Be more chili

One of the first things I can remember cooking is chili. In elementary school, one day a week the cafeteria served this great chili, and I would always eat two bowls. It turned out to be Stagg Country Chili from a can. Actually, Stagg chili is not bad (especially the all-meat Steak House Chili, which has kind of a weird color and texture but is great), and the little aseptic boxes it comes in are cute. When I first saw them I was sure it would be a trend that other canned soups would follow, like when they started putting computer games in little boxes instead of big boxes.

But no, the Stagg still stands alone.

I got interested enough in chili that my mom gave me a book, Chili Madness by Jane Butel, and let me pick a recipe from it and make my own chili. I think I made Carroll Shelby’s recipe from that book, and one called Amarillo Chili.

Nowadays I’m a chili snob, toasting and grinding anchos, pasillas, and guajillos, although I also go through plenty of [Penzey’s](http://www.penzeys.com/) chili powder making enchiladas and tacos. Sometimes I use ground beef, but more often I cut a chuck roast into one-inch cubes. I did this yesterday, and now there are many servings of chili in the fridge, ready for dinner tomorrow night, and the night after, and maybe a little extra for the freezer.

With the chili I’m going to serve some crunchy potatoes from the latest issue of Fine Cooking. They’re incredibly easy and great. Boil some baby potatoes. Drain and smash them each 1/2-inch thick (Iris took charge of this part). Then put them on a baking sheet and drizzle with lots of olive oil and roast until crunchy. I’ll be doing this once a week for the foreseeable future.

Inversion experience

They finally fixed my shampoo. It’s been redesigned so it can sit upside-down, so you don’t have to endure the wait-and-shake, trying to coax the shampoo to the mouth of the bottle. I was so happy, I didn’t even mind that they raised the price, from $1.19 to $1.49. It’s Suave.

Similar work has been afoot in the food department. There’s inverted ketchup and grape jelly, and probably other products I haven’t noticed yet. I applaud this trend. Presumably there’s a slightly increased danger of leakage, but it’s totally worth it.

Now I’d like all of the other viscous ingredients get on the upside-down bandwagon. Sriracha and oyster sauce come to mind.

I love seeing a product redesign that is so obviously superior. The soda can “fridge pack” is another recent example. I don’t actually ever buy canned soda, but if I did, I would totally go for the fridge pack.

This isn’t exactly *packaging,* but the availability of individual celery stalks in the produce section is a major advance.

What are some other cool packaging redesigns I’m forgetting?

Filler

I was planning to make ants on a tree last night, but there seems to be some kind of cellophane noodle shortage afoot. I checked Safeway and both QFCs and came up empty-handed. But the pork was already thawed.

Last time I had extra ground pork, I made little meatballs. But my taste buds were already vibrating in an Asian direction. Okay, that sounds wrong, you know what I mean.

So I made meat patties in the style of northeastern Thai sausage (*sai krok*). I mixed a pound of ground pork with garlic, shallots, scallions, ginger, cilantro, fish sauce, minced chiles, and a pinch of sugar. While I was chopping, I made some rice. Authentically, it would have been Thai sticky rice, but all I had was medium-grain calrose rice, so I made that. I cooled some rice by sticking it on a plate in the freezer for a few minutes, then mixed it in with the pork. I formed the meat mixture into two-inch patties and fried them in a pan, then served them with cucumber salad and a squeeze of lime.

I thought they were great–I love the springy texture you get from rice as a sausage filler. Iris wasn’t terribly impressed that I had wasted the rice by putting it in the sausage. “Why’d you only make a little rice?” she asked. “I love rice.” I have a feeling that when we take Iris to Asia, she will eat rice three meals a day and little else. She won’t want to go home until beriberi sets in.

Stock tip

Every year I receive a beloved hand-me-down from my parents: the bone from their holiday ham.

What’s so special about an eviscerated hog bone? It’s like the world’s greatest bouillon cube: a couple of hours in simmering water, with absolutely no other ingredients, creates an incredible stock. And that stock is the base for split pea soup, which we’ve been eating for dinner the last two days and still have plenty left for snacks.

Each time I make the ham stock, I’m amazed that the stock ends up just smoky, salty, and hammy enough. It doesn’t matter if I put in a little more or less water. It’s magic. (To be specific, however, the bone from one ham half is good for three to four quarts of stock.)

I wonder what else I could do with ham stock other than split pea or bean soup. Any ideas?

The savage yeast

A baking book can do two things to make me cry. One is printing cup measures instead of weights. The other is calling for active dry yeast.

At least in the case of cup measure, there’s a genuine reason for the madness: most Americans don’t own a kitchen scale and are too stubborn to buy one. Hey, that’s cool. I can relate. I’m cheap and lazy, too, as you’ll see in a minute.

But active dry yeast? There’s no excuse. Instant yeast is sold in every supermarket, and it is cheaper (because you can use less) and easier to use than active dry, with absolutely no compromise in flavor. Using active dry is like sticking with canned peas after frozen peas were introduced. (Readers: this is your cue to stand up for canned peas in the comments.)

What’s the difference? Instant yeast (which is the same as “rapid-rise” or “bread machine” yeast) is processed differently at the factory in such a way that fewer yeast cells are killed, and you don’t have to proof it. Proofing yeast is one of those things that is just annoying enough to be a major barrier between you and delicious things you want to make. I don’t like to think of myself as the kind of person who would blow off an entire recipe just because I have to warm some water, empty a package of yeast into it, and wait a few minutes for it to bubble, but I’m totally that kind of person.

With instant yeast, you just toss it in with the flour and go. It’s a little more potent than active dry, so you can substitute by reducing the quantity by a third and skipping the proofing step.

Good baking books like Baking Illustrated only use instant yeast. So should you. Buy one of those little jars–around here they often go on sale for about $4 at this time of year–and keep it in the freezer. Then make raised waffles, bagels, pizza dough, and all that good stuff.