What would convert this chili recipe into a Russian chili?

Question

Not sure exactly how to ask this. I was looking for a Russian Chili Recipe, and being from Siberia myself I never really encountered it before. Therefore I took a traditional recipe and modified it a little to make it more like a Russian dish. Here is my recipe that I cooked for my company's chili cook-off. I want to hear some suggestions and opinions on this recipe.

My question is:

Has anyone ever heard of a Russian Chili Recipe, and if so could this recipe qualify as Russian?

Ingredients

• 2 pounds ground beef
• ½ pound of ground chicken
• ½ pound of ground pork
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 cups beef broth
• ½ cup of 2% milk
• 1 15 oz can red pinto beans (drain)
• 1 15 oz can black beans (drain)
• 3 fresh tomatoes (cut to small chunks)
• 1 15 oz can tomato sauce
• 1 6 oz can tomato paste
• 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
• 2 large onions, diced finely
• 1 large green bell pepper, diced finely
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 tablespoons cumin, ground
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1 teaspoon dried oregano
• 1 teaspoon black pepper, ground
• 4 Habanero peppers, seeded diced finely
• 4 chipotle peppers, seeded diced finely

Directions

1. In a large pot, heat the brown the ground beef, pork and chicken, making sure to continuously break up large pieces with a spoon or spatula. Once browned drain fat off of ground meat. Return the ground meat to the pot.
2. Add onions and green bell pepper to the ground meat and cook over medium heat with stirring until the onions are soft and translucent.
3. Add the garlic, cumin, sugar, thyme, cayenne powder, oregano, and black pepper. Heat over medium heat with stirring for 12 minutes.
4. Pour in the beef broth, milk. Add pinto beans, black beans, cream cheese, diced tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, cider vinegar, chipotle, chili and habanero peppers. Stir to mix well.
5. Reduce heat to low and simmer for at least 2 hours before serving or refrigerating. Footnotes Crack Pot Alternative: After step 4 you can pour chili in crock pot and cook it on medium for 6 hours.

Notes

It is best to have all ingredients ready to go before starting the process. Do not wait to dice onions or peppers. Get everything ready to go and then start the process. In addition, cutting chili peppers by hand can result in hands "catching on fire." It is best to use a grinder or something other than hands. If you do use your hands, please make sure to scrub your hands and wash with soap before you touch anything (like your mouth or your eyes). Even though this recipe calls for Chili and Habanero peppers in the end it becomes about medium spicy but with strong pepper flavor.

Please Note: Directions are taken from a traditional beef chili recipe and modified to accommodate custom ingredients.

Asked by SaUce

Answer

I think you've got a wide berth of possibilities but what's above seems pretty restricted. What you are listing above sounds like a pretty straight-forward Midwestern American chili. It has the features of the standard chili spices, beans and tomatoes, with a nice variety of meats.

• To try to engineer a Russian chili I would expect more indigenous foods.

As @Cold suggests, beets would be great to add for their sugar content. However, there are quite a few American recipes that utilize potatoes, so you might seek those out. Are there other vegetables to substitute that you recall as more native? Other beans maybe? How about caraway, dill, chervil, tarragon?

Vodka would seem like an easy route to go to appease the indigenous aspect, but I don't think it would yield much results in terms of impacting the flavor; especially in the context of the extant chili recipe. Unfortunately, I can't see the benefit of buffeting vodka against the flavors of cumin, coriander, clove, let alone hot peppers. On the other hand, Russians produce some amazing beers (I am a big fan of Baltika), and I would recommend looking into switching to a lager flavor or Imperial Stout as I mentioned above.

But for real, my spin would be to approach this from a Solyanka point of view (which would definitely give you ceiling room to try incorporating Medovukha); or really any of the other amazing cold Russian soups. Or perhaps try to incorporate mini dumplings like Pelmani, mini Kotlety, or use Shashlyk-style prepared meats for the chili. I would also consider trying to get some lamb in the recipe, in particular at the expense of the chicken.

But don't forget, chili is all about what you want to put into it (<-- self-promotional plug); not what the standard template lists.

• The romantic version of the American myth about chili (in particular, Texas Red chili) frequently revolves around Cowboys planting peppers and onions on their most traveled roads. They would be carrying dried meats and, at night under starry skies, use kettles to cook the stew that became known as chili.
• What kind of story of Russian kindred spirit do you want to weave with your chili?

Answered by mfg

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Does the choice of peppers affect the 'flavor of the heat'?

Question

Working with a variation of this chili recipe I meticulously cleaned my peppers of seeds and veins to produce a 'milder' chili. Unfortunately this batch was almost 'too mild' (heat wise, the flavor was very good). I am thinking that next time around I will leave in some of the seeds/veins to give it just a bit more 'kick'.

The question is, given the choice of Anaheim, poblano and jalapeno peppers would it matter to the flavor which pepper I allow to be the source of the heat? I know that each pepper has it's own unique flavor to offer and each is going to provide a different 'level' of heat, but will the 'heat' taste differently based on the choice of pepper?

[for anyone interested, the variation that I apply is to substitute buffalo for ground beef and fresh tomatoes for the canned, I don't believe either should affect this question.]

Asked by Cos Callis

Answer

The heat is the same; all peppers contain capsaicin. The Scoville scale defines heat in terms of capsaicin content. Use the peppers that have the flavor you want, and make it as hot as you want, and you'll be set.

