Fresh chili ingredients
BY STEPHANIE FOX
It was cold and snowing outside on the first day of February, but inside City Church, it was warm (and sometimes spicy, in a Minnesota way) at the Kenny Neighborhood’s second annual Winter Chili Cook-off. Mike Ferrin, the Kenny Neighborhood Association Co-Coordinator, said that the seven contestants were competing for a trophy designed to look like a chili pot and a $50 gift certificate to local business, South Lyndale Liquors.
Kenny Association Treasurer Kim Rosenfield said that the neighborhood was looking to hold an event the weekend before the Super Bowl. “I can’t take full credit for this idea,” she said. “We were inspired by a chili contest at the Fulton Neighborhood. It’s the dead of winter and we wanted something cozy to do, something that helps our neighbors meet each other when people are stuck inside their homes.”
Last year’s chili event drew a lot more people, nearly 80 neighbors, but this year only about 25 showed up, deterred perhaps, by the weather. But chili makers arrived to (literally) stand behind their crockpots of chili and serve to the chili tasting crowd. The seven chilies featured included a white chicken chili, an elk chili, a beef chili, a beef/pork chili, a three bean with ground beef and beans chili, a 7-pepper beef and pork chili and a venison chili.
Tasters voted for their favorites on a nearby laptop computer and the top three were celebrated as the best chilies in the Kenny Neighborhood.
First-place winner, Council Member Linea Palmisano
When the votes were counted, Kevin and Syl Lyons came in third. The second-place chili award went to Jason and Kelly Barbes. The winner, serving the Beef-Pork medium-hot chili was City Council Member Linea Palmisano. “This year, both my kids had multiple events on the day of the chili cook-off, so I had to drop off my ‘unmanned’ crock of chili and hope for the best. I also asked Park Board President Cathy Abene and Mayor Frey to help serve the chili. It was a metaphor of what we’re here to do every day, after all.”
“I have been in multiple chili contests in different neighborhoods before, because I love cooking and feeding people in the community,” she said. “Looking back, most of my direct service, volunteer roles in my life have been about bringing food to people who need it, in myriad ways. It brings me joy.”
“I’m stunned that I beat the entry where the guy was using the elk that he had hunted himself. I didn’t really think I was going to win. I got text messages (about coming in first) from the neighborhood staff and Cathy Abene and I was floored.”
Palmisano attributes her winning chili to advice she got from a former chef. “One evening I was speaking with a constituent, Rob, who has been a chef in his past, and he offered to mentor me in chili making. This basically just meant a lot of discussion about quality ingredients that don’t cost a ton and how many people make the mistake of adding too much cumin or using store bought chili powder, which is useless in his opinion.”
He also gave her advice about ingredients not usually associated with classic chilies. Coffee or chocolate are special ingredients, which add depth, he told her. “And that while I’d been trying out a beef/lamb mixture he suggested that she should try a beef and pork combination, a better fit for a Midwestern audience,” she said.
“Cooking is something that everyone learns to do, some way or other we are always needing to feed ourselves. It’s a great connector of cultures, I am trying to improve upon myself and try new things. It’s a challenge to feed my growing boys and get to all the evening demands of my job,” she said.
Linea Palmisano’s winning chili recipe ‘Kenny Dearest Chili’
Chili makers and testers gather together at the cook-off
Using ingredients donated for the chili by family, friends and members of the community, Palmisano put together her winning chili. These included MN State Fair Blue-Ribbon garlic and farmer’s market heirloom tomatoes, flash-frozen last summer. Her chili mentor donated cooked Rancho Gordo beans.
“And what I think put it over the top was adding the hot sauce made from dried Scotch Bonnet and Trinidad Scorpion peppers given to me by Kevin, the friendly Armatage mail carrier.”
“I also added a large white onion, 16 oz. of chicken broth and ½ cake of good quality bittersweet chocolate. I purchased 1.5 lbs. of lean ground beef and 1.5 lbs. of ground pork from the local co-op.”
First, to make the hot sauce ‘tincture’ she rehydrated the dried peppers in a small amount of hot water about 10 minutes, she said. “You could also purchase a variety of dried peppers from most grocery stores (look at description to see if recommended for chili making), just make sure to take the seeds out. Coarsely chop them up and add an acid.
“For the acid, I used some of the tomato juice from the freezer bags of tomatoes,” she said, “but you could use diluted cider vinegar or even lemon juice”
“And, I added 2 Tbsp. of a friend’s homemade hot sauce for diversity of peppers. I then used the hand blender until it became a watery puree. Add a few pinches of salt. Think Tabasco sauce in terms of consistency. Set aside, you will use it later in this recipe and at the end,” she said. “Then, start the cooking. This takes about an hour overall.”
“I heat my largest pot on the stovetop with a couple tablespoons of olive oil on medium-high heat, add the diced white onion and cook until softened, about four minutes.”
“Then add the ground beef and ground pork along with 4 ground cloves of garlic, 1 tsp. ground up cumin, 2-3 tsp. of ground up fennel seed, which will give the chili a more sausage-y flavor, salt/pepper, and about half of the hot sauce or rehydrated pepper ‘tincture’ depending on your personal preference for heat. This will start to cook into the meat as it browns, about 5-10 minutes. Make sure to use a wooden spoon and break up the ground meat as it browns,” she said.
Reduce heat to medium and add in diced tomatoes, with most, but not all, of their juice. “I used approximately 14 flash-frozen medium heirlooms which is roughly 30 oz. of crushed tomatoes (if you use canned). Add the cooked beans or 28 oz. of canned beans.”
Mayor Jacob Frey tasting a chili entry
“It’s important that the beans are soft but not with broken skins. If cooking the beans yourself, add that broth into the pot as well. If using canned, you should drain and replace lost liquid with chicken broth,” she said.
Let it all simmer for about 15 minutes and near the end of that time, put in ¼ cake of good quality bittersweet chocolate. Then taste and add another ¼ cake if you think it’s needed.
“This is the time to taste it a lot, and consider adding a bit more of the spices to taste. Then, start checking for consistency. Is it too thick? Add more chicken broth.”
This is one of those meals that is much better the next day. Chill the chili in the fridge overnight and the flavors will meld. “You’ll still want to add in more chicken broth after it is refrigerated overnight, as the consistency will thicken substantially, especially if you’ve used the bean broth,” she said.
“Since it was WAY under 38 degrees on our back porch, I knotted the lid down onto the Dutch oven with a kitchen towel and placed it out back. I then reheated it in the pot it was in, adjusting the consistency by adding a bit more chicken broth, before transferring it into the crockpot (for the contest.)” she said. “Taste it again, it might have gotten more mild and the pepper tincture comes in handy to add a bit more heat.”
At the contest, the remainder of the chili pepper tincture was on the side, ready for serving, with people adding a little or a lot, depending on their spice preference. “Personally, I add a big dollop of sour cream to my bowl,” Palmisano said. The trophy now sits on Palmisano’s desk at city hall.
