Pork & Black Bean Chili, for the meat lovers

     I've made this chili for a little while and I've always tweaked the ingredients until I was able to reach the flavor profile that I wanted.  Today, I finally got to that point.  It takes about two hours from start to finish but most of that time is for simmering.  Very crucial if you want your chili to taste awesome. 

     It starts with a nice Andouille Sausage and Ground Beef.  I like to use the 80/20 ratio of beef to get that extra fat...delicious.  I start the pot on medium low heat and add a small amount of canola oil, about the size of a quarter.  I then add the beef and let it cook and firm up so that it stays in the ball form.  After the beef is almost finished, I then add the sausage and let that render.

      After the meat is almost fully cooked, I turn the heat up to medium-high to get a little color.  I like to deglaze the pan with a small amount of red wine to get those tasty bits off the bottom of the pan.  Now I add what you see below.  Onions, Garlic, Brown Sugar, Bell Peppers, Fresh Jalapenos, Diced Tomatoes with their juices, fully cooked Black Beans, Paprika, Ancho Chile Powder, Salt, Black Pepper, Oregano, Cumin, Cinnamon, and Cayenne Pepper. 

     Add some Beef Stock and bring the chili to a simmer and reduce the heat to medium low or until you reach a very slow simmer.  You want a few bubbles coming up but not too much.  When you see all of that steam coming out of the pan, that's flavor, we definitely want to get as much of that as possible.

      This is the end result after an hour of simmering.  DO NOT EAT RIGHT AWAY!!!!  Let it sit overnight, you'll be surprised how much the flavor develops.  Top with a little Sour Cream, Shredded Cheese of your choice and Cilantro.  Enjoy!!!

Life on the Line #2

     When first starting in a restaurant, especially a fine dining restaurant, the overwhelming sense of being in way over your head can, and more than likely will set in.  Some people will run their average day through their mind over and over to make sure that when they get back to work the next day, they would hope to be just a little more prepared.  Depending on the person, getting used to the hectic life of working in a restaurant will eventually happen.  For the most part, it becomes routine with the occasional curve balls thrown in the mix.
     The last restaurant that I worked at followed this path.  The day would start around 8 am and the very first thing that my fellow Sous Chef and I would do is brew some coffee.  With a sixteen hour day ahead of us, we needed some sort of jump start.  While drinking our coffee, we would take a look at the days reservations and the prep list that was left from the night before.  We were typically the guys that closed the night before which meant that we were the ones that wrote that prep list.  We are creatures of habit after all.
     Next, we would start putting the stations together and take a mental inventory of what items took priority on that prep list and start building up for the incoming lunch crowd.  It was always beneficial to keep in mind the dinner shift and plan your day out accordingly.  At the same time, we had to think of a special for the day.  Not only for the lunch service, but dinner as well.  It could be exciting coming up with specials but when your boss doesn't give you much of a budget to work with, it can turn into a troublesome, challenging task at times.  On top of prep, mental inventories, and coming up with specials, we also had to ensure that all of our orders came in the door correctly and at times, make a trip to the restaurant depot.  Then service starts.
     You scramble to get that last little bit of prep completed and in comes the first order of the day.  You do your best to pump yourself up and get this started and just as you get that first burger on the grill and your shallots in the pan for a pasta dish, the next order arrives.  Before you know it, within the first 30 minutes of service you're staring down at fifteen to twenty lunch tickets and then time starts to lose its meaning.  The next thing you know, the doors are closing to incoming guests and we need to hurry up and finish the last few checks so we can take a quick fifteen minute break outside and start it all over again for dinner. 
      Dinner service was always a little more difficult since your guests are coming out and spending good money for an experience.  Your typical lunch crowd just wants something good, fast, and easy.  Getting through a flawless dinner service can sound easy enough, even for the most experienced staff but you still have that sense of urgency that anything can happen so we have to be perfect no matter what.  Within a few hours, dinner service is over, we clean the kitchen, write the prep list, place the orders that we need for the next day, lock it up, go home and get about five-six hours of sleep and start it all over again.  Before you know it, you've fallen into that routine that was previously a concern and you begin to operate as if you've done this your whole life.
     Sounds a little crazy?  That's because it usually is.