Finally just short of ten years of marriage, I learned about Frito Pie, a staple in my husband’s extended family.
They were shocked that the last time I had a Frito was when I was ten. I remember it and where I was living when I ate it.
This thinly veiled Thanksgiving secret has eluded me over the years. I’m popping in to see Nanny and Frito Pie is en route to the table or some such thing.
So, you take a handful of Fritos and place them in a bowl, top with chili and cheese and voila, Frito Pie! It’s quite tasty. Just as one would have corn bread with chili, the corn is there with lots of crunch.
The kids just love it and so do I. Now I have to get down to the nitty gritty of our chili cookoff. I tied my hands by limiting myself to Lady Bird Johnson’s Pedernales Chili because they didn’t have quite the Latino section in grocery stores in the 1950’s.
I’m headed to Penzeys and have decided to keep with powder, though I’ve no problem roasting fresh chiles or re-hydrating dried ones to get the flavor I want. I’ll get ancho and cascabel chiles in freshly powdered form. The recipe calls for “chili powder” and “ground beef.”
I’ve also ordered a meat grinder for my stand mixer to coarsely grind (Texas-style) some chuck steak and some New Jersey (boneless) short rib steak for a test this weekend.
I’d also like to meet my competitor and arrange for guests and sides. I think it’s fair for us to share garnishes like scallions, lime, cheddar cheese and sour cream. There may also be corn bread or polenta to sample as well. And some single gals, as that’s the purpose of this endeavor, to get him to know people here and hopefully find the right girl.
The contest isn’t like wrestling with a pre-determined outcome. He’s got the world on a string and I’m tied to a fifty year-old recipe. You do know that Texas chili never contains beans, right? I am the purist version and he can go all over the map; I think he’s doing bison.
We do need another judge. And we’re not using our community room because that’s $300 even though one of our judges is on staff here. So it’ll be here with a maximum of 20 people, and I’m short a few chairs but will look to neighbors for those.
Nervous, yes. I only made chili once, a turkey chili where I used fresh Thai bird chiles and they rendered the dish inedible no matter what I threw into it to tame it’s beastly heat. It’s for a good cause, camaraderie and future happiness. Cheers! Dee
p.s. I know who to get as the other judge! Now we need Bobby Flay for judging criteria.
Cooking with Dee 