chili, I get nine other kinds of chili back?I like those odds. This actually took place in October, but thanks to my survey, got pushed back. But what better day to talk about chili than Super Bowl Sunday? Oh and as a side note: if you are not American and have no clue what the hell this chili thing is, go here. And get excited. We started off with a few snacks, but word on the street was the chili was particularly kick-ass, so most people held back. I’m pretty sure they were talking about my chili.
All around me, people were a-buzz with excitement.
The contestants were a motley crew of folks from across the globe, namely the United States, Australia, Singapore and the Caribbean. Half of the contestants had never even EATEN chili before! But being great students of gastronomy, they all studied up on the dish and made versions to reflect their own backgrounds. The only rules were the dish had to contain chili peppers of some kind and cooked like a traditional chili (i.e., some liquid, veggies or meat, etc.). It did not have to contain beans. I am not one of those crazy die-hard chili cook-offers. I?m just there for the sweet, sweet chili goodness, strictly speaking. Here are the contestants: Joanne, a retired U.S. military lady from the east coast turned gastronome, made a traditional chili with ground (mince) beef, three kinds of beans, chili powder and cumin.
Here is a little tip for ya: don?t mess with the military?s cheese. Joanne was quite adamant that a particular kind of cheese could only be eaten with her chili, and woe be to the stupid person that messes with her queso. Jennifer, an American gastronomy student from last year (who is married to an Aussie) made a fairly straight-forward chili, I believe she used pork?this is why I should really not wait to blog about something. The old memory is failing me daily.
Selina, a fellow gastronomy student from Singapore, made a three meat (or was it four?) Asian-style chili, with some spicy Asian sausages and enough chili pepper to give the toughest eater a swift kick in the pants. But, you know, an enjoyable kick in the pants. I am fairly sure there was pork and beef in the dish as well.
This exuberant fella is Andrew, a South Australian boy and fellow gastronomy student, who made an Australian chili with ground (mince) kangaroo meat, golden syrup, lemon myrtle and yes, even a bit of vegemite. Andrew was a chili virgin, but his chili had a really great sweet and spicy tone that everyone loved.
Rachel, our American gastronomy teacher and the lady behind all the steam, made a chili with dark chocolate. I want to say hers had a bit of kangaroo and beef in it, but once again, the old memory is a bit dusty.***EDIT***Rachel is the fourth person from the party to contact me with her actual ingredients, so here they are (and I wasn’t that far off this time!) beef, shredded kangaroo, ancho and chipotle chile, pepperberries and dark chocolate.
This is Bec, voted Australian of the year by Adam and Leena, and she made a white chili with chicken and jalape¤os. For being a chili virgin, Bec rocked the house on this one.
Niki, a Caribbean/Australian/American gastronomy student, was quite confident in her pork chili, as you can see here. You certainly don’t want to run into that in a dark alley.
This was my chili, a riff off of a traditional Texas Red chili recipe I got from The Hungry Texan, my current favorite food porn blog. I basically took her recipe and merged it with my traditional chili recipe. I used two kinds of peppers, a dried Ancho pepper and a canned chipotle. I also used dark chocolate (like you would in a mole recipe), Cooper?s Dark Ale (a South Australian beer), and to lighten up the heavy flavors, a bit of fresh corn. I forgot to take a picture of myself with my chili, but let?s be honest, you see enough of me on this thing!
Okay, if you insist. Here I am, looking hot and ready to eat, as usual.
This is my third chili cook-off, so we pretty much have a system on how the chili gets judged. Everyone gets a small cup so they can try a little bit of each chili. Then they get a bowl, so they can go back and eat a bowl of their three favorite. Then everyone votes for their top two choices. So far, this method has served us well. And here is this year?s winner: Andrew and his Aussie chili!!!
The lucky winner walked away with a blow up chili pepper and a box of chocolates from Melbourne?s KoKo Black. Selina came in second, and little old me came in a respectable third. Even though I did my best to send everyone home with leftover chili, I still ended up with enough chili to fill to a hot tub. I froze as much as I could, and for a week straight, we ate the rest in every possible way we could think of?on top of tater tots
in omelets
on hot dogs, on nachos?
…you name it, we probably put chili on it. I reckon a little bit even fell on Nugget. ~LTG
