Make American Chilli Powder - It Is Very Different Than the Australian Kind

You see a great  looking recipe for some Mexican or other spicy food on an American Food Site or cookbook.

• You cook it. It looks great.
• The aroma has you shouting, Olé!
• You put it on a plate; anxious to taste it.
• You take that glorious first bit.
• Suddenly you let out a small gasp and yell out “don’t eat it”.

What the heck happened?

I’ll tell you what happened; you used Australian chilli powder in an American recipe.

No, we don’t have hotter chillies, than the Americans, we just make our chilli powder differently.

Australian powder is usually dried and ground chilli. I may be one type of chilli or it may be a blend, but it is all chilli and hot.

In the United States, if it is called, chilli powder it is normally a blend of chilli and other seasonings.
A cup of Aussie chilli has a cup of chilli. A cup of US chilli might a teaspoon in it. The rest will be complimentary spices that give a nice flavour but not much heat.

The advantage to the US method is that the spices do go together and form a good flavour, plus when you make a Tex-Mex meal you have the complete spice all in one container.

In Australia we can buy Mexican Chilli Powder. It is similar to the US kind, but it cost over $3.00 for 30 g (or $100.00 a kilo), and you can't control the different flavors in it.

It is far better to buy cayenne and the other spices and make your own. It is easy to make and will have a better, heartier taste.

The recipe I am going to share will give you a mild chilli powder. If you want it hotter you can just add more cayenne. You can also adjust the other spices to suit your taste.
If I am serving to guest I normally use the mild in the cooking and have some additional spice on the table.

List of ingredients to use and suggested amounts

• 12 teaspoons sweet paprika (might just be called paprika, or Hungarian paprika)
• 6 teaspoons dried oregano
• 6 teaspoons ground cumin
• 6 teaspoons granulated garlic
• 3 teaspoons granulated onion
• 2 teaspoons fine sea salt
• ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper

Some Suggested Uses for Grandpa's American Chilli Powder: general spice for Mexican cooking, taco and burrito seasoning, sprinkle on nachos, sprinkle on hamburgers before cooking them - this will give them a good Mexican taste, dust on chicken wings and cook in the oven, or on the bbq, flavour Mexican Beans. 

Homemade Chicken Stock - The Healthy - Unsung Hero Of Great Dishes

Many people think making stock is a lot of troubleIt isn't. And making your own is economical

Usually we just freeze chicken bones and make the stock from them, but sometimes we use a whole chicken. In the video I use a big chicken, it cost a bit over $10.00 but it provided us with 2 litres of stock (Campbell's cost $4.00 a litre) But homemade is tastier, fresher, has not additives. 

In addition to the chicken stock

We had enough chicken to make 4 dinners, and some snacks for our dog.

Give it a go. Make your own stock, use it. When you make it there are no additives, you control the salt and it just flat out taste 100 times better.
We use stock in stews, when making mexican beans, sauces. I even use it to make a quick gravy if we need it.
Use your imagination and you can come up with heaps of ideas, basically if the recipe calls for water you can use, homemade, un-salted chicken stock. Of course, you might not want to use it to make a pie, or cake. But hey! it's yours use it where you want.

Homemade. It's Best. It is probably healthier, But It Isn't Always Possible. What About Partly Homemade

Cooking the food you eat, just, has to be better for you. The more involved you are in the preparation the better it will probably taste. Plus preparing your own food is sort of a personal bond with your body.
I truly believe the above statement, but also know that there are times we just don't have the time or energy to do it all. What about just doing it partly homemade.

Here is a good example. Today we are going to have chicken burritos. I made the shredded chicken along with the sauce to flavour it. Helen-Babes wanted to have some refried beans with the burrito. We had a full day and would not have time to soak and cook some beans so we compromised.

I used some canned kidney beans, drained the mystery liquid they are packed in and cooked them with some of Helen-Babes' homemade chicken stock and some Screwbird Chili powder.

So we have a partly homemade meal which is going to be great; just not as great as if we made the beans from scratch.

Of course I guess it would be better if I raised the chicken.
Grew the tomato and chillis for the sauce.
And grew the beans.
But even retired Grandpas have to draw the line somewhere.