Brisket and Bean Chili

Chunks of leftover brisket make this chili much more interesting than one made with ground beef. If you don’t have time to cook beans, skip that step and use 3 cups drained and rinsed canned beans instead. If you can’t find ground ancho chile powder, use regular chili powder instead and reduce the oregano and cumin to 1-1/2 tsp. each. Add cayenne to taste.

Yield:

Serves four to six.

Ingredients

1. For the beans:
2. =============
3. 1 cup dried pinto or kidney beans
4. 1 large yellow onion, chopped
5. 2 large cloves garlic, minced
6. 1 tsp. dried oregano
7. Kosher salt
8. .
9. For the chili:
10. =============
11. 3 Tbs. olive oil
12. 2 large yellow onions, chopped
13. 4 large cloves garlic, minced
14. 3 Tbs. ancho chile powder
15. 1 Tbs. dried oregano
16. 1 Tbs. ground cumin
17. 1/4 tsp. cayenne
18. Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
19. 1 28-oz. can diced tomatoes
20. 1 12-oz. bottle lager beer (such as Corona)
21. 1 6-oz. can tomato paste
22. 1 lb. leftover brisket, cut into 1/2-inch dice (about 4 cups), plus 1-1/2 cups leftover brisket juices
23. Dash balsamic or red wine vinegar (optional)

Directions

1. In a medium bowl, soak the beans in enough water to cover by at least 2 inches, and refrigerate overnight.
2. Drain the beans and put them in a medium saucepan. Cover with fresh cold water by about 1 inch. Add the onion, garlic, and oregano. Bring to a boil over high heat, lower the heat to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes. Add 1 tsp. salt and continue to simmer until tender, about 30 minutes more. Drain and set aside.
3. Heat the oil in a heavy-duty 6-quart pot over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until soft and pale gold, about 15 minutes. Add the garlic, chile powder, oregano, cumin, cayenne, 1 tsp. salt, and 1 tsp. black pepper and cook for 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the tomatoes and their juices, beer, and tomato paste.
4. Add the brisket and its juices, bring to a boil and then reduce the heat to low. Simmer, covered, until the meat is meltingly tender and the sauce is flavorful, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and vinegar, if the chili needs some acidity for balance.
5. Serve the beans on the side, or stir them into the chili and simmer for about 15 minutes before serving.

Notes

The garnishes are half the fun. Serve with warm corn tortillas, sour cream, sliced avocado, salsa, and minced onion and cilantro. If you’re not from Texas, you may want to serve rice with the chili.

Buffalo Chicken Panini with Blue Cheese and Celery

This is a tribute to Buffalo's favorite chicken wing recipe. If you don't have any leftover barbecued chicken, plain cooked chicken will do, especially when tossed with spicy barbecue sauce.

Yield:

Makes 2 sandwiches.

Ingredients

1. 1-1/2 cups (about 8 oz.) shredded barbecued chicken
2. 3 Tbs. barbecue sauce (optional)
3. 1/4 cup mayonnaise
4. 2 Tbs. sour cream
5. 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese
6. 1 scallion (white and light green parts), finely chopped
7. Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
8. 2 Italian or ciabatta rolls
9. 1 celery stalk, trimmed, tough outer strings peeled away, and thinly sliced

Directions

1. Heat a panini or sandwich press according to the manufacturer's instructions. Combine the chicken and barbecue sauce, if using, in a small bowl and stir to coat.
2. Make the blue cheese dressing: Combine the mayonnaise, sour cream, blue cheese, and scallion in a small bowl and stir to combine. Season with salt and pepper.
3. Slice the rolls in half and spread some blue cheese dressing on the inside of each roll. Arrange the sliced celery on the bottom halves of the rolls. Pile the chicken on top of the celery. Top each sandwich with the top half of the roll.
4. Put the sandwiches on the press, pull the top down, and cook until they are brown and crisp, 4 to 7 minutes, depending on how hot your machine is. Carefully remove from the press and serve immediately.

Notes

BLT Burger

This ultimate summer burger gets its amazing flavor from the combination of smoky bacon and a sweet-and-spicy ketchup with caramelized onions and Southwestern spices.

Yield:

Serves four.

