Texas Comfort Food: Payson's Papa's Chili

My friend Payson is a good ol' boy. He actually did most of his growing up in Michigan, but his daddy's Texan roots sent off some shoots that pulled Payson back to Dallas when he started getting a hankerin' to settle down.

It makes me laugh that I'm even using words like ol' and hankerin' because Payson hardly fits the stereotype. I don't think I've ever even seen him in a cowboy hat, although I think he owns one. He has low-key but impeccable taste, a closet full of Ralph Lauren and really only starts sounding like he's from the Lone Star state when he gets a few glasses of Merlot in him. But somehow, even in the years when he lived in Seattle (which is how we met), or all the years between him leaving Seattle and settling in Dallas, I always thought of him as a Texan.

It may owe in large part to this recipe, which his daddy always made for the family and which he passed on as if he were handing me a sacred treasure. I have fond memories of this chili. Way back in the day, we lived in the same apartment building and were both being paid far too little for the work we did. He'd make a big pot of this chili and eat it for a week. Sometimes he'd invite me over for a bowl, which we'd eat with coleslaw and buttered bagels, 'cause that's the way his family always enjoyed it.

Myself, I like to stick to the more traditional grated cheddar, chopped onions and maybe a little sour cream, but either way, it's a mighty fine meal.

Payson's Papa’s Chili

vegetable oil
1 large green pepper, diced
2 medium onions, diced
1# top round steak, diced
3-4 T. chili powder
2-4 c. cooked chili beans
1-28 oz. can tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil. Saute the pepper and onion until onion is translucent.

Add the steak to the vegetables and stir until meat has browned.

Add in the chili powder, beans, tomatoes and tomato sauce. Add a pinch of salt.

Cook over low heat a minimum of 2 hours on stove top or overnight in a crock pot.

Adjust seasoning with salt & pepper to taste.

Ode to a Slow Cooker: Beef Stew with Dumplings

The Spouse and I received two slow cookers as wedding gifts. We returned one, which was gigantic and kept the reasonable sized one that my friend Sharon had given us. Back then, when we were childless and snobby, we didn't use the slow cooker much. Groovy thirtysomethings in a superfantastic downtown flat don't cook like suburbanites. We knew that. We'd been to the meetings. Except for a couple times a year when The Spouse fired up a batch of Payson's Papa's Chili, the slow cooker sat unused, unappreciated, unloved.

But times change, people grow up, children come and bring extracurricular activities with them and so now, while still caring passionately about food, I have come to love, nay, adore my slow cooker.

One of my deepest held values is that we sit down to meals together. But as children grow this becomes more and more of a challenge. The Child participates in her share of extracurricular activities. These sometimes means not getting home until 7. If I try to whip up something when we get home, even if it's a time-saving recipe we still might not eat until 8. This is not optimal for a school night. So, when the extracurricular season begins I celebrate the annual Return of the Slow Cooker.

As I go about my day it sits on the counter, bubbling joyfully, filling the house with the unctuous scent of beef and onions. With the knowledge that dinner will be waiting when we get home comes an almost ridiculous elation: a little searing, a little chopping and I'm done cooking for the day. A one-dish meal doesn't require all sorts of fussing and side dishes. And clean up is virtually non-existent.

There is a slight down-side to slow cooking. In my experience recipes are pretty hit and miss. Not everything I've tried has been spectacular. And you just don't forget a truly awful meal. (Remind me to tell you the Tuscan beans story sometime). These failures, few though they may be are, I believe, what informs The Face that The Spouse makes when he sees the slow cooker come out. He doesn't say anything but I know he's worried that there will be some mooshy, flavourless glop on his plate come dinner time; not a happy thought for a man who works hard all day and wants to have a pleasant meal with his family at the end of it all. (I bet he doesn't realize that he has a "slow cooker face". He knows now). But this just inspires my ongoing quest for fantastic slow cooker recipes.

Here's a tried and true one that never fails to please.

Beef Stew with Herb Dumplings
1 # stew meat
1/2 c. red wine (remember, never cook with anything you wouldn't drink)
1 -2 c. beef stock
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 onion, sliced
1 c. baby carrots (or you could peel and chop 2 adult carrots)
1 c. diced tomatoes (from a can is just fine)
1 c. frozen peas

Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Toss in a little olive oil and quickly sear the meat to lock in the juices (and keep the meat from looking grey and squished after 6 hours of cooking).

