Fizban's Fireball Chili

Join me as I make Fizban’s Fireball Chili – From Tika’s Cookbook for the first time! This is a recipe from Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home sourcebook, originally released in 1987. The recipes are compiled by Tika Waylan Majere. You can buy Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home here: https://amzn.to/3FOuL2J

From Tika’s Cookbook

Fizban’s Fireball Chili

“I have a really wonderful spell – Fireball. Now. if I

can, just remember how it goes” – Filban

Tasslehoff Burrfoot supplied us with yhis recipe

and the story of how it came about. It seems that

he and the befuddled old wizard were traveling

from Huma’s tomb to the Council of Whitestone

when they ran out of provisions. After several

hungry days of watching Fizban attempt to conjure

up something (“Hamsandwichi! Did that

work? No, well…”), they came upon a cow

grazing in a field of peppers. As the two later explained

to the irate farmer, Fizban mistook the

cow for the Queen of Darkness and blasted her.

When the mistake was discovered (“Bless my

hat. It really was a cow!”), Tas declared it best yo

eat the evidence. (“Sinful to let it go to waste.”)

“The Queen can cake any form, you know,”

Fizban was heard to cry as the village conscable

hauled him away.

This is a recipe about which it must be said, “If

you can’t stand the heat , stay out of the line of

fire.” Not to be confused with chili made with

beans and hamburger, this is a meat entree for

those whose tongue, esophagus, stomach, and

intestines are truly prepared for combat.

I pound beef
2 tablespoons flour

Marinade:

1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (tip
of tongue)
2 tablespoons paprika (center of
tongue)
jar tabasco sauce (back of tongue)
½ teaspoon chinese hot oil (smooches
things out)
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper
(explosion!)

Prepare marinade; mix thoroughly. The effect

of the marinade, for those brave enough to taste

test it, should be a sensation of heat running

along the tongue, culminating in an explosion at

the back of the throat. If the sensations seem uneven,

feel free to balance chem.

Trim fat from beef and save. Cube beef into 1-inch

squares; marinade in sauce 8 hours to 2 days

in refrigerator. The longer the beef is marinated,

the more shredded it will become upon cooking.

If you wish the beef to remain cubed, marinate

less than 24 hours; overnight is sufficient.

After meat has marinated, place it and marinade

in pot or dutch oven over low heat for 2

hours. Stir occasionally co keep meat from sticking

to bottom.

Rend fat to liquid in frying pan over low heat to

use in a roux. If beef is too lean co produce 2 tablespoons

of liquid fat, bacon grease or lard may

be used instead; mix thoroughly with 2 tablespoons

of flour.

After meat has stewed sufficiently, remove I

cup of liquid from pot. Add liquid slowly to roux,

blending thoroughly with whisk. Pour thickened

sauce back in with meat and remaining juices;

blend. This method will tend to shred meat

more. Transfer to serving bowl.

Alternate sauce preparation: Strain all juices from

meat. Slowly add juices to roux, blending thoroughly

with whisk. Place meat in serving dish,

and pour thickened juices over the cop.

Each helping of meat should be served with a

wedge of fresh lime to be squeezed over the meat

mixture and a large dollop of sour cream to aide

in the recovery of the tongue. A piece of bread,

especially fried flat bread, may also help to cut

the taste.

Transcript

Cold Open

It is not as hot as implied, though I did feel it the next day…

Intro

Today I am making Fizban’s Fireball Chili from Tika’s Cookbook in Leaves from the Inn of the Last Home. If you have made this recipe, share your thoughts in the comments below!

Discussion

This recipe had me a little scared. I have a hiatal hernia and heartburn comes naturally so to consume anything hot is playing with fire for me. But we had sirloin steak from our butcher and most of the ingredients already, so I threw caution to the wind.

This is created in two steps, and the first is the marinade. One teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, two tablespoons of paprika, one jar tabasco sauce (I have to make a note here, there are many different sizes of ‘jar’ so I used the two ounce option), one half teaspoon chinese hot oil (this is another vague reference, so I opted for Sun Luck Chili Oil), and two teaspoons crushed red pepper. I added the ingredients into a large bowl that could hold more than enough of the already excessive meat, and cut the sirloin steaks into one inch-ish cubes. Again, the recipe says ‘beef’, so in the future if I were ever to make this again, I would use a roast cut rather than sirloin, however it did a great job of breaking it down for eating, just not shredding it as the recipe suggested.

I added the cubed sirloin to the marinade and left it in the refrigerator for two days. I put the cast iron dutch oven, which was a much larger container than necessary, over low heat, added the marinade and sirloin, and left it for two hours, stirring every thirty minutes. After two hours, I started the Roux. I didn’t trim any of the tiny amount of fat from the steak, so I used two tablespoons of bacon grease. We save it whenever we make bacon in a jar next to the stove, so it works perfectly and tastes great. I did put this together out of order, so when I added the one cup of liquid from the pot to the roux, it didn’t blend as well as it should have if done in the proper order. The grease should be whisked with the two tablespoons of flour, then add the pot liquid. I cooked the roux for a few minutes, then added it to the pot, mixing thoroughly. I collected the chili and kept it in a warm bowl until I finished the side of flat bread, which is the next recipe I will be featuring.

When the flat bread was done, I divided the chili into two portions, which could be three if you are not as greedy as I am, and with two pieces of flat bread on the side, I added a wedge or two of lime squeezed over the chili, and a healthy dollop of sour cream. After mixing, it didn’t look very pleasant, but it tasted great! The heat was not bad at all, and even too tame for my wife who loves spicy food. I would recommend it as a variation on a familiar chili dish.