Friday, September 25, 2009
Chili Contest Saturday
Posted by Susan Ellis on Fri, Sep 25, 2009 at 8:15 AM
- whatscookingamerica.com
Saturday’s Chillin’ on Broadway in West Memphis will include a chili-cooking contest sanctioned by Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI).
Tana Jones, a member of CASI, will serve as the organization’s official referee for the event, making sure that its rules are being followed. She’ll also be competing.
“It’s just fun,” says Jones, who’s been active in chili-cooking-contest circuit for 25 years and considers other competitors her “second family.”
For CASI-sanctioned events, the chili must be cooked entirely on-site. The meat cannot be marinated and there cannot be fillers, such as beans.
“It comes down to spices,” Jones says, pointing out that the one person who’s won back-to-back titles in CASI’s main event, Terlingua International Chili Championship, held in Texas each year, grew the plants to make her own spices.
Winners of Saturday’s contest will receive plaques, but what they’re really after are the precious points they need to qualify for Terlingua.
Jones has two points and needs four more in order to get to Terlingua.
“I’ve found if I just cook it and leave it alone — go talk and meet the other competitors — I do a whole lot better.”
Comments (17)
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Chili with beans is outlawed under Article 1, section 8 of the U. S. Constitution.
Chili is a concept. All contents are negotiable. Except for chilies.
I'm making a green roasted tomatillo chili this weekend w/pork tenderloin, potatoes & sweet potatoes. Diner chili it ain't. Chili it is.
But in other styles I like to use yellow & white hominy, corn, whole baby corn, pintos, navy beans, speckled butter beans, chickpeas, black beans, beef, pork, chicken, deer, rabbit smoked game hens and chorizzo.
I've even found certain combos that scream out for carrots. (w/deep red chili purees, & higher than usual levels of coriander & cumin for a Morocco meets Mexico feel).
When it comes to chili the eccumenical eater is will always be rewarded.
BV: I know that passage like the back of my hand: "The congress shall have the power to provide for calling forth the Militia to execute the Laws of the chili cook, suppress trendy ingredients and repel kidney beans."
Chris, that ain't chili, it's soup. It is based on nothing more than a vague concept of chili, whereas true chili is derived from a personal and immediate God, like the God of Texas, or the God of Cincinnati, or the Goddess of my mother's kitchen.
Chili is chili is chili and everything else is soup. Except gumbo.
beans and pasta are what you find in chili in an Italian neighborhood....pasta and fagoli and chili peppers. Sublime.
Chili just "ain't" chili without a whole heep of meat and a whole heep of beans - evenly distributed of course served with a hunk of buttered garlic frenchtoast kinda thicker bread covered with semi melted velvetta and swiss cheese mix grated with parmesan and garlic AGAIN - so give me a call, let me sample your chili - I dont mind at all and your creation of the cheese bread to go with it, but dont go doing up my cheese bread recipe. I like different.
The name 'chili' can be applied to a variety of concotions with or without beans, or tomatos, and so forth. Some of them are quite tasty.
But the original dish that kept real cowboys going on the trails, if prepared properly (toughest chunks of gristley meat available, onions, suet, masa harina, cumin, and ground chili seared and then simmered for 2-3 days), really doesn't need more to produce a nice infusion of heat and light.
Tonight I made a tenderloin & collard green chili in a gingered sweet potato broth. Cannellini & dark red kidney beans w/a very light drizzle of pomegranate syrup. The heat came from a toasted blend of jalapenos & serranos pureed in the sweet potato broth. We called it "world chili" because it brought the Southwest to the South then took it all to North Africa. It was fantastic.
You guys don't get it. Competition chili is only meat and spices. What you eat at home is much different!
@kkellis
Not quite 'meat and spices only'...
Competition chili allows ingredients as long as they don't fall into the banned 'filler' categories of beans, pasta, rice, etc.
Adding vegetables is allowed, and many of the winning recipes include them.
http://floridachili.com/so_you_want_to_coo…
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