Palo Alto Chili Cook-off Results: Second Place!

After months of testing, an amazing amount of work and a surprising amount of stress, the team competed with 4 other teams in the vegetarian category, served 18 gallons of chili to a few thousand guests, and won second place! Here's our recipe:

Yes VeGan Award Winning Vegetarian Chili
Serves 1152
18 lbs Chopped Onions
30 large carrots, chopped
6 c garlic, peeled and chopped/pressed
1.5 c canola oil
6 oz dry chipotles, rehydrated in warm water, chopped
4.5 cups Penzey’s Chili Con Carne Seasoning
1 cup ground cumin
1.5 cups Mexican oregano
1.5 cups unsweetened cocoa
6 #10 cans diced tomatoes and juice
6 #10 cans black beans
6 #10 cans red (kidney, pinto, or small red) beans; drained
1 #10 can corn kernels
12 bunches cilantro (do not chop until just before using)
Salt to taste (may not be needed at all)
Limes
Torilla Chips

1. Heat oil in a pot, then brown the onions until light golden.
2. Add carrots and cook until onions are a couple of shades darker and carrots are softened and have some color.
3. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, stirring constantly.
4. Add chipotles and spices, and cook until they’re fragrant, stirring constantly.
5. Add cocoa
6. Add beans, tomatoes, and stir well. Bring back to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer two hours minimum.
7. At service, add lime juice and chopped cilantro to taste
8. Garnish with a Tortilla chip

Key components from the following vendors:

• Chipotles: Tierra Vegetables
• Spices: Penzey's
• Onions: Two Small Farms

Our pictures and videos are on Flickr and YouTube.

Chili Cook-off Test Kitchen #3

This weekend is our next test round for the 28th Annual Palo Alto Chili Cook-off, probably not the last. We've settled on a base recipe and are now experimenting with quality of ingredients; Smart and Final #10 cans vs. the ingredients we'd cook with at home, such as Muir Glen fire roasted tomatoes.

Click here to see the recipe, it's evolution, and our notes.

As we taste the chili tonight, I did a bit of digging on chili judging. Turns out there is actually a Chili Appreciation Society that publishes an official chili judging sheet. Here it is:

Fine chili should look good, smell good and taste good! Accordingly, each cup of chili is to be judged on five (5) criteria to arrive at one whole number. You will rate the chili on a scale from zero to 20 for each of the five categories:

1. Color - Chili should look appetizing, reddish brown is generally accepted as good.
2. Aroma - Chili should smell good. This also indicates what is in store when you taste it.
3. Consistency - Chili must have a good ratio between sauce and meat. It should not be dry, watery, grainy, lumpy, or greasy.
4. Taste - Taste, above all else is the most important factor. The taste should consist of the combination of the meat, spices, etc. with no particular ingredient being dominate.
   
5. Aftertaste - The aftertaste or bite is the heat created by the various types of spices and or peppers.

Key lesson from tonight is that simmering time matters. With our chili, roughly 1.5h simmer time made a HUGE difference in the flavor. Still some tweaking required for the recipe, but this is progress...

Chili Cook-off Team Rules

As you know, we've been preparing for the 28th Annual Summer Festival & Chili Cook-off. Thanks to the Palo Alto team, we now have some specifics to work from -- this is going to be fun!

Here are the rules:

1. Chili is defined as any kind of meat, or combination of meats, or beans in the case of vegetarian chili, cooked with chili peppers, various spices, and other ingredients. This competition allows beans in all recipes.
2. Prizes will be awarded in the following categories: Open, Corporate, Vegetarian, Best Overall Chili, Best Decorated Booth, and Best Spirit.
3. No ingredient may be pre-cooked or treated in anyway prior to the preparation period, which begins at 9:00 a.m. - approximately one-half hour before the official commencement of the cook-off. The only exceptions to this rule are canned or bottled tomatoes, tomato sauce, beans, peppers, pepper sauce, and beverages. Fresh peppers may be cooked prior to arrival, and dried beans may be soaked overnight. Meats may be ground, boned, and/or diced prior to the preparation period.
4. The cooking period will be a minimum of 3 ½ hours, and a maximum of 4 hours. The Master of Ceremonies will announce the exact starting and ending times.
5. Final instructions will be given during the cooks’ meeting; approximately 1 hour prior to the official start time.
6. Cooks may prepare ingredients during the preparation period.
7. Any preparation, storing, or handling of food must strictly follow Health Department requirements. (Information provided w/team confirmation packet)
8. Chili teams are required to prepare a minimum of twelve (12) gallons of chili. Since people will hear how delicious your chili is, more is preferable.
9. Teams must supply all their own cooking utensils, supplies, heat source, and materials. The City of Palo Alto will provide a temporary food booth in which all food must be prepared, cooked, and served. The City will also provide a utensil and hand wash set-up per Health Department requirements, and two 8-foot tables.
10. Each team will be permitted a maximum of 3 cooks in their area.
11. Each team may have a maximum of 20 assistants. Assistants are not official cooks and may not handle or prepare the food.
12. Team demonstrations and presentations are permitted throughout the event, as long as they do not obstruct the public’s view of booths or the cooking process. Remember, in this cook-off, outrageous is good!
13. Teams may set up their decorations and equipment according to the schedule provided.
14. Teams may not sell their Chili. Chili samples may only be distributed to those who have purchased tasting kits.
15. During the event, the Judging Coordinator will assign each team a number and will provide a container to present their chili to the judging area for the blind tasting.
16. Each team must deliver its chili sample to the judging area no later than 1:45 p.m.
17. The decision of the judges is final.

