Vera's Deconstructed Chili

I used 6 meaty short ribs, so this recipe can serve 6 if you offer two ribs per person. If they are not particularly meaty, you'll need more.

Rub ingredients:
3 garlic cloves, minced
generous bunch cilantro, chopped
1t smoked paprika
1T chili powder
1T cumin
S&P
1T oregano

Rub onto meat, refrigerate 24 hours.


Preparation:

Add 2-3 T olive oil to hot dutch oven. Sear meat on all sides, remove to plate. Brown 1/2 c sliced onions. Add 2 bottles beer. (Sam Adams in the picture, but Lou drank that instead, haha....I used two bottles of corona). Pull up all seasonings stuck to the bottom, along with the onions. Bring to a boil. Return meat to pot. Cover. Place dutch oven in oven set at 325 for three hours. Remove meat and return pot to stove top. Boil rapidly to thicken sauce, could take 15 minutes.

Spoon sauce on plate, top with ribs.

Looks great! Yum!

I am still having trouble wrapping my head around deconstructed dishes, but this one makes me want to try it. It looks splendid, Vera. I especially think the shaped rice is so pretty. I never think to do things like that. That must be one of the reasons your plates always look so inviting! (That, and the freakin' fantastic food!!!)

Terry, I deconstructed the chili because, frankly, Lou doesn't like chili! And, me being me, how could I possibly not be in a challenge??? So, I pondered it for the better part of the week and came up different ways to do all the ingredients, present them, and still have chili!

Give deconstruction a try sometime, you might get a kick out of it!

Seriously - this is the first time I've ever wanted to try it - seeing your chili. The idea is to have all the flavor components of a particular dish so that when the meal is eaten as a whole - the flavor of the original dish is the result, right?

Not necessarily. Sure, you want to keep the gist of the flavours, but you don't really have to. Consider a deconstructed split pea soup....if I was doing it I'd use one ham hock per person. Cook that low and slow in some sort of braising liquid and possibly irish whiskey. I'd roast cipollini onions. I'd saute baby peas and serve them in a shot glass or some other small vehicle. I'd make one large crouton, spiced with garlic and parmesan, serve that on top of the ham..... Everything in the soup, just prepared to highlight the individual flavours of each ingredient.

Play with it.

Oooooh - OK, that makes more sense. The aim is for the suggestion of the dish through individual ingredients?

Absolutely....now, think about a deconstructed blueberry pie.....

Ahhh - OK. This is just a first pass but maybe a bowl of fresh blueberries, a small shot of a berry liquor, and perhaps a very flaky, buttery biscuit. Is that totally off the mark?

No, that's actually pretty good...I would especially add the shot of Stoli Blueberri. Take it a step further...skewer the blueberries.

Oh Jeez - that sounds perfect!!! I am going to play around with this whole deconstruction thing. Thank you so much, girlfriend!

VeraBlue said:

Terry, I deconstructed the chili because, frankly, Lou doesn't like chili! And, me being me, how could I possibly not be in a challenge??? So, I pondered it for the better part of the week and came up different ways to do all the ingredients, present them, and still have chili!

Give deconstruction a try sometime, you might get a kick out of it!

Click to expand...

Great one! I haven't deconstructed anything yet, but I want to. I never thought of chili before, what a good idea!