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With winter coming, I turn to making a traditional Filipino dish: Arroz Caldo. I’ve asked my brother and mom about their recipe for it and they give it to me without actual measurements or time. My brother makes a chicken stock first, then makes the soup. My mom just gives me the steps: cook chicken with ginger, add water, add rice, cook until done. Not very many ingredients and not many steps. What can go wrong?

My mom left out let the chicken simmer into a stock!

SO YOU HAVE TO HAVE A CHICKEN STOCK.

And now my version doesn’t taste too well. Here’s how I worked my version.

I did use some of the chicken stock I made two weeks ago here. I also used 2 cups.

I take 3 chicken thighs and fry it with ginger, salt, and pepper. Cut the ginger into little slivers so that when you eat the soup, you’ll spend your time spitting out the ginger stalks.

When the chicken looks to be cooked through, add your chicken stock and enough water to cover. Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for twenty minutes. This is were my mom should’ve said to let it simmer for another 2 hours. Next time simmer for 2 hours.

Here add the rice which you should rinse until the water is clear. Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for another 2 hours.

Take the chicken out and shred. Add it back into the soup along with a heaping dose of patis.

Serve with scallions, fried garlic and more patis.

I haven’t cooked anything in a while. It seems like years, but it’s getting to be colder again and that makes me want to have something good. Soup? No this time chili!

My mom lent me her slow cooker so it will be my first time using it and my first time making chili.

But how hard can chili be? You need some meat, tomato sauce, chili spices, and some chilis. Throw it all in the slow cooker and wait for it to all come together tomorrow morning. I just did that so I’m writing this blog post to remind me how I did it, because when tastes terrible tomorrow, I’ll know what I did wrong.

Let’s start with the ingredients.

First comes ground beef. I chose the 80% lean so that the fat will give it some flavor. Brown the ground beef in a tablespoon of oil with 2 pinches of kosher salt and fresh ground pepper.

Next (actually before browning the meat), I roast a jalapeño pepper on my stove top. I used my vegetable steamer over the bare flame as the roaster. I rub the pepper in some olive oil and blacken it all around. Place it in a container to steam so that the skin is easy to peel. It took about 5 minutes for it to steam. Let it take longer and the burnt skin should come off easy. Remove the seeds and chop it. Throw it into the browning beef.

One diced yellow onion and a handful of minced garlic cloves go in as well. Let that all cook together for a few minutes. I didn’t look at the time I just threw it all in the pan and watched the meat brown.

Then I added the spices. I have no idea how much to add so I measure out about a tablespoon each of ground cumin, paprika, and chili spices followed by half a tablespoon of ground black pepper. Throw it all into the pan and stir it good.

At this point, I plug in the slow cooker and start her up at high. For the liquid base, I throw in a can of beer. Yes beer because this Deadspin article says so. I’m apprehensive, but hope that it turns out well. Maybe using Sam Adams summer ale may not be the same as Corona.

I scrape the meat and vegetables into the slow cooker. Maybe I should’ve waited longer so that the spices mix up well. In also goes a small can of green chili and then comes the tomato paste. I also have some diced tomatoes but everything in the pot already looks good. I hold off on the diced potatoes. This could be my undoing.

I’m going to let it simmer on high for a couple hours then turn it down to low to cook overnight with fingers crossed.