Sweet and Spicy Venison Chili {and more Gretna Fest 2013}

Halloween is about the Three Cs.
Candy (You saw that coming).
Costumes (That one too).
And Chili.

 

I'm not sure why I associate chili with Halloween since we don't eat chili on Halloween.  I didn't grow up eating chili on Halloween either.

That's just the kinda gal I am.
And that would be one who makes no sense at all.

When I make chili, there are a few recipes I rotate.  He-Man Chili (another Halloween post, coincidentally) is The Husband's favorite.  But I think I like this Sweet & Spicy Chili more.


Now about those costumes...and making no sense...
These aren't Halloween costumes.

These are Mardi Gras Indians.

I came across the Creole Wild West Mardi Gras Indians at Gretna Fest a few weeks ago.  In all the years I lived in New Orleans, I never once saw Mardi Gras Indians.

There are Uptown tribes and Downtown tribes that parade through the back streets of New Orleans on Mardi Gras day, with seemingly no set route.  They are elusive.
Like Sasquatch.
Only prettier.

Their costumes are elaborate--meticulously planned, created, and hand sewn by the Indians.  These costumes are so ornately crafted they typically take an entire year to create.  Starting right after Mardi Gras and working right up to the next.

The headdresses are huge and I imagine very heavy.  I thought it was tough running around in my Cajun style costume, capuchon, and mask all day chasing chickens.

Can't imagine walking the streets trying to hold these up all day.

Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Wild Magnolias Gretna Fest 2013



More Chief Monk Boudreaux and the Wild Magnolias
More Gretna Fest

Print It!

Sweet & Spicy Venison Chili

Olive oil
2 ½ c chopped onion
2 ribs celery, chopped
1 green bell pepper, chopped
2 lbs ground venison (or beef)
5 cloves garlic
2 chipotle peppers in adobo, minced (or to taste)
2 tsp adobo sauce from chipotles
1 (8 oz) can tomato paste
2 T chili powder (or to taste)
3 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp oregano
1-2 heaping Tbsp brown sugar
1 bay leaf
1 tsp Cajun seasoning
Salt and black pepper to taste
1 (28 oz) can diced tomatoes, do not drain
Water
Parsley, green onion, chopped red onion, and/or cheese for top

Pour olive oil in large pot to cover the bottom.  Heat oil.  Sauté onion, celery, and bell pepper until soft.  Add ground venison (or beef), garlic, and chipotle peppers and brown.  Drain excess grease if needed.  Add adobo sauce, tomato paste, and seasonings.  Sauté until fragrant (a few minutes), stirring.  Add diced tomatoes (undrained) and enough water to cover the meat mixture.  Simmer about 2 hours, adding water if needed.  Skim grease from pot.  Serve, adding desired toppings to individual bowls.

Linking with:

Tac-Tac...Who's There? Popcorn Balls

Tac-tac is what Cajuns call popcorn. Why? Because of the sound popcorn makes when it pops.

Tac tac tac tac tac tac.

It's Tac-tac like a clock--tock tock, not tac tac like thumb tack.

Some other Cajun words/expressions I find interesting:

Elle a fait le bouder...roughly means she's making a lip, or pouting. I once heard a linguist who specializes in Cajun French talk about this phrase and the similarity between the words bouder (make a lip or pout) and boudin (a Cajun sausage). A link of boudin looks like a big pouty lip.

Elle a mangé le chien ragé...means she ate the rabid dog. Now I know Cajuns eat some pretty weird things, but we don't eat dogs...rabid or otherwise. This phrase means some chick is raging mad. There are other non-French phrases from around here that mean roughly the same thing. Like "I got da red ass."
A: "I got da red ass today, me."
B: "Oh, yeah? Dat so?"
A: "Yeah. My car run off da road an got in a wreck."

Another one would be "man, my sistah's hot." Despite what you've heard about Southerners and incest, in this case the meaning is: my sister is mad.

And here's one that is also the name of a song: Lâche pas la patate! It means "don't drop the potato." When Cajuns say this, they mean hold on, hang in there, or don't give up.

Homespun, cute, and a mix of the bizarre and a certain je ne sais quoi all in one.

