February, 2, 2023
Time to make chili again. The little Mexican shop that we got chili at last time has changed into being a pure taqueria, selling just freshly made tacos. We looked around for a while and we found an amazing market with a greater selection of chili than we had ever seen before, Carniceria El Cerrito, at 936 Main street in Longmont. Just wow! What a find!
We’re taking a bit different approach this time, using the slow cooker for a longer simmer. This chili has always been better the 2nd day, after a reheat simmer, after all.
For high quality chili, you have to have quality control staff!
Here’s the 1st two types of chili on the cooling rack after being bloomed in a 350 °F oven. At the left are the Guajillo, at the right are the Pasilla
The other 3 ready to be bloomed. Mulato at left, Ristra in the middle, and Negro at right. The Ristra doesn’t make sense. A Ristra is a string of any type of chile, so we don’t know what species of chili this actually is. The Spruce Eats (a really great resource) says its probably The New Mexico Chili pepper, which encompasses a lot of different types.
Grinding one batch of Pasilla Negro chili.
Here’s all the spices. The blend of Paprika, crushed Aleppo chili, Cumin, and Mexican Oregano in the timbale and all of the freshly ground chiles in the Corelle bowls.
Bill sampling and deciding on how much of each chili to use.
The final result, in the big slow cooker insert.
All packaged up! 3 dinner sized portions at the left, and 14 chili dog sized portions on the right. Bill loves chili dogs for lunch.
A fairly well stocked freezer. The dinner sized chilis are at the top right, with the chili dog sized ones behind them. Some of the lasagnas can be seen at the middle left, with the ice cream machine bowl under them. Martin likes his beer mugs frozen.