Smoked and Braised Texas Chili Con Carne

Fact: Chili Con Carne, despite it's Spanish name, is not from Mexico. It is from Texas and is considered the national dish of the lone star state. Cooking Chili Con Carne has been a very macho pastime and is a favorite at tailgate parties. Men would flex their muscles by exclaiming they make the best chili con carne. I've only been to Texas once in my life for an overnight trip accompanying my father on a business trip. I asked the bellboy where i could find authentic chili con carne and he suggested a diner chain which i didn't trust. I ended up eating an unforgettable authentic fajita in a restaurant in the hotel. The fajita was a skirt steak, rubbery but chewy and very flavorful, smoked in mesquite.

What we know and what we grew up with as chili con carne is a bit far from its authenticity. Research shows that real chili con carne has no tomatoes or tomato sauce. Chopped beef is used instead of ground beef and as I just found out: has NO Beans. Just as some Italians proclaim that a carbonara has no cream, some Texans proclaim chili con carne has no tomato sauce or even beans.

I have a fascination with Mexican and border cuisine. I've developed this recipe over the years and its base is from two recipes from two cookbooks, namely the The Beef & Veal edition of the Good Cook series published by Time/Life and a wonderful cookbook called The Border Cookbook by Cheryl Alters Jamison and Bill Jamison.

The most important ingredient here is the dried Ancho chili. I had this sent from my sister who lives in the US. It looks and smells like sun-dried tomatoes, the taste though is something similar to cocoa. It's spice is mild but the flavor is somewhat bitter and has a tinge of sweetness. No wonder the Mexicans mix chocolate and chili in their Mole Poblano sauce. It has a wonderful taste and I don't think there is a substitute for it.

The first step is to rub and season the beef. Here I use a whole slab of local chuck (kalitiran). The marinade for the 1.5 kilo slab of beef is a paste made of garlic, salt, ancho chili and olive oil. I use a mortar and pestle to crush the six cloves of garlic and I use a blender to grind the two chilis. I stir two teaspoons of salt and olive oil to make a paste. I then rub the marinade all over the beef.

The second step is to smoke/grill the beef. In a charcoal broiler, I heat enough charcoal until the gray ashes form on top. I then add some soaked mesquite wood chips (available at any True Value branch) on top of the charcoal and i then place the beef directly on top of the wood chips and charcoal. I cover the charcoal broiler so all the smoke flavor can be captured by the meat. I do have to manually fan the holes of the sides of the barbecue grill to make sure there is enough oxygen in the charcoal and wood chips to prevent the smoke from dying. The beef should be smoked on all sides. This process should take around 20 to 30 minutes.

After resting the slab of beef and it has cooled down, I then chop it into 1/2 to 1/4 inch cubes. I sauteé some onions in bacon fat (leftover from my bacon dinner the week before) in a big pot. I then add the beef, brown it a bit and then I add the juices of the beef (which was saved during the chopping process) and around two to three cups of beef stock and add a couple of bay leaves. I simmer the beef for an hour or until soft and tender.

While the beef is simmering, I will make a chili paste which will be the base of the sauce. In a non greased skillet or pan, I toast one tablespoon of whole cumin seeds in very low flame for around ten minutes. Cumin is an important spice in the overall flavor of this dish. Do not use packaged ground cumin. Any Mexican, Texan, Indian or Middle Eastern cook will tell you, it is imperative to toast the cumin before grinding it. I purchased the cumin seeds at Assad in Jupiter, Makati. After toasting the cumin seeds, I grind the seeds in an electric blender for around 20 seconds. I then add around six cloves of garlic, six stemmed dried ancho chili, a teaspoon of dried oregano. While grinding in the blender, I slowly add some water until it becomes a paste. I then mix in one tablespoon of sugar, one tablespoon of salt, three tablespoons of good Spanish paprika and some cayenne pepper for spice. Add just enough cayenne pepper accordingly to your desire. Since the ancho is mild in spice, I use cayenne pepper.

Now, there is a controversy regarding beans in this dish. Some purists say that real authentic chili con carne has no beans. There was one time I cooked this dish for my family without beans. Everyone on the table kept on asking for beans. They exclaimed that chili con carne has to have beans, despite all my arguments from research. Personally, i do enjoy it with beans as long as the beans do not overpower the meat. My ideal chili con carne would consist of 20 to 30% beans. From experience, the ideal beans for chili is pinto beans. To address this issue of beans or if I'm going to have a purist at the dinner table, i can always serve the beans separately.

After an hour or so of simmering the beef, add the paste and simmer for another thirty minutes. The paste and the reduction time will slightly thicken the sauce. To thicken some more, the traditional way is to add cornmeal. With the absence of cornmeal, i prepare a roux using flour and bacon fat and mix it into the stew.

After an hour and half, the smoky mesquite flavor has rendered itself all over the dish. You don't need to be told that the cumin and the chili is a perfect combination with the smoky flavor.

This dish can be served many ways: In a bowl as toppings for rice or in a bowl separately with rice on the side. The simple garnish for this dish is chopped white onions and grated medium cheddar. To make it more exciting, other garnishes can be offered on the table such as tortillas or nachos, chopped tomatoes and chopped lettuce making it into a somewhat taco chili salad. Cold beer is the perfect beverage to go with this dish, Corona or San Mig Light.

This dish requires a lot of time and work but it is all worth it. The flavor of the mesquite, the texture of the beef cubes as opposed to ground meat is all worth the effort. I'm actually thinking of selling this and anyone interested can send me an email, just give me a week's notice.