Ingredients

1. 1-1/2 lb. ground chuck (80 to 85% lean)
2. 1 tsp. coarse salt
3. 1/2 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
4. 4 slices best-quality cheddar cheese
5. 4 brioche-style hamburger buns
6. 8 strips bacon, cooked until crisp and drained on paper towels
7. 4 leaves green leaf lettuce
8. 2 medium or 1 large beefsteak or heirloom tomato, thickly sliced
9. 1 avocado, peeled and thickly sliced
10. 1 recipe Kicked-Up Ketchup

Directions

1. Put the ground meat in a mixing bowl; sprinkle with the salt and pepper. Mix gently and briefly to avoid overworking the meat. Shape the seasoned beef into four patties that are about 1 inch thick.
2. Prepare a hot charcoal or gas grill fire. Grill the burgers, covered with vents open, until nicely marked and cooked to your liking (about 7 to 8 minutes total for medium-rare). Don’t press on the burgers while they’re cooking—you want to keep the juices inside the burger, not on your grill. Top each burger with a slice of cheddar in the last minute of cooking so that it melts slightly.
3. Transfer the burgers to a plate and tent them with aluminum foil while you toast the buns briefly on the the grill, cut side down. Serve the burgers on the buns, topped with bacon, lettuce, tomato, avocado, and ketchup.

Notes

Strawberry-Blueberry Cobbler with Pecans & Cinnamon

Because not all berries are perectly ripe and sweet, the fruit filling recipe calls for a range of granulated sugar. Start by tossing your berries with a 1/2 cup of sugar, then add more to taste.

Yield:

Serves eight to ten.

Ingredients

1. For the dough:
2. =============
3. 7-1/2 oz. (1-2/3 cups) all-purpose flour
4. 1/3 cup granulated sugar or packed light brown sugar
5. 1 Tbs. baking powder
6. 1/4 tsp. table salt
7. 3 oz. (6 Tbs.) cold unsalted butter, cut into 10 pieces
8. 1/2 cup chopped toasted pecans
9. 3/4 tsp. ground cinnamon
10. 3/4 cup cold sour cream
11. .
12. For the filling:
13. =============
14. 4 cups hulled ripe strawberries, well rinsed and drained (small berries left whole, medium ones halved, and large ones quarted)
15. 4 cups ripe blueberries, well rinsed and drained
16. 1/2 to 3/4 cup granulated sugar
17. 2 Tbs. all-purpose flour
18. Pinch table salt
19. 2 tsp. minced fresh ginger
20. 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
21. 1-1/2 Tbs. granulated, turbinado, or demerara sugar (optional)

Directions

1. Position a rack in the center of the oven and heat the oven to 350°F.
2. In a food processor, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt. Pulse briefly to blend the ingredients. Add the butter pieces and pulse until they are the size of small peas, 5 to 7 one-second pulses.
3. Dump the mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add the pecans and cinnamon and stir until evenly dispersed. Add the sour cream. Using a rubber spatula, gently smear the ingredients together until the flour is evenly moistened and the dough begins to form large, soft, moist clumps. Bring the dough together into an 8-inch-long log. Divide the log into 10 roughly equal round pieces. Refrigerate the pieces in the bowl while preparing the fruit.
4. Put the berries into a large bowl. Toss with the granulated sugar, flour, and salt. Add the ginger and vanilla and toss gently.
5. Pile the fruit into a 9x13-inch Pyrex (or similar) baking dish, scraping in any remaining juices or sugar from the bowl, and spread evenly. Remove the pieces of the dough from the refrigerator and arrange them randomly on top of the filling, leaving spaces between the pieces. Don't be tempted to flatten the dough—the large pieces are important for proper and even baking of the filling and topping. If desired, sprinkle a little granulated, turbinado, or demerara sugar evenly over the cobbler.
6. Bake until the filling is bubbling and the topping is browned, 50 to 60 minutes. Let sit about 20 minutes to allow the juices to settle. You can serve this cobbler hot or warm (it will stay warm at room temperature for 1 to 1-1/2 hours). Serve with lightly sweetened whipped cream or vanilla ice cream, if you like.

Notes

You can prepare the dough up to 8 hours ahead; simply cover the bowl with plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator until you're ready to proceed with the recipe.

