Gerry's Chili #2: No Tomatoes

Frustrated by the chili from Shakey's I reviewed here, I decided to go and do may own chili again, specially after I got some really nice dried ancho chilies from the Seven Spice Shop.

I wanted to try one that didn't have tomatoes in it. This time around, this recipe isn't based on anything I saw online. I just wrote the ingredients I thought I would need on paper... ingredients that I feel would make for a good chili and went from there.

Spice Mix:

3 tablespoons chili powder
3 teaspoons cumin powder
1 teaspoon white pepper
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
2 dried ancho chilies ground finely (seeds not removed)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon brown sugar

Combine all the spices in a bowl, mix thoroughly and then set aside.

Rest of the ingredients:

1/2 kilo ground beef
1 beef cube
2 stalks celery chopped
1 red bell pepper chopped (seeds removed)
1 green bell pepper, chopped (seeds removed)
4 long green chilies, sliced thinly (seeds not removed)
1 large white onion chopped
6 cloves of garlic, chopped finely
2 cans white beans (strained)
kinchay for garnishing
cheese for garnishing

Procedure:

Heat oil in a pan (around 3 tablespoons) and fry beef until all fat is rendered. Separate the beef from any fat/liquid via colander. Set beef aside.

In a deep pot, heat oil then saute garlic until slightly brown. Add onion and saute until translucent. Add the long green chilies, bell peppers, and celery. Saute for around 2 minutes. Add the beef and spice mix and stir thoroughly until the spice has been evenly distributed.

Dissolve beef cube in 2-1/2 cups of hot water and add into the pot. Boil then simmer at low heat for 15 minutes. Add the beans and continue simmering for 1 hour, occasionally stirring to keep the bottom from sticking. If you feel your chili is becoming too thick you can add a bit more water.

Taste your chili and adjust seasoning. You can add more heat if you like. I found myself adding just a little bit more salt, and another teaspoon of cumin. I would have gone for hotter, but I thought the spice level was just right for the rest of the people in the house.

Garnish with cheese and kinchay.

Chili Review #1: Shakey's Chili Con Carne

I love chili. It's not a very popular dish in the Philippines for some reason, but I think people just don't want to give it a chance. Hopefully, this would be the first in a series of reviews of chili dishes, preferably those that come a complete meal in itself rather than just an add-on or a topping (which is more common).

This is a new item from Shakey's Pizza, which I tried immediately after I saw the announcement. Consistency of it is very soupy and thin, very much like how I remember Wendy's Chili to be (before they phased it out). It seemed a bit bland both in taste and spicyness. A little more salt wouldn't have hurt, and a lot more hot spice would have made it better. Filipinos are not known to like food that's too spicy except perhaps Bicolanos and most of Southern Philippines. Which is a shame because spicy is good for you. Reports I read online seem to indicate that eating spicy food actually prolongs your life. So why not put a little spice in your life? Spiciness in this chili is barely there that it's hard for me to actually consider it chili.

I'd give this 2 out of 5.

Excellent Ribs at Samuel's Plate Gastropub, San Pablo City

As promised, here's a write-up of our first ever visit to Samuel's Plate Gastropub, which opened April 8 here in San Pablo City. It's actually not that hard to find. It's at San Roque near Teacher's village.

I've got a lot more good things to say about our visit than bad.

First thing that caught my eye was of course, their newly constructed building. They didn't rent a space. They actually built an entire new building just for this new restaurant. That may seem usual for a franchise like say McDonald's or Jollibee, but Samuel's is not a franchise. It's a completely local establishment. To me that means they're willing to invest a lot and to me that means they believe in their business.

That's reflected right away in the placemat set up (photo above). They had specially made placemats and napkins. And the napkins themselves aren't cheap one ply tissues. Those were good quality napkins! What other local business does that? Hardly anyone else, I'm sure!

The ground floor is more of a receiving area than a dining area, much of the space being taken up by the kitchen. Their main dining area is located on the second floor. When we arrived, we had to wait for some 10 minutes or so in this receiving area because the dining area upstairs was full. That was OK because it allowed me to study their menu quite closely.

Later upstairs, I ordered their smoked house ribs with a side of chili beans and potato mash. Ilyn ordered the Laguna Sampler and Puttanesca.

First, the Laguna Sampler. It's hot pandesal with three types of palaman. Kesong puti, tuyo confit and some kind of tomato salsa. Each palaman was excellent in their own way. The kesong puti wasn't salty, the tuyo was crunchy and the tomato was nicely flavored. I personally liked the tuyo because previous gourmet tuyo I've had wasn't as nicely crunchy as this.

Ilyn says she really liked their Puttanesca. Puttanesca is one of Ilyn's favorite dishes so her standards here are pretty high. Her one big issue with dishes like this is that the flavor of fish (usually anchovy) is oftentimes not that noticeable, which is an essential component of puttanesca. She seems pretty satisfied with it overall.

Now for my dish!

The smoked house ribs arrived with my preferred sides Chili Beans and Potato mash. It usually comes with rice, but I didn't want rice so they gladly replaced with it with their house mashed potato. I was just moving the ribs to the side to get a taste of the potato when the meat just fell off the bone. I thought holy cow, that meat's tender! I tasted a bit of the ribs with the potato and it's like smoky heaven in my mouth. I'm not really that much of a ribs eater, but this was just amazing. I had ribs at another place before and I didn't like it because it was too salty. This was marinated and seasoned just right. I just absolutely LOVED it!