And the flavor besides heat is definitely concentrated in the flesh, so you shouldn't notice any real difference in pepper flavor either.

Answered by Jefromi

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Suggested edible quantity/scaling of Habanero Pepper per pound of meat

Question

I would like to use habenero pepper in a chili, but would like to know how many fresh peppers / pound of chili should I use to maintain an edible chili or another what amount is safe to start with. I know there's probably not a cut/dry amount, but any experience in the matter would be greatly appreciated. I planned on pureeing the pepper(s) and slowly adding it in and testing, but a suggested amount would be good to know since I would like to 'marinade' my meat ahead of time.

Answer

One habanero per six quarts of chili, containing approximately one quart meat, provides a solid heat that an average palate can handle. I have cooked chili on numerous occasions for groups of people and found this formula works for most people. Typically I stack it with other, lower-Scoville peppers to produce a well-bodied heat.

Other things to bear in mind:

• one habanero per six quarts will not really showcase the subtler flavors of the habanero, only bring out its heat.
• capsaicin is fat soluble, more fats in the chili gives you more wiggle room to add more heat. Up the meat or oil (bacon fat), up the peppers
• browning your meat in the diced peppers will lock away some flavor in the meat as long as you don't stew it forever
• using the bulb's flesh, rather than up by the stem will lower the capsaicin in the pepper, discard seeds and pith as well; this will allow more pepper flavor without overwhelming spiciness
• some habanero peppers are weaker than others, you might seek out some that are less spicy if trying to add heat
• If all you're looking for is heat, a plurality of pepper types/cultivars will yield better heat; single pepper chili can be hotter, but have a thin kind of heat as opposed to a whole-bodied punch in the jaw kind of heat

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Habenaero Pepper - Suggested edible quantity/scaling - per pound of meat

Question

I would like to use habenaero pepper in a chili, but would like to know how many fresh peppers / pound of chili should I use to maintain an edible chili or another what amount is safe to start with. I know there's probably not a cut/dry amount, but any experience in the matter would be greatly appreciated. I planned on pureeing the pepper(s) and slowly adding it in and testing, but a suggested amount would be good to know since I would like to 'marinade' my meat ahead of time.

Answer

One habanero per six quarts of chili, containing approximately one quart meat, provides a solid heat that an average palate can handle. I have cooked chili on numerous occasions for groups of people and found this formula works for most people. Typically I stack it with other, lower-Scoville peppers to produce a well-bodied heat.

Other things to bear in mind:

• one habanero per six quarts will not really showcase the subtler flavors of the habanero, only bring out its heat.
• capsaicin is fat soluble, more fats in the chili gives you more wiggle room to add more heat. Up the meat or oil (bacon fat), up the peppers
• browning your meat in the diced peppers will lock away some flavor in the meat as long as you don't stew it forever
• using the bulb's flesh, rather than up by the stem will lower the capsaicin in the pepper, discard seeds and pith as well; this will allow more pepper flavor without overwhelming spiciness
• some habanero peppers are weaker than others, you might seek out some that are less spicy if trying to add heat
• If all you're looking for is heat, a plurality of pepper types/cultivars will yield better heat; single pepper chili can be hotter, but have a thin kind of heat as opposed to a whole-bodied punch in the jaw kind of heat

Check more discussion of this question.

What is the hottest part of a chili/chilli/chile pepper?

Question

I often hear different points of view to this question - some say the hottest part of the chili is its seeds, yet I've heard some (arguably more believable) sources claim that the white part that holds the seeds to the flesh is the hottest.

What part of the chili fruit is the hottest?

Answer

The Wikipedia article on Capsicum reads, citing a FAQ on a page of the ollege of Agriculture and Home Economics of the New Mexico State University:

Capsaicin is present in large quantities in the placental tissue (which holds the seeds), the internal membranes and, to a lesser extent, the other fleshy parts of the fruits of plants in the genus Capsicum. Contrary to popular belief, the seeds themselves do not produce any capsaicin, although the highest concentration of capsaicin can be found in the white pith around the seeds.

Cisneros-Pineda et al. measured via gas chromatography the content of capsaicin and dihydrocapsaicin in the pericarp, placenta, and seeds of seven cultivars of chili peppers and the results confirm this:

For dihydrocapsaicin, the difference is not so large, but the placenta still has a higher concentration.

In terms of concentration considering fresh mass the difference won't be as dramatic because while the seeds lose around half their mass by drying, the placenta will lose 90%.

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Undercooked beans in chili?

Question

I made a bit of a mistake, being a lazy bachelor and inexperienced at cooking. I was making chili and when it came time to add beans I discovered I didn't have any canned beans. I did however have some dried beans. I decided to save time and add these directly to the pot of chili and add some water.

However, after much simmering the beans maintain a certain unpalatable crispness. I have also read that undercooked beans contain a chemical lectin which can cause stomach discomfort. I have also read that beans should be soaked, the water discarded to remove the lectin, and then boiled to cook them.

Is there any way to salvage this? Should I just continue cooking the chili for hours? Will I have to throw out my potentially delicious chili?

Answer

If you cook them long enough, they'll still soften up, you just might have to simmer them overnight or even into the next day.

Although I'll refrain from the obvious jokes, prolonged cooking also reduces one other common side effect of beans. I'm sure you can guess what the side effect is.

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