Cooked

What more can I say? Yesterday was one helluva day at the cook-off. My team and I got there around 8am, greeted by our, ahem, "cook captain," and were told where we could park and set up.

As we pulled up it was obvious we weren't the worst setup, but far from the best. The team that parked directly behind us had a smoker the size of a hot dog stand you see on the streets of downtown DC and a vat that looked as if it could hold about 40 gallons (no exaggeration) of chili.

It was great from the start, with exception of not being able to have a beer until almost 11am. It was a travesty. Even funnier was it was held up because the retarded DC security and police couldn't figure out where to start and end the line.

Thousands of people in attendance, all likes of people. I don't even remember seeing any of the bands, basically because I only heard the faint sounds and the hoards of people coming in between sets. As for my team and I, we had a great time and I even had the extra help of some friends/fans of my cooking. I can't thank anyone enough who was there to help push my name to the masses yesterday.

I believe over the course of the entire day there were only about 3-4 people who gave the chili the "ehh" grade. We even caught a few on camera with some really pleasent looks on their faces. Hopefully most of them really enjoyed the chili and weren't just playing it up! All in all, once I am able to get the footage from the cook-off that we took it should provide some insight into what people really thought about the food they had though the course of the day.

Although I didn't win any of the awards, I did give out a ton of business cards, greet lots of people, and got some video footage of the masses enjoying great food. I did at the end also get to read the many comments the judges had specifically of my chili.

It looks like there were 3 rounds of tastings. As far as mine went, I got thru the first 2 rounds with the most points overall, getting comments like: great heat, nice texture, can't name spice but tastes great, what is that spice, nice heat, and beans too mushy (no baked beans next year, btw). I got one or two overall "extraordinary" comments also.

Although on the last round of judging it looks as if something may have happened because I got absolutely no points and the winner got 4 extraordinary comments, so go figure. Seems to me that the "chili professionals" (LOL at that anyway) who judged the last round may not have liked it, but the people gave their stamp of approval, which means more to me anyway.

Oh well, I wont complain. Many of the other competitors who had been doing so for years told me it was awesome, and that I needed to join the ICS so I could play with the big boys next year. We will have to see about that one, but if my competition is using a smoker and 2 grills with a 40 gallon vat to make chili, I may have to start preparing now for next year's budget.

So as promised at the cook-off I will now tell you the simple goodness behind what everyone got a taste of and hopefully enjoyed.


The Mad Chef's Almost Famous Chili:

2 of each red bell pepper, 1 yellow bell pepper, 1 green bell pepper - small chop
1 bunch of celery, small chop
4 roma tomatoes, small chop
6 ounces of tomato paste
16 ounces of crushed tomatoes
2 each white onions, I use vidalia, small chop
3 lbs of ground beef
3 lbs of ground pork
24 ounces of each - black bean, kidney bean, baked bean
1/2 lb of light brown sugar
1 16 ounce jar of pickled jalepenos - hold liquid, small chop jalepenos
dry seasonings in no particular order:
cumin, coriander, chili powder, ginger, mustard, kosher salt and cracked black pepper

Saute off all of the vegetables, add meat, add tomato paste and crushed tomatoes.

Before adding the beans (and when the meat is cooked) begin adding all spices except brown sugar and the jalepenos.

I do not measure any of my spices (sorry)...be generous, it's chili and your taste buds will tell you how much you need to add.

Drain all the beans and add, season one final time and add the brown sugar and pickled jalepenos.

Let this cook over low heat for about 30 minutes.

ENJOY!!!