Chili

 (Added note about chili and beans: 11-29-23)

"Chili" is a type of stew, based around "chilies," that certainly shows the Mexican influence on the cooking of Texas, and a dish which spread throughout the United States. It became a staple of corner diners and roadside restaurants and its popularity led to canned versions that came to be offered in supermarkets and neighborhood grocery stores. (Note: There are lots of "purists" who say chili doesn't have beans; in fact, there is even an episode of the popular comedy "The Big Bang Theory," where Sheldon, who was from Texas and played by Jim Parsons, tells everyone about chili not having beans.)

Ingredients:

1 1/2 pounds Mexican-style chorizo (bulk or removed from casings)
2 cans (15 to 16 ounces each) dark red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
1 cup chopped onion (red or yellow)
3 cloves garlic, chopped
(optional) 1 fresh jalapeño chili pepper, chopped
1 or 2 dried red chili peppers
2 tablespoons ancho chili powder
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon dry adobo seasoning*
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon Spanish paprika (smoked)
2 1/2 cups vegetable stock
1/4 cup ground tortilla chips
2 teaspoons brown sugar

In a crock-pot/slow cooker, add all of the ingredients, except the brown sugar, the ground tortilla chips and the kidney beans. Cook on high for 75 to 90 minutes, then turn setting to low or regular and cook for another 4 1/2 to 5 hours, or until the onion is tender. Add the brown sugar and the beans at the 3 1/2 hour mark, and stir. Add the ground tortilla chips at the 4 hour mark and stir well. You can serve the chili when done, OR, to be quite honest, I think this gives the chili a far better flavor, let the chili cool down, then refrigerate it until the next day. Heat the chili again, or heat individual servings and serve with crumbled Mexican cheese (I use "cotija," which is similar to "feta"), good bread or tortilla chips.

* To make your own abobo seasoning, this is the link:    http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2017/11/adobo-seasoning.html

Served with some crumbled "cotija" cheese as a topping and some bread/roll pieces on the side

WORD HISTORY:
Orchestra-This word goes back to Indo European "ergh," which had the notion of "put something into motion." This gave its transliterated Greek offspring "erkhomhai," which had the meaning "to go, to come, to move." This then produced transliterated Greek "orcheisthai," which meant "to dance," which gave Greek "orchestra," which meant, "the specific part of the stage used for singing and dancing by performers." Latin borrowed the word from Greek and English borrowed the word from Latin in the early 1600s, by which time the meaning had altered to "the part of a theater for the chorus." The meaning then altered to "area of a theater where musicians performed," and from that also came the name for "the musicians who performed."