The Takedown

JJ and son!!! pic by Joseph Webb

Guest contributor!!!JJ Gonson from Boston competed in the recent Boston Chili Takedown, and contributes her now famous recipe for you to peruse! Please enjoy!!  Oo and know this: JJ is a big proponent of sustainable urban agriculture and locally grown food- check out her wicked awesome blog!

Chicken Chili Verde with White Beans
By JJ Gonson for Cuisine en Locale

Chili comes in all kinds of colors.  My personal favorite is green.  Traditionally chili verde is made with tomatillos, but in late spring/early summer, unripe (green) tomatoes will do the trick just as well.  You may find you need to boost the acidity a bit, but a little lime juice and salt can do wonders for transforming a lowly unripe tomato into a base for a fantastic chili verde.  Play with the proportions to suit your tastes and make it your own.

4 poblano chilies
2 jalapeno chilies
1 large roasting chicken, about six pounds roughly cut up.  You can also use pieces.
3-4 lbs of green tomatoes or tomatillos
1 large white onions, or several smaller ones
1 bunch of cilantro
1 whole bulb of garlic, or the equivalent of garlic and garlic scapes
Juice of 2 large limes (or more)
1/4 c. cumin
1 t each sea salt and freshly ground pepper, more to taste
2 T sugar or honey (or traditionalists might use a couple of T of orange juice concentrate!)
Chicken or vegetable stock as needed
About 3 cups of cooked white beans, canned or presoaked and boiled until soft

In the oven, roast the peppers and chilies at 400 degrees for 15 minutes, or until the skins are bubbly and browning.  Place the peppers aside in a sealed bag or a covered bowl and allow to sit until cool.  When they are no longer too hot to handle peel the skins off as much as possible.  Remove the stems and seeds.  If you want your chili very spicy retain some of the jalapeno seeds- that is where their heat lives.

Remove the stems from the cilantro, chunk the remaining vegetables (the onions, tomatoes and the garlic) and puree all of them in a food processor.  Add the chilies and continue until they are a pureed sauce.  Stir in the lime juice, cumin and salt and pepper and sugar (or honey or OJ) and place in a sauce pot on the stove.  Heat the sauce until it is simmering then submerge the chicken in  it, adding stock if needed to cover.

Continue to cook at a bare simmer until the chicken is falling off the bone- about 1 hour on a stove top.  Or, if you wish to cook in a crock pot, heat the sauce first and then pour over the chicken in the crock pot and cook for 4 hours on high.

When the chicken is done remove it from the sauce and allow it to cool until you can handle it, then remove the skin and bones and pull the meat into little pieces before stirring it back into the finished chili along with the cooked beans.  Heat through before serving.

Top with fresh lime and cilantro and serve with rice

Great SCOTT! It’s impossible to gauge how much blood was let at this particular bloodletting, but all Bostonians now agree: the takedown is a SMASH WIZZ SUPER HIT!!!! This Sunday at Great Scott, the world-famous Chili Takedown set up shop in Boston, and reduced a crowd to  TEARS with the best Boston  chili the world has ever known!!!  Proving beyond a doubt that Texas is no longer necessary!!! All the chilis were brilliant! THANK YOU FOR ENTERING, CHILI CHEFS!!!!

Pictures by Joseph Webb of Boston Magazine!!!

Here’s the winners:

JUDGES:

#1: Rob Primmer and Peter Sedlak – Smoked Bacon, Pork and Country Short Rib Chili WINS A $100 SHUN KNIFE

#2: Anthony Priestas – Rockhound Chili – Beef and Buffalo WINS A $50 SHUN KNIFE

PEOPLE’S CHOICE

#1 Zap Travis – Many Zappa Ingredients Chili  WINS A $250 Shun Knife!!!

#2 Mark Chandler – Beef/Pork/Chicken/Chorizo/Chocolate Chili WINS $50

AND Ace Daforno and Skip Carrio – Ace and Skip’s Steak Chili WINS $50

#3 Mercedes Fereck – Turkey Chili WINS $25 AND Mike Johnson – Chili WINS $25

Tell everyone! The Takedown wants to see your best chili at Great Scott in Boston, June 28 at 3PM! Email Matt Timms to enter! As is standard at the Takedown- there are NO RULES! Pork, Beef, Veggie, chilis are welcome. Bean or no-bean chili, also welcome! Just make sure its the best batch of chili you can possibly make, and the people will come out and see if they agree!!!

To anyone who’d like to buy tickets now, tickets are available HERE and on the Great Scott website!

photo by Natasha Ryan, Metromix

It was all good. Talkin bout curry smoothies by Eric Fass and Becca Hoffman.  Talkin bout curry shramps by Ida Vega-Landow.  And those were just the whiz kids what didn’t win!!! The clouds parted over the P-Slope, and God was all like: ” I can get with curry, it doesn’t have to rain today”.  A christmas miracle in June!

photo by Natasha Ryan, Metromix

Women’s Education Project made serious dough, the Takedown looked real smoothola at Loki Lounge, and looks like once again we pulled off a spectacular and wicked fun time.  Here’s the winners (check out the sick prizes too!):

Judges (IMPERTINENT Keavy Landreth and SASSY Cathy Erway :

photo by Natasha Ryan, Metromix

1. Kate Bryant- Hot Dog Garma Massala (wins $50!)
2. Melissa Sands – Meow Khao Soi Noodles (wins $100 gift cert to Denim Therapy)
3. Geetika Khanna – Lamb + Turkey Curry Meatballs ( wins Greenspaces cooking class)
4. Noah Berland – Kat Skare/ Kare Raisu deep fried bacon, curry and pickle (wins Crop to Cup coffee)

People’s Choice

1. Melissa Sands – Meow Khao Soi Noodles (wins $100 cash!!!)
2. Sasha Dizard – Red Thai Beef with Grilled Pineapple (wins $75 dinner cert at Hill Country)
3. Noah Berland – Kat Skare/ Kare Raisu deep fried bacon, curry and pickle (wins Indian cooking class at the Indian Culinary Center)
   

   photo by Natasha Ryan, Metromix

   View all the pictures at METROMIX!

