Today happens to be Chili Day. Or Chilli Day, if you prefer the British spelling.
I will admit to being a fan of chili. Nothing beats a pot of chili on a cold day in my mind. But I do have issues with chili powder. You know. The spice that kind of makes it chili.
Maybe it’s my taste buds that have gone downhill over the years, but there seems to be a lack of consistency when it comes to chili powder. For one, you can never be overly sure of how long it has been around. That bottle or bag of chili powder in the drawer. How long has it been there? Does it still have the same punch? Has the flavour gone out of it?
I tend to not let it sit around too long, but I still find variations in the powder. Often, it tends to give more heat than flavour. I don’t mind the heat part. Others in my family are not quite as happy to eat something that makes them break out into a sweat. So it’s a bit of a balancing act. And not knowing what your mine spice is going to do makes it even more of a challenge.
Enough that I have often taken to making my own. Or at least using the spices that would usually make up chili powder. Just to give me more control over the heat level.
But that’s only part of it. Chili is one of those things you can put almost anything into. There are many different types of beans to use, different colours of pepper, other ingredients that can be added, depending on what you like. Really, chili can be a pretty individual thing.
So I like to try to keep mine a bit on the mild side. It keeps others happy. And I can just keep the hot sauce handy.