Remove beef to slow cooker with vegetables. Deglaze the pan with the red wine and pour over ingredients. Add beef stock to cover. Season to taste with salt & pepper, a dash or three of Worcestershire sauce, a spoonful of Dijon mustard and a sprig or two of fresh thyme. Give everything a stir to combine and turn cooker on low for 6 hours to 8 hours.

Herb Dumplings
1/2 c. whole wheat pastry flour
1/2 c. all purpose flour
1/2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. salt
1 egg
1/4 c. plus 2 T. milk
2 T. vegetable oil
dried herbs, any combination you like (dill is especially yummy)
Stir together dry ingredients and add herbs.
Combine wet ingredients then add to dry, stirring just to combine.

About half an hour before you want to eat toss the frozen peas into the stew and bring up the heat to high. Glop on the dumplings by spoonfuls over top of stew. Replace lid and cook for about 25-30 minutes until dumplings are fluffy and cooked through.Note:

There is an immediacy to dumplings. They get weird if the dough sits so don't make them until just before you're going to cook them. If you know you are going to be pressed for time you can combine the dry and liquid ingredients separately and put them together when it's time to eat. Better yet, call your Spouse from the car on the way home and have him or her finish off the dish while you're en route.

"Too 'Picy, Mama"

From the second she was born, we followed one simple maxim for feeding our child: she eats what we eat. I wasn't going to be a short-order cook who makes one thing for the grown-ups and something else for the kid. Plus, I have a theory that the way to develop a well-rounded palate and avoid the terror of a "picky eater" is to expose the child to a lot of different foods early on.

Once The Child was on solid food (and once we'd slowly introduced each food, the way you do, to make sure there are no allergies), I bought a little grinder and whatever was on the menu was ground up for her to eat. It worked. With only one child there was no control group so this isn't a scientific proof but she is decidedly not picky. She doesn't enjoy super fatty cuts of meat (nor do I) and is not a fan of the sweet potato (it's a mouth feel issue) but otherwise, she is a good eater.

Adjustments do have to be made for tender palates, however. The Spouse and I enjoy spicy food, Mexican, Thai, Indian. Now,she wasn't a fan of curry. The only time she had colic was the night I ate a curry supper and the distaste for curry is something she is only now just beginning to get over. When it came to other spicy cuisine I would always make a very mild version for her and that seemed to work just fine.

By the time she was 3 she would eat mild salsa with great relish and I grew to be a tad smug, if only in my own mind, about my very advanced child with the impossibly eclectic taste. Until the evening when we sat down to a gorgeous vat of posole, lovingly prepared by our friend, Brooke. She told me the family recipe was a spicy one and that she would tone it down, considerably, so that it would be palatable to all. Well, she tried. The Child was having none of it.

"Oh, no," she said, pushing away the bowl. "It too 'picy for me, Mama". From then on she would often inquire, "Is that gonna be 'picy, Mama? I don't like it too 'picy".

Of course, now, at 13, The Child is gradually working her way up to about 1000 on the scale of Scoville units. I can sometimes even sneak a bit of jalapeno in on her. But I respect that these things take time and don't force her. This recipe, for example, can be adapted for her by just setting aside some of the meat mixture without the curry paste. Or else we wait until she's out somewhere and mix it up as hot as we can stand.

Mini Red Curry Burgers

¾ lb. extra-lean ground beef or lamb
1 medium zucchini, grated
salt & pepper
1 bunch green onion, chopped (white and light green)
1/3 cup low fat yogurt
2 tsp. Thai red curry paste
(2 t. is the original recipe amount but frankly, a rounded teaspoon is plenty. Unless you actually enjoy having the back of your head blown off).

For the sauce:

Combine 2 T. grated zucchini with yogurt and 1 T. onion plus salt & pepper to taste

For the burgers:

Combine ground meat with remaining zucchini and onion, salt & pepper (to taste) and Thai red curry paste.

Form into eight 2” patties. Grill on non-stick pan over med-high heat, about 4 min per side for medium.

Pop the tiny little burgers into mini pita pockets with 2 T. sauce.