Next weekend we get together to try and combine the recipes tested last weekend. Big gaps in the plan include nailing down the onsite cooking rig and a plan for the booth! "Yes VeGan!" offers more than a few options -- I wonder if Obama is a vegan...

Palo Alto Chili Cook-off Recipe Test Kitchen

Tonight's the night we decided to get serious about testing chili recipes for the 28th Annual Palo Alto Chili Cook-off. We entered the vegetarian category under the team name "Yes VeGan!"

Alyce, our head chef, brought ingredients for a corn based chili. We compared that to the Whole Foods Market Chunky Garden Vegetable Chili recipe, with three Tierra Vegetables smoked TAM jalapeno chilis added. The goal for tonight was to narrow down the myriad of choices to a base recipe we can perfect between now and July 4th.

Here's Mike's and Alyce's recipe, as conveyed by Dr. Mike himself:

2 large onions chopped, browned
4 cobs of corn, grilled, then cut off the cob
1 large sweet potato, cubed
2 12oz cans black beans
2 12oz cans red beans
2 can diced tomatoes (fire roasted if you got 'em)
2 can crushed tomatoes
2 bunches of green onions (or spring, depending)
garlic (amount - well, it's garlic, so ...)
1/2 bunch cilantro
1 tbsp + 1 tsp Penzey's Chili Con Carne Seasoning, bloomed with the onions
1 tbsp + 1 tsp Penzey's Chili Powder (medium hot), bloomed with the onions
1 tbsp ground coriander, bloomed with onions
1 tbsp ground cumin, bloomed with onions
1 tbsp Mexican oregano
2 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce (from a can)
2 tbsp canola oil

Method:

Ogg take pot. Ogg put pot on fire. Ogg put stuff in pot. Ogg heat. Ogg stir. Ogg add garlic to taste. Ogg stir occasionally, until sun move across 1/12th of the sky.

(Or, as Prince Charles would say, "Og, he sweat, he make ye sauce")

We made madelines from the vegan cornbread recipe from the Post Punk Kitchen, though won't go this far on competition day. The consensus was that tortilla chips were a better (we are salt fans), easier option.



As you can see in the videos included, there were preferences all around. Net-net, there are good qualities to be leveraged from each chili. The combination of the two was excellent. Over the next week we'll try and concoct one recipe from the two we started with, emphasizing the strong points of each. There's also the issue of how to cook on site; like the recipe, this too is getting some serious thought.



While we're not yet there, I'm hoping we get to simple. On game day, we'll have a few thousand people to deal with, so the recipe and the cooking needs to be easy. On top of that, we're hoping to have some fun -- maybe catch a bit of frisbee as the chili simmers. It all comes down to the judges...

Annual Palo Alto Chili Cook-off

Yep, we're going for it. We're going to enter this year's Palo Alto Chili Cook-off with a vegetarian chili.

The vegetarian chili at the 2008 event was good, but there were not many options from which to choose. Veg chili was apparently popular as 2 of the 3 booths were "sold out" by the time we got there just after 1pm.

Our idea is to start with a recipe that works well and build on it from there. Here's where what we chose as a base:

Chunky Garden Vegetable Chili
from the Whole Foods Market Cookbook, page 90
Serves 6 to 8

1T olive or canola oil
1 medium onion, chopped
2 large carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 medium green pepper, seeded and chopped
1 medium red pepper, seeded and chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced (1.5t)
1 jalapeno chili, seeded and minced
1T dried oregano
2t ground cumin
1T chili powder
1c tomato puree
1 (28-oz) can chopped tomatoes
2 quarts cold water or vegetable stock
1 cup cracked wheat
1 (16 oz) can red or white beans, rinsed and drained
1 cup cooked black beans
juice of 2 limes
1/2 cup tamari or soy sauce
1 bunch fresh cilantro, minced

Heat olive or canola oil in large sauce pot over medium heat and saute the onion, carrots, celery, peppers, garlic, jalapeno, oregano, cumin and chili powder for 2 minutes to combine well.

Add the tomato puree, tomatoes, cold water, cracked wheat, red or white beans, and black beans; simmer uncovered fro 50 minutes, until blended. you may add additional vegetable stock, water, or tomato juice to adjust the consistency, if needed.

Add the lime juice, tamari, and cilantro. Serve with plain yogurt or sour cream, grated cheddar, and minced scallions.

Again, the idea is to use this recipe as a base on which to build. Some changes right out of the gate include swapping a yellow pepper for the green pepper recommended, using water instead of broth, and using widely available bulgur instead of crack wheat. We're also playing around with chipotles from Tierra Vegetables, today's test batch using smoked Hungarian wax peppers.