Having looked at the menu earlier, I was already thinking of what to order the next time. I'll probably try their bolognese. Or maybe their labuyo wings to see if it's really that spicy. Ilyn wants to try their soups, which were not available when we were there.

The staff was incredibly friendly, courteous and accommodating. The food and check came at a reasonable time, so I have no complaints about that.

Do I really have anything bad to say about Samuel's Plate? Nothing about the food, of course. But more about the building itself. Having developed mobility issues in recent years, I've become more aware of accessibility for handicapped people at establishments I go to. Although Samuel's does provide a ramp for people entering the building into their ground floor, There is, unfortunately, no access for the disabled from the the ground floor to their second floor, which is the main dining area. I've had no choice but to use the stairs, which was kind of hard.

Now if they are going to have the second floor as a main dining area, the stairs have to be appealing to climb and have a good design. Being an Architect myself, I noticed this right away. Their stairs may conform to the minimum in the building code, but I found it too narrow and too steep and not that appealing to climb.

A quick and inexpensive solution to their problem would be to open the ground floor as a dining area to PWD and older people. They already have tables and chairs there so that wouldn't be a problem. A much better solution would be a more expensive one, which is to install either an escalator or an elevator. Since that wasn't part of the original design, that would be difficult, but not impossible to do.

This next bit is more of a suggestion. I was secretly hoping that Samuel's would be offering steak in their menu. To be honest, there's no really good steak places here in San Pablo. The only place I know that offers steak is Simple Treats (April 15 edit: Si Christina now also offers steak: Angus Porterhouse: P1,100), but it's just OK. The price of those steaks are around 350 pesos, so that should give you an idea of the kind of meat and the quality of it. I was hoping Samuel's would be the first to offer inch thick rib eyes. I wouldn't mind paying P1K and upwards for steak like that as long as its good. And steak seems like a perfect fit for the kind of menu they have. Since they don't offer it, of course, that's not a point against them. They have good food and I'm happy with what they offer!

Apart from that, Samuel's is an excellent place to eat, and probably one of the best restaurants in San Pablo City. We do plan on coming back. The quality of their food and service is worth the pain of climbing the stairs. :)

Gerry's Chili

Yep! I like my own chili so much that I decided to name it after me! It's one of the very few things I cooked that I'm proud to attach my own name to it.

Chili is one of my all time favorite dishes. It's not a traditional Filipino dish by any means, but I don't mind. The first time I tasted something like this was at Wendy's, and it seemed interesting. I decided to try it whenever and where ever it popped up on a menu. One of the best chilis I tasted was in restaurant in Detroit, but I've forgotten the name of the place. Its distinct quality was it was fine, thick and soupy, as if all the ingredients have completely dissolved into one consistent goop. It was awesome.

The next best chili I tasted was the one in Mile High near Camp John Hay in Baguio. The waiter was a bit of an ass, but we put up with him because the chili was awesome. Very different kind of chili. You can still see the meat, vegetables and beans in a relatively thin soup, but all together it was very nice.

I didn't like the chili of both Chili's and Johnny Rockets. TOO OILY.

I decided to try to make my own and after several attempts, I finally found one that suits me perfectly. These are the ingredients I used:

1/2 kilo lean ground beef
200g smoked bacon, chopped into 1 inch pieces
1 big onion, finely chopped
8 cloves garlic finely chopped
2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon cumin
1 tablespoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon rock salt
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 tablespoon dried oregano leaves
1 400g can Molinera red beans
1 400g can Molinera white beans
1 400g can Capri whole peeled tomatoes
1 small can Molinera pimientos
5 pcs. green finger chili peppers (siling haba), seeded and chopped finely
2 tablesooons Tabasco Chipotle Pepper Sauce
2 sticks celery, chopped
2 medium sized green bell pepper chopped
2-1/2 cups water
cheese (for toppings)

First, throw in the chopped bacon in a deep pot on medium high heat. Let it cook for a few minutes to render out the fat. Add just a little bit more oil and then throw in the garlic and the onion. At this stage you need to add the chili powder, cumin and oregano. Stir very well until the spices are absorbed by the onion and becomes soft.

Throw in the ground beef and add the salt and ground black pepper. Stir very well. Now I know the bacon will already bring a lot of saltiness, but I think you need this additional salt for the entire dish. Don't add anymore salt until you've tasted it much later.

Add the whole peeled tomatoes. With a masher or big spoon, mash the tomatoes very well. Add the pimientos, celery, green bell pepper, green chili peppers, and beans and stir very well. Add the chipotle pepper sauce, garlic powder and water. Stir and bring to a boil.

Once it's boiling, turn the heat down to low and allow to simmer for an hour.

After one hour, taste it. If it's not salty enough for you, feel free to add more salt. If it's not spicy enough, feel free to add more chipotle sauce.

Spoon over onto a serving bowl, top with your favorite cheese and there you go!

*I specified Molinera beans and Capri tomatoes, but feel free to choose any brand you wish, if those brands are not available in your area. I used the green chili peppers that are commonly available here in San Pablo, commonly called "Siling Haba", but if I had my way, I would use fresh jalapeno peppers. The closest thing I can get to that is Tabasco's Chipotle Pepper sauce (Chipotle is smoked red jalapeno), which is available at the local SM.

That's it! I hope you give it a try and let me know what you think.