Johnny Cash’s Chili & an earworm: welcome to the Columbo Bowl Chili Cook-Along

My contribution to the Columbo Bowl Chili Cook-Along, celebrating the publication of Cooking with Columbo.

There’s a word for the effect on my brain of watching Swan Song, episode seven of season three of Columbo: an earworm.

An ear worm is a piece of music that gets stuck in your head and just won’t leave, long after it’s stopped playing. Apparently earworms tend to last longer for women and also irritate us more. Tell me about it.

So what caused this assault on my brain? It was Johnny Cash, in the guise of murderous singing star Tommy Brown, and the incredibly annoying gospel song ‘I Saw The Light’ which featured, seemingly every ten minutes, throughout the episode. To appreciate just how irritating the song is you can listen to it here, but don’t blame me if it haunts you forever.

Cooking With Columbo

It all started when I got involved with Silver Screen Suppers‘ Columbo Cookbook as a test cook for John Cassavetes’ recipe for minted beef Youvarlakia: you can read my post about it here.

Cooking with Columbo is due for publication on 20 February 2018, which is also the fiftieth anniversary of the first episode of Columbo being screened on television. As I would be unable to make the actual book launch party, I thought it only right that I took part in the virtual launch which was in the form of the wonderfully imaginative Columbo Bowl Chili Cook-Along.

The Cook-Along invited everyone to cook, any time between 1st – 20th February, Johnny Cash’s recipe for chilli, or a vegetarian version of it, and share online.

In the interests of full disclosure, I should say that I did also have a rather selfish motive for taking part. Silver Screen Suppers is offering some Columbo-themed prizes and I have my eye on this adorable, knitted Columbo finger puppet. Who could resist?

So that’s how I came to be re-watching Swan Song recently. I do like to do my research and if that means putting my feet up with an episode of Columbo, then so be it.

Venison, beef or squirrel?

The chilli we were to make for the Cook-Along was a version of Johnny Cash’s own recipe which included venison or beef. However, in Swan Song Columbo gatecrashes a party at Tommy Brown’s house where he enjoys the chilli being served up, but is a little taken aback when told its a “special” recipe made with squirrel meat.

In theory, I don’t have a problem with eating squirrel, as long as its the grey variety and not our native, endangered red squirrel. There’s lots of greys about and, as many are culled and disposed of anyway, it sounds like one of the most environmentally friendly meats you can eat. You can now buy squirrel from places like The Wild Meat Company and, judging by some of the reviews, it might be worth giving it a try.

But for my Johnny Cash Chili, I decided to stick to beef.

I was pleased to see that the recipe included some bite-sized pieces of meat as well as minced as I always make my chilli with chunks as I find it much much satisfying. I like to use a cut, such as brisket, which is full of flavour and cook it in my Instant Pot electric pressure cooker where it’s done in just 35 minutes. Nevertheless, for the Cook-Along I followed the recipe and used minced beef and a sirloin steak.

Beans, Beans…

When it came to the beans, I did have to step away from the recipe a bit. I virtually never put beans in my chilli so didn’t really fancy a kilo and a half of the tooting things which I thought would swamp the 675 grams of meat.

The recipe called for a can of black beans, a can of pinto beans, a can of kidney beans in chilli sauce plus another can of kidney beans. I just went for a can of kidney beans in chilli sauce and a can of mixed beans (kidney, pinto, cannellini, borlotti and black-eyed) in a mild chilli sauce and thought this ratio of beans to meat was fine for my taste.

The Seasonings

Listed among the ingredients was over 30 grams of New Mexico chilli powder. Not having heard of it before, I was a rather wary of adding this much (I prefer medium-to-hot rather than hot-hot) but after a bit of research, I found that the New Mexico chilli usually has only moderate heat with earthy and fruity undertones. I thought this sounded rather good so I ordered some New Mexico Red online and, tentatively tasting a teeny bit, found it to be very mild, with a pleasant flavour: sweet with a slight smokiness.

The called-for packet of McCormick’s Mild Chili Seasoning Mix presented a bit more of a problem as it’s not available in the UK. After a quick perusal of the ingredients online I decided to make my own, despite (shock) being right out of corn maltodextrin and such like. I also left out the flour and sugar. I was really just guessing what quantity of different spices to include, so started off with a teaspoon each of paprika, cumin, garlic powder and chilli powder, then tweeked it a bit. The smokiness of the New Mexico Red chilli powder inspired me to add some smoked paprika too.

A quick taste test of the raw mix had me racing for a glass of water; the chilli powder I’d used was an Indian one and searingly hot. But the mix of spices was good and complex and I thought it would make a great chilli.

