Tag Archives: southwestern cuisine

Baby Lady’s Green Chile Potatoes au Gratin

© 2012 REMCooks.com

I’m not the only one on a Southwestern cuisine food kick. Even Baby Lady got into the act with her take on a french classic, potatoes au gratin. The result was lip smackin’ good, too. Continue reading Baby Lady’s Green Chile Potatoes au Gratin

Seared Ancho Crusted Tuna with Fig Lime Glaze, Jalapeños & Cilantro

Seared Ancho Crusted Tuna with Fig Lime Glaze, Jalapeños & Cilantro

This recipe is from the Baby Lady to Adriana who wishes she was here for dinner tonight but had to take a raincheck. These photos are no substitute for the real deal.

Continue reading Seared Ancho Crusted Tuna with Fig Lime Glaze, Jalapeños & Cilantro

Super Bowl Chili, Texas-Style

© 2012 REMCooks.com

This recipe is a Texas-style chili, commonly referred to as a “bowl of red.” True Texas-style chili includes only meat, chile peppers, and spices. Like cajuns and their gumbo, Texans take their chili seriously and there are numerous disagreements over what is and what is not chili. The debate continues to rage over beans vs. no beans; tomatoes vs. no tomatoes, etc. and, over time, a whole chili lore has developed. Texans take their chili so seriously that chili was officially designated the state food of Texas by the State Legislature in 1977. Also, to most Texans, the fact that a genuine “bowl of red” can only be found in Texas has never been in doubt. In fact, it is generally accepted that, despite its Spanish name, chili con carne originated in San Antonio Texas. Indeed, in the 1800s when San Antonio was host to the Mexican Army, the Chili Queens of San Antonio (as they became known) made large pots of chili at home by day, and clad in brightly colored dresses, trundled their carts to San Antonio’s Military Plaza, ladling out their vendibles from cast iron pots heated over wood or charcoal fires in the evening.

Chili became so popular in Texas (and later elsewhere) that chili parlors and chili cook-offs sprang up everywhere. Legend has it that outlaw and desperado Jesse James refused to rob a bank in McKinney, Texas because that is where his favorite chili parlor was located. Beginning in 1967, as a joke with a chili-cooking duel between humorist H. Allen Smith and journalist Wick Fowler, chili cook-offs are now popular all over the country, with state-wide and International contests. The Chili Appreciation Society International (CASI) cook-off is held in Terlingua, TX and the ICS (International Chili Society) Cook-off was normally held in CA. Even US Presidents have gotten into the fray over chili

“Chili concocted outside of Texas is usually a weak, apologetic imitation of the real thing. One of the first things I do when I get home to Texas is to have a bowl of red. There is simply nothing better.”

Lyndon B. Johnson, 36th President of the United States

Try this recipe and you, too, can enter a chili cook-off with possibly the winning bowl of red. 😉

Continue reading Super Bowl Chili, Texas-Style