Callier's Seasoned Beef Chili

This recipe, a specially requested recipe from a local establishment, in this case, Callier's Home Plate Deli in Ballwin, MO, appeared in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch a couple of weeks ago, and can be found here. It appealed to me on a number of levels. First of all, I love chili!  Secondly, I am always intrigued by recipes that contain unusual ingredients, and by unusual, I don't mean things like urchin or eel, but an item that usually isn't found in a particular dish. I find that I am always pleasantly surprised by the strange combination. Take for example Chicken with Blackberry-Mustard Cream Sauce. Delicious. (You're welcome, Emma.) Or Glazed Grape Meatloaf. (Glad that you enjoyed it, Bill). Or the exceptionally easy, always tasty, juicy, and delicious Root Beer Pulled Pork. So, somehow, I knew that this chili recipe with its double whammy of cocoa and cola would be good. It was. While it may just look like an ordinary bowl of chili, the depth of flavor that both cola and cocoa give to this dish is something that must be tried in order to be fully understood. What are you waiting for?!

Callier's Seasoned Beef Chili

From Callier’s Home Plate Deli

1½ pounds 80/20 ground beef

10 tablespoons finely chopped onion

7 tablespoons finely chopped green pepper

12 ounces cola

5 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder

3½ teaspoons granulated garlic

3½ teaspoons ground cumin

3 ½ teaspoons salt

1¾ teaspoon chili powder

1¾ teaspoon coriander

1¾ teaspoon black pepper

Scant 1 teaspoon cayenne

9 ounces canned tomato paste

14½ ounces canned diced tomatoes

30 ounces canned dark kidney beans, liquid drained

3 2/3 cups water

Grated cheddar or chopped onions, optional

In a large, heavy pot, brown ground beef on medium-high heat, breaking it up as the meat browns. Add onion and green pepper, cook until softened.  Deglaze pot with cola, stirring to collect the brown bits on the bottom of the pot.  Stir in cocoa powder, garlic, cumin, salt, chili powder, coriander, black pepper, cayenne and tomato paste; bring to a boil and let simmer for 5 minutes.  Stir in tomatoes, beans and water. Bring to a boil, then cover and reduce heat to maintain a simmer; let simmer for 45 minutes. Like many soups, this is best made a day or 2 ahead.

To serve Callier’s Home Plate Deli-style, serve in bowls with oyster crackers and grated cheddar and/or chopped onions on top.

Notes: For less heat while still retaining the chili’s rich spices, reduce the black pepper and cayenne.

Yield: 11 (1-cup) servings

Recipe adapted for home kitchens by the Post-Dispatch.

CALLIER’S HOME PLATE DELI

14787 Manchester Road, Ballwin, MO

636-394-2080

 This post is linked to:

Seasonal Sundays

Marvelous Mondays

Inspire Me Tuesday

Totally Tasty Tuesdays

Try a New Recipe Tuesday

Tasty Tuesdays

Wow Us Wednesday
What’s In The Kitchen 
Work It Wednesday
Miz Helen’s Country Cottage

Chocolate Stout Cake

This is an excellent cake, and I'll tell you how I know.  Last week when my youngest son came over to help my husband and me around the house, I made this cake as the dessert for the meal I'd sent home with him for he and his wife to enjoy.  As usually happens when my son comes to visit and he, my husband, and I are all in the kitchen at once, chaos ensues.  As a result, I sent him home with an insipid dinner, why, I still don't know as I'd used a recipe that has long been a family favorite, and a dark, dense, chocolate cake, that was not at all sweet.  It was good, mind you, but just not as sweet as I generally like a cake to be.  Then, thinking back on the day and all of our activity, culinary and otherwise, I didn't recall adding any sugar.  Huh, I thought, how unusual to have a cake with no sugar.  Then I looked at the recipe.  It did call for sugar, 2 cups of it.  I'd forgotten it!  The amazing thing is that even without the sugar it wasn't half bad.

This afternoon we'd invited my parents for dinner and to watch a Cardinal pre-season game.  All week long I was haunted by this chocolate cake, so I decided to make the cake again only this time with the sugar.  It was fantastic!  It is undoubtedly the best chocolate cake I've ever tasted.  Those of you who don't like beer, fear not!  I can't stand beer or ale, or anything that even smacks of beer or ale -- can't even stand the smell of it -- but this is food for the Gods!  No one, not even you, will know it contains ale at all.  It is just rich, and dense, and chocolaty, and delicious.  You'll thank me later.

 CHOCOLATE STOUT CAKE

1 c. Guinness Stout
1 c. (2 sticks) butter
¾ c. Hershey's Special Dark Cocoa
2 c. flour
2 c. sugar
1½ t. baking soda

¾ t. salt
2 extra-large eggs
2/3 c. sour cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter and flour a 9" x 9" square glass cake pan.  Set aside. Bring stout and butter to simmer in heavy large saucepan over medium heat. Add cocoa powder and whisk until mixture is smooth. Cool slightly.

 

Whisk flour, sugar, baking soda, and salt in large bowl to blend; set aside. Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, beat eggs and sour cream until well blended. Add stout-chocolate mixture to egg mixture and beat just to combine. Add flour mixture and beat briefly on slow speed. Using rubber spatula, fold batter until completely combined. Pour batter into prepared pan and bake 40-45 minutes or until tester inserted into center of cake comes out clean. Transfer to rack to cool. When cool, top with chocolate frosting.  

 CHOCOLATE FROSTING

¾ c. chilled whipping cream

3 T. butter

1½ T. dark corn syrup

9 oz. semisweet chocolate, chopped

1½ T. Brandy

½ - ¾ c. confectioner's sugar

Bring first 3 ingredients to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Reduce heat to low. Add chocolate and stir until melted and smooth.  Remove from heat, stir in Brandy. Let stand until cool, whisking occasionally, about 1 hour.  Add confectioners' sugar until desired thickness is achieved.  Spread on cooled cake.

 

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