Chilli Cook Off

Yeah, it was my idea weeks ago. When I brought it up people laughed. Who doesn't like chilli I thought? After three reschedules, the day finally arrived and I wasn't prepared. My plan all along had been to make Black Bean and Bison Chilli, but time was running out and I didn't think QFC had the ground Bison. In my previous searches, I didn't see it in the meat cooler. I was beginning to worry that I would need to think up a new recipe when I asked my friend if she had ever seen the Bison and she told me that it was in the freezer section. The plan was saved and shortly later I was thawing and cutting onions. It feels so right when all the ingredients fall together without effort. I saged the Bison, cumined the black beans and carmalized the onions. I learned from a chef that if you cook onions on low heat, it breaks down the cell wall, but retains the form of the cut. It also takes the stress away from possibly burning them, so if you have the time, let them sizzle slowly.

The competition was fierce and creative. My good friend grilled pears with ground lamb. All the nuitrients the body needs are within these two ingredients. He would have definitely won the competition, if only he would have combined the two. All the other ingredients diluted the perfect marinate, as the flavor was spread throughout. There were a couple chicken chillis that were bland and before I went back for seconds, my chilli was gone. I was pleased and felt like I had provided everyone with a new chilli experience. Many at the cook-off had never eaten Bison, which I highly recomment. It is much leaner than beef and digests easier too. My belly has a wholeness, a connection to the rest of me that it makes me wonder what it was like a couple hundred years ago along the plains. Bison BBQ everyday, and then no more. It is sad, but if we could clear our obsession with beef, the buffalo would come back to their homeland.

I don't want to say that I won, because I am trying to be modest. I forgot the one ingredient that would have wowed them all, water chestnuts. I have found that the texture doesn't go limp and the crunch adds what the onions could not. Dice them and add them to anything that needs something different and people will exlaim what is in this dish. They probably won't believe that something so flavorless can bring such variety to a dish. Oh yeah, and always spice up your chilli, heat wise, or it will be a turn off for those enticed taste buds. Just enough, not too much or you will burn those buds into submission.