Big Bend Eats
by Guest Cook Tiffany Harelik, Cookbook Author
Illustration by Avram Dumitrescu.
C HILI ’ S L AST F RONTIER
T
erlingua, Texas has an average
population of less than two
hundred, but come the first
Saturday in November the former
mining-town-turned-ghost-town
swells. Over 10,000 guests arrive to
attend an international chili brawl in
the desert. The best chili makers have
brought their recipes for a shot at brag-
ging rights since 1967. It is hot, deso-
late and prickly. One false step could
land you in a spiny cactus, and one
wrong turn could lead you into the for-
gotten quicksilver mines of the past.
I wrote The Terlingua Chili Cookbook:
Chili’s Last Frontier to celebrate the com-
petition’s 50th anniversary in 2016.
The book contains forty recipes from
award-winning chili cooks, as well as
local chili recipes from the Big Bend
area. The history of the competition is
detailed with colorful stories about
how the competition broke into three
main chili religions, each with its own
point system. The 2016 event is one
that is going down in the record books.
If you can’t make it, here are a few
recipes and stories from the book.
Mark Hinshaw and Matt Walker
make a mean bowl of red. “My older
cousin won it [the Terlingua chili
cook-off] three years in a row back in
the early ‘80s. That was the first time I
heard about it,” says Mark. “The first
year I attended was 2015. I had to see
if it lived up to the hype…it does. The
culture is a wonderful mix of misfits,
big thinkers and wanderers.”
Big Bend Brewing Terlingua
Chili
Mark Hinshaw and Matt Walker.
Day one:
Coffee Rubbed Brisket
4-6 lbs Beef brisket
½ cup chili powder
¼ cup ground coffee
½ cup kosher salt
½ cup brown sugar
¼ cup paprika
¼ cup black pepper
Mix rub, generously
coat brisket. Wrap the
meat and refrigerate
overnight.
Day two: Smoke
brisket for eight hours.
Cool, chop and refrig-
erate.
Day three: Make
Chili.
3 whole dried
guajillo chilies
3 whole dried
ancho chilies
1 Tbls dried
pequin chili
1 yellow onion,
chopped
1 carrot, shredded
2 jalapeños, seeded &
chopped
1 habanero, seeded & chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 poblano pepper, chopped
1 Tbls olive oil
2 cans Tejas Lager
7 oz pickled chipotle
¼ lb chopped bacon
4 lbs ground sirloin
2 bay leaves
2 Tbls chili powder
2 Tbls paprika
2 tsp jalapeño powder
2 tsp oregano
2 cups beef broth
3 Tbls tomato paste
1 can Terlingua Golden Ale
Preheat the oven to 350’. Roast
guajillo, ancho and pequin chilies
until they puff and harden, 10 min-
utes. Watch so they don’t burn. Cool.
Break off the stems and discard seeds.
Grind the chilies into a powder or
paste. Sauté the onion, carrot,
jalapeños, habanero, garlic and
poblano in olive oil for 5 minutes.
Purée the vegetables with half a can of
Tejas Lager. Set aside. Purée the
pickled chipotle with remaining
Lager. Set aside. In a 10- to 12-quart
stockpot, sauté bacon over medium
heat, add and brown the ground sir-
loin. Add the vegetable purée, cook
for 10 minutes. Add bay leaves, chili
powder, paprika, jalapeño powder
and oregano, cook for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add the chipotle purée; cook another
2 to 3 minutes. Add the beef broth,
tomato paste and the golden ale, sim-
mer for 35 minutes. Stir in the
chopped brisket. Adjust thickness,
thinning with Tejas Lager as needed.
Serves 20-24. Serve with cold beer
from out here.
Starlight Theater Chili
Diego Palacios hasn’t had the
opportunity to cook in the cook-off; he
cooks for the masses that are there to
enjoy the party. The secret? Diego tells
me, “Here at the Starlight, there are
beautiful Mexican women making
everything by hand. They taught me
which fresh ingredients would be best
for the chili. We started charring the
tomatoes and jalapeños and onions. It
gives the chili a roasted flavor.” The
vegetables are charred in a cast iron
pan and then pureed. Great to use in
any chili recipe.
Terlingua Ghost Town Chili
Tom Dozier won the 2010 CASI
Championship. You can buy his sea-
soning mix at ghostownchili.com. He
says, “we are committed to bringing
delicious, authentic Texas Red to your
home in a manner that is simple to
prepare and absolutely tasty.”
2 pounds of ground beef, or other
ground meat
continued on page 25
Cenizo
Fourth Quarter 2016
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