Living the Life

I've been making this chili for a few years now, it started out as Jamie Oliver's chili con carne recipe from the Naked Chef series but I've changed some ingredients so it's more to our liking. I also added Dutch processed cocoa powder, which might seem odd but it adds a nice deep flavor to the dish! I prepare this dish in a large Le Creuset Dutch oven. Ingredients: 2 medium onions 2 cloves of garlic olive oil 2 heaped teaspoons chili powder 1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 pound (455 grams) lean minced beef 7 ounces (200 grams) sun-dried tomatoes in olive oil 2 chipotles in adobo sauce 2 (14 ounce) cans chopped tomatoes (400 grams) 1 stick cinnamon 2 teaspoons Dutch processed cocoa powder 2 (14 ounce) cans red kidney beans, drained (400 grams) Serve with: corn chips grated cheese sour cream Preparation: Chop up the onions and garlic in the food processor and fry in some olive oil until softened. Add the chili powder and cumin an...

Yesterday I made an all time favorite here, my butterflied chipotle chicken. This time I did some experimenting, last weeks I smoked two chicken legs and used barbecue sauce on them and liked it a lot, so this time I tried one chicken with sauce and one naked. Well the sauced one was the first to go, so it looks like we have a winner here! Also I used apple wood for smoking this time instead of the hickory I normally use for this recipe, no complaints about that either! Best thing is that I have lot of apple wood that I bought dirt cheap locally and the hickory comes from weber and is 8 euro a tiny bag! Ingredients For the chipotle spice rub: 1/4 cup sea salt 1/4 cup paprika 1/4 cup dark brown sugar 3 tablespoons freshly ground black pepper 1 tablespoon union powder 1 tablespoon garlic powder 2 freshly ground chipotles (stems and seeds removed) For the glaze: barbecue sauce (I used Jack Daniel Barbecue Sauce) honey olive or vegetable oil 2 chickens 1 bottle or can of beer Preperation B...

This is one of the side dishes I make for the ribs Smokey Potatoes Wedges. They get their smokiness from the chipotles (jalapeno peppers smoked with mesquite wood). The chipotles I used for this recipe I brought from our trip to Mexico last month and they are very nice, and have a good smokey flavor. Ingredients: 1 kg potatoes olive oil chipotle spice mix: (this makes way more than you need for this) 1/4 cup sea salt 1/4 cup dark brown sugar (packed) 1/4 cup paprika 3 tablespoons freshly ground pepper 1 tablespoon garlic powder 1 tablespoon onion powder 2 ground up chipotles (stems and seeds removed) Mix the spice mix ingredients. I remove the stems and most of the seeds of the chipotles and grind them up in a coffee grinder that I only use for spices. You can leave more seeds if you want to spice things up. The left over mix you can store in a jar or ziploc bag in a cool dark place. Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C) Wash and scrub the potatoes, dry them and cut them in to wedges. The ...