Apple-Bacon Barbecued Ribs

The smoky-sweet-spicy flavor of this rub and sauce is a classic complement for pork ribs. You can use either spareribs or baby back ribs for this recipe; baby backs will require about an hour less cooking time.

Yield:

Serves six to eight

Ingredients

1. 2 cups hickory wood chips
2. 2 racks St. Louis-style spareribs (3 to 3-1/2 lb. each) OR 3 racks baby back ribs (2 to 2-1/2 lb. each)
3. .
4. For the spice rub:
5. ================
6. 4 tsp. kosher salt
7. 2 tsp. ancho chile powder
8. 2 tsp. sweet paprika, preferably Hungarian
9. 1 tsp. ground cumin
10. 1 tsp. celery seed
11. 1 tsp. freshly ground black pepper
12. 1 recipe Apple-Bacon Barbecue Sauce & Mop

Directions

1. Soak the wood chips in water for about 1 hour.
2. Slide the blade of a dinner knife under the thin, translucent silverskin that covers the bone side of each rack (note that some racks are sold with the silverskin already removed). Lift and loosen the membrane until you can grab it with a paper towel; pull it off and discard.
3. In a small bowl mix the spice rub ingredients. Sprinkle the rub all over the ribs, seasoning the meaty sides a little more than the bone sides and working the rub into the meat. Stand the ribs upright in a rib rack so that the meaty sides face the same direction. Leave as much room as possible between the racks; they shouldn’t touch. Let the racks sit at room temperature for 30 to 60 minutes while you prepare the grill.
4. Drain the wood chips.
5. If your grill has a smoker box, follow the manufacturer’s instructions for lighting the wood chips and heat one of the grill’s burners on high (for indirect heat). If your grill doesn’t have a smoker box, lay the chips evenly inside a small disposable aluminum drip pan. Cover the pan with foil. Poke 10 to 15 holes in the foil. Remove the cooking grate from the grill. With the lid open, light the grill with all burners on high. Close the lid and heat the grill for 10 to 15 minutes.
6. Using tongs or an insulated mitt, set the pan of wood chips in one of the rear corners of the grill, right over a lit burner or two (or over the steel bars covering the burners). Replace the cooking grate. Close the lid and wait until smoke pours out of the chip pan, usually 20 to 30 minutes. Then turn off all the burners except the one just below the chips
7. Carefully set the rib rack on the side of the cooking grate opposite the lit burner, with the bone sides of the racks facing the lit burner. (The bones will protect the meat from cooking too quickly.) Close the lid and adjust the remaining burner until the temperature is 300ºF—this could require a low, medium, or high setting, depending on your grill. Smoke the ribs for 1 hour for baby backs, 2 hours for spareribs. During this initial cooking, prepare the mop and sauce.
8. Remove the ribs from the grill and from the rib rack and lay them on a large rimmed baking sheet. Lightly brush the ribs on both sides with about half of the mop. Carefully put the ribs back in the rib rack, again all facing the same direction but this time turned upside down so that the parts that haven’t browned as much will get more exposure to the heat and smoke. Return the rib rack to the cool side of the grill, again facing the bone sides toward the heat. Close the lid.
9. Let the ribs cook until the meat shrinks 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the ends of at least several bones, 2 to 3 hours longer, and then check them for doneness (see below). During this time, baste the ribs occasionally with the remaining mop (don’t bother removing them first from the rib rack). You may not use all the mop.
10. When the rib meat has shrunk 1/4 to 1/2 inch from the ends of several bones, lift each rib rack one at a time from the metal rack, holding the meat at one end with tongs. Turn the ribs bone side up and let them hang so that the weight of the other end bends the rack in an arc. If the meat separates and tears easily near the middle of the arc (see photo), that rack is fully cooked. Some racks take longer than others, as long as 4 hours total cooking time for baby backs and 5 hours for spareribs.
11. As each rack of ribs is fully cooked, lay it on a large sheet of heavy-duty aluminum foil. Lightly brush the ribs on both sides with the sauce—you may not need it all. Then wrap each rack individually in the foil. Let them sit at room temperature for 15 to 30 minutes for baby backs and 30 to 45 minutes for spareribs. Unwrap the racks, cut them into individual ribs, and serve warm.

Notes