by Chef Ashleigh Scherman
Chef Ashleigh Scherman became The Carolina Club’s executive chef in August 2014, having worked at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., and The Briar Club and River Oaks Country Club in Houston. Photo by Anna Routh Barzin ’07
Ziv, my husband of three years, and I have had a whirlwind marriage: We met in Houston, where my family traces its heritage to “The Old 300” original settlers, and I had fully intended to carry on that Texas legacy. But fate and job opportunities took us, with me kicking and screaming the whole way, to suburban Washington, D.C. The day we left Texas, it was 78 degrees and sunny; when we reached Rockville, Md., it was 13 degrees, with 2 feet of snow on the ground and more in the forecast.
This was clearly not home.
Begrudgingly, I spent days unpacking. One of the last boxes contained my kitchen toys. As I began to remove layers of bubble wrap, it was like unwrapping bits of home. First, I got to my molcajete (a traditional Mexican version of a mortar and pestle), then my tortilla press, my wooden spoons and my knives, and all at once it made sense. I braved the snow for a few ingredients and came back to cook. The smell of homemade tortillas and a giant pot of simmering chili with all the fixin’s were waiting when Ziv walked in. We sat on our living room floor and drank beer, watching it snow and eating chili and warm, fresh tortillas.
Those flavors, that smell, that long labor of love and patience in a bowl of Texas chili is as close to home as I can get without crossing another state line. In 2014, we settled in North Carolina, and home is where the chili and tortillas are.
Chef Ashleigh Scherman became The Carolina Club’s executive chef in August 2014, having worked at Congressional Country Club in Bethesda, Md., and The Briar Club and River Oaks Country Club in Houston. Scherman is an alumna of the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, N.Y., but much of her education came earlier, when she grew up spending time in the kitchen with her parents, who also work in the hospitality industry.
Yield: 2 to 3 quarts
6 dried guajillo or pasilla chilies
1 dried chili de arbol
2 cups boiling water
2 chipotle chilies, canned in adobo
2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 teaspoon cayenne
2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 teaspoon paprika
5 tablespoons bacon fat
3 pounds boneless beef chuck, trimmed and cut into ½-inch cubes
½ cup yellow onion, diced small
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 cups beef stock
12 ounces Mexican or Texan beer
2 to 4 tablespoons Maseca corn flour
2 tablespoons brown sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Lime juice to taste
Yield: 24 tortillas
2 cups Maseca corn flour
½ teaspoon salt
1½ cups warm water
Oil, blended and as needed
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