White Chili Recipe- "White Lightning" wins the 2011 Chili Cookoff!



2011 Champion- White Lightning

 Each year The Girlfriend and her friends have a Chili Cook Off.  This year I was lucky enough to be invited to enter a chili.  And guess what?  That's right!  The Polymouth's very own "White Lightning" won the 2011 Chili Cook Off!!!  Woo-hoo!  And along with it there is a killer trophy, which now will, as is customary, receive an addition of some sort before being put on the line again next fall.  There were 11 entries in all, and some very creative competition.  We had meaty chilies con carne, luscious vegetarian chilies, firery super spicy chilies, other wonderful white chilies, and another top contender was the delicious and exotic pumpkin chili. 

I've never really entered a cooking competition, even one as relaxed and friendly as this, so there were some butterflies and excitement that came along with entering.  Our entry was quite tasty, but it certainly wasn't easy.  Not that it was difficult, it just had several steps, and took most of the day to make.  As usual I had a general recipe in mind, but I was cooking "Iron-Style" and kept tweaking and adding ingredients up till the final moments before we left for the party.  There is no way to know exactly what the final recipe ended up being, but I will do my best to explain the process and steps that went into this tasty dish.

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The Social Knockwurst (Dish made for The Social Network at the 2011 Oscar Party)

This dish was a fun play on words, but it also has a fun adventure in the making of the recipe too.  It's a real basic cracker snack appitizer, but there was a little searching around and a taste test involved.  All the dish entailed was Sociable crackers (get it, "Sociable" for the "Social" Network... oh you can't script stuff like that), some stone ground musturd, a german style sausage called Knockwurst (learn the difference between Knockwurst and Bratwurst here), topped with the first recipe ever put on The Polymouth: Caramelized Onions.

The Social Network section of the 100 Mile Hallway Mural

So Knockwurst doesn't exactly grow on trees.  You have to do a little digging.  You probably won't find it at your local super market, so this will give you a chance to try some of your local mom and pop butcher shops.  In our search for the best option we tried out 3 of Portlands favorite butcher shops: Otto's Sausage Kitchen, Edelweiss Sausage and Delicatessen, and Phil's Uptown Meat Market.  There was no traditional Knockwurst to be found, but we selected a close enough facsimile from each spot and got to the fun: Sausage Taste Test!!!  The winner ended up being Otto's Bockwurst.  It is a lovely, smooth, soft and flavorful sausage, and well worth the trip.

The dish itself is real easy: Stack a cracker with mustard, a thin slice of sausage, and top with caramelized onions.  I think a garnigh of flat-leaf parsley, lemon zest, or chives would be nice, but you don't need them.  Serve this at your next party and your "Freinds" will "Like" them so much they will be "Requesting" more...

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