Follow up to Bean Selection I am planning on making a new chili using grilled venison, Great Lakes Black Out Stout, and roasted corn. There was a sister thread to this about deciding on a bean. Thanks to @justkt 's suggestion i am keeping it simple with chili beans (the kidney beans in sauce). However, as i was thinking about the heat, i forgot the other crucial element: the sweet.
For me a good chili isnt just kinda hot: It should be perfectly good and hot, but kept in check with sweet. This in particular is why you see a decent habanero hot sauce with lime, lemon etc in it. Normally I add citrus fruits to my chili.
Since I am cooking Venison, stewed in Stout beer, and hoping for a dark woods moodiness to the food I am thinking of breaking away from the norm. What sweet would you bring to chili in this case?
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I googled 'what fruit pairs well with venison' and cherry (for its acidity) was suggested. This is a really sexy idea to me, but i am unsure if thats just my brain overthinking it. if added, i suppose it should be as a salty puree, probably quite early in the staging (ie when the meat is prepared and added with the beer).
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normally i add the components in this order (and it works well): garlic, onions, spices, beer reduction, tomatoes, meat, [fruit x?] beer reduction, beans… and typically have it simmer for 4-6 hours. Will this make a grilled venison steak tough or tender?
Best Answer
I know that you specifically mention fruits, but I must admit, I personally haven't used any sweet fruits (except basic citrus fruits) in chili so I favorited this question to see what the community has to say.
That said, I have made chili with a combination of sweet and spicy, and I used one of my new favorite things: Jaggery. This unrefined sugar can be considered similar to brown sugar in use (I substitute equal amounts jaggery when a recipe calls for brown sugar), but not in composition - there are a lot of mineral salts left in it, because of the lack of refining and absence of chemicals that are usually used to process sugars. It's made similar to maple sugar; essentially it's boiled down to a syrup and dried.
I've used it in sweet and savory dishes, and it adds a depth of flavor that I find can't be matched with any other sugars I've used. I have a hard time describing it, because it's new to me, but it tastes very...complex, for lack of a better word. Its taste is kind of between brown sugar and molasses. It is sweeter than table sugar, but less sweet than honey. I do think that jaggery might add that "dark woods moodiness" element that you're looking for - in my opinion, it can take the simplest of dish and add a significant amount of depth and interest.
It's used to add a sweet element to a lot of hot curry dishes in India, which is why my mind immediately when to it the first time I thought of adding sweet to my chili.
If you're interested in using it you can find it at your local Indian grocer, or purchase it online, I first got it through Amazon just to try, but have since sought out local ethnic grocers because it's significantly cheaper that way.