The Recipe

I’m not going to include the recipe here –  you’ll have to buy Cooking with Columbo or find it on the Silver Screen Suppers website – but here are the changes I made:

• I love garlic so quadrupled the amount: from one and a half cloves to six.
• I prefer olive oil to canola or rapeseed oil.
• For convenience, I used a standard 400g can of tomatoes instead of 680g and figured that, as I was using less beans, this would be ok. I added a little water as well, after swishing it around the empty can.
• I included one medium red and one medium green pepper, chopped quite big.
• I used about two and a half teaspoons of New Mexico chilli powder and about three and a half teaspoons of my version of McCormick’s mild chilli seasoning.

The result was an incredibly tasty chilli that I think I actually prefer to my usual. I don’t normally follow a recipe as such, just add this and that, tasting as I go. But I think this one’s a keeper.

The accompaniments

While I do think that the traditional chilli accompaniments of cheese and soured cream are essential, I like to take mine in a more Mex than Tex direction with a raw salsa of seasoned tomatoes and onion, flavoured with lime juice, fresh, chopped chillies and coriander leaf. I think chilli really benefits from the addition of these fresh elements, so I like to stir in lots more roughly chopped coriander just before serving and have some creamy, sliced avocado in the bowl too.

Smoked Bacon, Chilli & Cheese Cornbread Muffins

As I’ve already admitted that I don’t usually put beans in chilli, it’ll probably come as no surprise to you that I rarely serve it with rice. I accept that, in Britain, those two things probably put me in the ‘wildly eccentric’ category, but that’s how it is.

When I do want some carbohydrate accompaniment to my chilli, I think cornbread is much more interesting than rice. In a happy coincidence, this recipe called for cornmeal as a thickener so it was only sensible to use up most of the rest of the bag to make cornbread.

But the Columbo Bowl Chili Cook-Along called for something special so I came up with these Smoked Bacon, Chilli, & Cheese Cornbread Muffins.

It’d been a while since I last made cornbread so, after some searching, I based mine on Felicity Cloake’s recipe. Felicity’s Guardian newspaper column, How to cook the perfect… is often a good place to start when looking for a recipe as she tests out various cooks’ versions of a classic dish and then comes up with her own based on what she’s learned, both good and bad.

Instead of the buttermilk most recipes use, I substituted whole milk yogurt as I always have a giant pot of it in the fridge. I also only left the toasted cornmeal to soak in it for a few minutes rather than hours or overnight; I was a little impatient as that rich chilli was calling to me.

I crisped up some nuggets of streaky, smoked Denstone Hall bacon in frying pan, then added butter and finely chopped red and green chillies. I cooked it for a couple more minutes, until the butter was browning. I added all this, including the fat in the frying pan, to the cornmeal batter along with a few handfuls of grated, mature Cheddar cheese.

I decided that individual muffins would be nicer than a large one cut into squares, hoping each would be browned and crusty on all sides. After greasing a dozen silicone muffin cups, I divided the mixture between them, placing a slice of raw chilli on the top of each. The muffins cooked in about 10 minutes and were lovely and fluffy inside. Cornbread can go a bit solid once its cold, but I find 45 seconds or so in a microwave makes them nice and soft again.

Home-fried Tortilla Chips

One of the things that really makes a dish for me, besides different temperatures (like hot, steaming chilli with cool, soured cream and raw vegetable salsa) is having different textures. So, much as I loved the cornbread, I wanted some crispy crunch in my chilli bowl too.

Tortilla chips are an obvious side with chilli and it’s tempting to reach for a bag in the supermarket. But making your own is really worth it. Not only is it quick and easy – cut up some flour tortillas and fry in oil in a deep-ish frying pan – but they taste so much better and the texture is crunchier, flakier and bubblier too.

Don’t worry that the home-fried tortilla chips will go soggy either. I made a big batch and put the cooled leftover ones in a plastic storage box and they were still good and crunchy the next day.

And talking of the next day…

Nachos with Johnny Cash’s Chili

If you’ve got a little of your chilli left over, took my advice and made your own tortilla chips, then you absolutely must make these fabulous nachos.

For a big bowl of comfort, put some home-fried tortilla chips in an ovenproof dish (okay, you can use shop bought chips if you must), spoon over the chilli plus some cheese, chopped onion and soured cream, then heat through in the oven until bubbling and irresistible.

To serve, I scatter over some of the fresh tomato and onion salsa, plus more chillies.

Epilogue

As with my recipe test for Cooking With Columbo, I found taking part in the Cook-Along was a really enjoyable interlude from my usual recipes and reviews. Having the task of following someone else’s recipe as closely as you can makes you rethink why you do things in a particular way and opens you up to other possibilities.

In this case, I ended up with the best chilli I’ve had in a long time and a jar of the homemade seasoning mix I came up with will now become a permanent feature in the spice cupboard.

Going back to using mainly minced beef instead of chunks also provided the opportunity for leftovers to be used in those heavenly nachos – big pieces of meat just wouldn’t have worked.

So, thank you Silver Screen Suppers. I guess you could say, I Saw The Light.

UPDATE

Read Silver Screen Suppers’ Johnny Cash Chili Columbo Bowl Roundup here and see how everyone else’s chili turned out.