Thursday, November 19, 2015

Pinterest Cleaning and a Recipe

With the holidays coming you would think I have enough house-cleaning to do to keep me busy.  And you would be right.  But I am also cleaning up my Pinterest Boards.

Several years ago I decided to use Pinterest as my recipe file.  The great majority of my 3500+ recipe pins are from magazines and online recipe sites.  But many are re-pins that others have pinned. And that is where pin-cleaning begins.

Some of the pins are nothing more than a picture of food, with no recipe.  Mouthwatering, but useless.  Delete.

Some are just bad links.  Delete.  Some sites are no longer there.  Delete.  Some sites require memberships or invitations to read.  Delete.  And those are the easy clean-ups.

Then there are the food bloggers who adapt a recipe from another blog who had already adapted the recipe.  I have tried to go back to the original source and pin that recipe.  I can make my own adjustments.

I particularly liked the blogger who used a photo from another site to post their adapted recipe on their own site.  Guess they didn't have a camera.  And usually these 'borrowings' and adaptations are in the fine print someplace.

I am also leery of reviews on sites where a recipe calls for something the blogger doesn't like and then they make their own version and proceed to criticize the original recipe for not tasting good.  Like someone wanting to re-make macaroni and cheese with rice noodles and tofu. Give me a break.  Which is why I look for the original recipe.

In the midst of all this I have made my own adaptation of a recipe from America's Test Kitchen for chili.  This is one of those recipes that tastes better after sitting for a couple of days.  I finished up what I made on Saturday for lunch today.  Enjoy if you like.


Chipotle Chili

Ingredients:

2 T vegetable oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped small dice
1 large red bell pepper, seeded and diced small
2 chipotle chili peppers in adobo sauce, minced (Divide the can contents into three portions.  You can freeze the others for future use)
1/4 cup chili powder - I use Penzey's and brand will make a difference
2 T cumin
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp salt, divided
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 pounds 85% lean ground beef
2 15.5 oz cans dark red kidney beans, rinsed
1 14.5 oz can fire-roasted diced tomatoes, undrained
1 14.5 oz can regular diced tomatoes, undrained
1 28 oz can tomato puree
1/2 cup ground tortilla corn chips

Directions:

1.  Heat the oil in a 5-quart Ditch oven over medium heat until shimmering.  Add the onions, peppers, adobo sauce, chili powder, cumin, cayenne, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Cook until the vegetables have softened, 5-7 minutes.  Stir in the garlic and cook until fragrant.

2.  Add the beef and increase the heat to medium-high.  Cook, breaking up the beef with a spoon, until no longer pink, about 10 minutes.  Stir in the beans, tomatoes, puree, and 1/2 tsp salt.  Mix well and bring to a simmer.  Cover and cook for 45 minutes.

3.  Uncover pot and stir in corn chips.  Continue to simmer for another 45 minutes.  Season with additional salt and pepper if you desire.  (I was fine at this point without adding anything.)

Garnish with sour cream, chopped avocado, cheddar cheese, corn chips, or whatever suits your fancy. The corn bread in the picture is from a mix, but was delicious.  It is from Firenza. 

4 comments:

  1. I don't use Pinterest. I found it too difficult to follow to the actual recipes. And, as you say, they often aren't followed by a recipe anyway. I always publish a recipe as I find it. If I make any changes, I make a note of it usually before the recipe or sometimes a note next to the ingredient. I haven't made chilli in years, Matt not all that keen. My recipe was a lot simpler than this one.

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    1. Seems like chili cook-offs at work are all the rage which got me yearning to make some.

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  2. I still like the old fashioned books and magazines for recipes. I can't take the computer with me to the kitchen and I find it a bother so love the old style I guess. I just made chili! Yours sounds good

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    1. Oh, I have a very large cookbook collection. What I have online are those recipes I used to cut out of magazines. I take my tablet into the kitchen. I still print out recipes I use a lot.

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