But back to tac-tac...er, popcorn. Below is a clip from the song Blues de Tac-tac performed by Steve Riley and the Mamou Playboys if you'd like to have a listen. The lyrics can pretty much be summed up by saying: I went to the dance last night, ate some popcorn, ate some kernels, and got drunk and I'm gonna do it all over again tonight. Not the most cerebral of songs, but there you go.

This time of year is when you see a lot of boules de tac-tac...popcorn balls. Probably because we make them with cane syrup and Fall is when sugarcane is harvested. I'm not sure. All I know is that popcorn balls are a common Halloween treat around here.

Every year for Halloween my mother-in-law made popcorn balls for the neighborhood trick-or-treaters. Of course this was before some jerkface decided to tamper with Halloween candy and panic followed. She doesn't make popcorn balls anymore. So I thought I'd give it a try this year.

Why? Really. Why do I do these things to myself?

Apparently something is very very wrong with my candy thermometer. It decided that around 200 degrees F is as high as it wants to go from now until the end of time.  So I had to guess, which was really stupid of me to even try. I mean, if you've ever made candy or worked with sugar you know you can't just guess.  If you've never made candy or worked with sugar, trust me...DO NOT GUESS.

I rushed to get a glass of water so I could test the sugar mixture, but I couldn't remember what the stupid stuff should do in said glass of water. I used to know these things.  Have them committed to memory.  But the seductive ease of Google has turned my brain to mush.  I ran around the kitchen trying to find a chart in a cookbook for soft ball, hard ball, soft crack, hard crack stages. And my sugar mixture boiled on, unattended. And I said some French words (not really...it was clear, very loud English).  So the sugar and cane syrup mixture...I guessed. And guessed badly.

I poured the mixture over the popcorn, buttered up my hands and got to work. And yelled some more. The Husband stepped in. Partly to help out. Mostly to rid the kitchen of my yelling and fury. By this point I was greasy from the butter and dripping with hot, wet, sticky cane syrup. Oh, I was hot. I guess you'd even say I "mangé le chien ragé."

The popcorn balls didn't set up well and now I have wet mounds of caramel corn tightly--very tightly wrapped in plastic wrap to make them look like balls. Remove the plastic wrap and they collapse into sad little sugary popcorn puddles. Tastes good, but still. Maybe next year. Or maybe I'll just get mother-in-law to start making them again.

Want to have the same fun in your kitchen? Here's the mise en place.

Looks good so far.  The sugar, cane syrup, water, vinegar, and salt have all been added.

I'm cooking away, dissolving the sugar and testing the temp to check for light crack (about 270).  Only my thermometer remains stuck at about 200 degrees.

I decide to guess.  Which was a bad thing to do.  I cut off the heat and added the butter and baking soda.

Poured the mixture over the popped popcorn.

And buttered up while the popcorn and syrup cool off enough to handle.  But not so much that it started to set.  Not that I had to worry about that.

Toss, toss, toss. I'm still naively optimistic here.  It'll still work.  It'll still work.  It'll still work...I think?

Fat chance.  This is what happens when you guess during candy making.  Close your ears.

The Husband steps in to stop the madness.

Don't let this picture fool you.  All you have to do is poke one to know that this is just sweet, wet globs of popcorn.

Popcorn Balls

from Who's Your Mama, Are You Catholic, and Can You Make a Roux by Marcelle Bienvenu

1/2 c sugar
2/3 c cane syrup
1/3 c water
1 T vinegar
1/3 tsp salt
1 T butter
1/8 tsp baking soda
3 quarts popped corn, no butter, lightly salted if desired

Combine the first 5 ingredients and stir until sugar dissolves.  Cook mixture until it reaches light crack stage (about 270 degrees F).  Remove from heat and ad butter and baking soda.  Stir well.  Pour over popcorn.  Butter your hands and form into balls.

Jousting at Pumpkins

If you read regularly, you may be wondering what's going on since I've already posted this week. I decided to join in on the Royal Foodie Joust this month over at Foodie Blog Roll. The joust is held by The Leftover Queen. Each month, participants come up with a recipe that must include three featured ingredients. The winner chooses the ingredients for the next month.

This month's ingredients are all about orange and black. When I saw the required ingredients: Pumpkin, Stout or Dark Beer, and sugar, I liked the Halloween thing going on. Halloween happens to be my favorite holiday (besides Mardi Gras). An idea quickly formed in my head.