Remember we are capping the attendees  at 200! We want happy eaters and fast lines! Buy tickets online here to ensure you get some hot curry action! Tickets will be available at the door!

Women’s Education Project has varsity allies, who jumped on board to co-sponsor the Curry Takedown! Thanks to Net IP (Network of Indian Professionals)!

And guess who loves the Takedown!!!? Local brewery Kelso! All the contestants get super sweet growlers of Pilsners, which we are told are the perfect companion to buttloads of yummy curries!!!! So everyone eat yummed-out curries and chuck Pilsners till the sun goes down and then up again!

200 people capacity at this humble, awesome bar, so come early to this thing- its at 1PM! We want you there to HELP OUT WOMEN’S EDUCATION PROJECT!!!

Close your eyes… imagine yourself… a warrior princess, riding the nuclear outlands… a trusty warpig your only friend… bacon your only sustenance… revenge your bloody inheritance in a world of putrid misgivings…       (!)

Glorious! Matt Langland finally finished coloring this beautiful poster print, and it can be all yours! We are pigstatic! Visit our store and buy this 11×14 rendition of vicious pork magic!

Bostonians! Early warning!!! All hands on deck for a chili bloodbath! Here’s an open call to Boston foodies who want to come out to Great Scott and vie for chili glory at the first ever Boston Chili Takedown!!! Contact me to enter! This is the single most important event to ever happen, so I hope you guys are ready…

The Curry Takedown is SET and ON TARGET. Can we see your curry? In a hurry, please? Sign up to bring your super hot super cool, Jamaican Thai Indian Whatevs curry to fruition!!!! Possibly the most monstrous Takedown attempt in the history of wow!!!! We want NYC contestants, both elbows on the table…

BUY TICKETS HERE!!!!

This is the first ever CHARITY event: all prozeeds go to Women’s Education Project! Do you like helping people? This is your chance to do something nice for once!

Sunday June 14th at Loki Lounge 1PM – at 305 5th Ave in Brooklyn!!!!

The Tofu Takedown got two blasts of recognition from the Grey Lady! (That is slang for the biggest paper of the whole wide world the NY Times, dudes.)  OMG, remember all you naysayers who said tofu stinks and no way will this work and Matt Timms what are you even thinking, have fun with that and tell me how it goes because I will not be there? Check it out here. Owch! And here! Yowza!!! Thanks NY Times!

photo by Joey Shemuel / Metromix

Thank you to all the 17 cooks who showed up with barrels of tofu food, each one a warrior vying for Takedown Glory! Thank you  Highline Ballroom!!!

photo by Joey Shemuel / Metromix

This takedown was amazing- definitely favoring the sweet over the savory- definitely savoring the badass over the uncool.  What a brilliant night! The lines moved like a greased eel! The recipes were all fun and different (Pretzel Pie? Tiramisu? Whuuut!) The competition was lowdown and mean! Thank you Brooklyn Kitchen – for generously giving awesome prizes so everybody felt like  a winner, even when they maybe weren’t!

photo by Joey Shemuel / Metromix

Congratulations to Sara Morrisson who won BOTH the Judges Prize and the much-coveted Popular Vote!!!! This has never happened before!!!  Oh and thanks to everyone who came and filled up on 17 different tofu recipes!!!

photo by Joey Shemuel / Metromix

MetroMix has a photo gallery up!

The Village Voice does too!

Popular Vote!!!:

1 #17 Sara Morrisson (Ethiopian Empanadas) WINS $100

2 #12 Mike O’Neil (Spicy Ginger Tofu) Wins a stinkin bad sushi knife from Brooklyn Kitchen

3  #2 Karol Lu (General Lu’s Tofu) and #14 Jui Shih (Handmade Tofu and Soymilk Icecream) both win massive cutting boards from Brooklyn Kitchen

Judges Awards:

1 #17 Sara Morrisson (Ethiopian Empanadas) wins a super tite vintage bowl form Brooklyn Kitchen

2  #14  Jui Shih (Handmade Tofu and Soymilk Icecream) wins a massive chopping block frBrooklyn Kitchen

3 Mike O’Neil (Spicy Ginger Tofu)
Best texture: Diane Spoto with the Mr. T Tiramisu (#9)
Best disguise of tofu: Kathy Patalski with the tofu lemon cups (#8)
Best interpretation of a classic dish: Karol Lu (#2)
Best interpretation of two food trends: Eve Dilworth – salty caramel ice cream topped with pear
Best presentation: Henry Chan and David Gottesman  (chocolate bonbons)
Worst-looking but most delicious: Noah Berland with the green tea custard brulee

photo by Mollye Chudacoff / Village Voice