Earlier this week I posted about my first attempt at éclairs. So...what about filling them with pumpkin? Ha! One ingredient down. Oh, and how about a Caramel Stout Sauce? Double ha! The last two ingredients taken care of.

Since I just detailed making pâte à choux, I won't go through it again here. Pictures of the steps involved can be found in this previous post. I decided to do a couple of things differently though.

* I used a faker pastry bag made from a Ziploc instead of spooning the pastry dough onto my cookie sheet like last time. The result: eh, I could go either way on this. Each method had its ups and downs. I guess I'd probably just use a spoon and not bother having to fill a fake (or real) pastry bag.

* I also poked a hole in each pastry after they came out of the oven. I recently read that this releases steam, makes for a hollow interior, and keeps the inside from getting too soggy. The truth is, I found no difference between stabbing holes in the pastries and letting them be. I'm a lover not a fighter, so I'll skip the hole punching from now on.  Ok, I lie.  I am more of a fighter...but a lazy one.

* I also decided to do a puff rather than an éclair (circles v. ovals...it's just geometry, people). Oh, fine. You wanna know the truth? I liked the name "Pumpkin Puffs" more than "Pumpkin Éclairs." Ok?

I thought the pumpkin might be too heavy, so I lightened up the texture by folding in whipped cream. I said lightened the texture, not the calorie count.

Finally, the Caramel Stout Sauce...I couldn't get my hands on stout (I live in a small town), so I had to settle for dark beer. But Caramel Dark Beer Sauce just doesn't have the same punch to it, ya' know? This is the part of the recipe I was most concerned about, but it tastes really good! In fact, the sauce may be my favorite part. And it reminded me of making pralines, which is always fun.

UPDATE: the Caramel Stout Sauce is also terrific on pancakes!

And finally, finally after it was all put together, I thought...well, it just isn't dessert until someone breaks out the chocolate. Plus I really wanted something black/dark in the dish. Now you've twisted my arm.  Chocolate drizzle it is.

So here's my entry for the latest Royal Foodie Joust:

Pumpkin Puffs w/ Caramel Stout Sauce

Pumpkin Puffs w/ Caramel Stout Sauce
from Ms. enPlace

for the pâte à choux:
1 cup water

1 stick unsalted butter
1 cup flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 450.

Boil the water in a heavy pot. Add the butter and stir until it has melted. Add the flour (all at once) and salt. Cook and stir until the mixture forms a soft ball of dough. Remove from the heat and cool for about 10 minutes. Make the filling while you wait. After 10 minutes, add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. The dough should tighten up after adding the third egg.

Form dough into about a dozen round shapes on a greased cookie sheet. Bake at 450 for 15 minutes. Lower oven to 325 and bake for 20-25 minutes, until golden. Remove from oven and allow to cool. Make the Caramel Stout Sauce while they cool.

for the pumpkin filling:

3/4 c heavy whipping cream
1 (15 oz) can pumpkin
2 1/2-3 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp nutmeg

Whip cream in a chilled bowl until stiff peaks form. Combine the pumpkin with the sugar and spices. Gently fold the whipped cream into the pumpkin mixture. Chill, covered, until ready to use.

for the Caramel Stout Sauce:
1/2 c heavy whipping cream
1/2 c stout or dark beer
1 c sugar

In a small saucepan, warm the cream and stout together.

Meanwhile, heat the sugar on medium high in a heavy bottom saucepan. Stir constantly to prevent burning. As the sugar dissolves, it may be necessary to lower the heat. When the sugar has dissolved completely and is a light brown color, slowly add the heated cream and stout mixture. Stir as you pour. Continue cooking and stirring for about 10 minutes. Allow the sauce to cool; it will thicken once it has cooled.

Slice the top third of each puff. Fill with about 3 tablespoons of pumpkin filling. Replace the tops. Place a puff on a plate, drizzle with the cooled Caramel Stout Sauce, and serve. Store any remaining Pumpkin Puffs loosely covered in the refrigerator. For best results, store the sauce, filling and pastries separately and combine when ready to eat.

Optional (but encouraged): melt semi-sweet chocolate chips and thin with shortening. Drizzle over the top of the Pumpkin Puffs along with the caramel sauce.