Friday Night Cooking Project: Chili

While there are some who are willing to battle the elements on this Friday night, I find it way more appealing to stay indoors and fire up the kitchen. Given the climate, I can't think of a more appropriate dish that makes the weather more tolerable while still abiding by the "rules of the game." This chili recipe is a complete improvisation, an experiment if you will. It is the maiden voyage, so to speak. The way I figure, if you use good ingredients (which we are) you can't make a bad dish. Well, that is unless you burn it which I will try my best not to do. Since I will be sort of winging it, I will wait until the end of the post to disclose the recipe.

The first step is to cook the beans. I am using dry pinto beans so the cooking process will take a little bit of time. Ideally, I would have liked to have soaked them overnight, but this will work just fine. I was able to rinse and soak them when I got home from the store earlier today. It was actually the first thing I did before starting on the vegetable prep (yay organization!). I drain the beans, rinse them again, and put them in a stock pot with a new stock of water [I add an assload of water. They will need to cook for at least 2 hours, plus we can always drain out any excess bean liquid we dont need. Use about 6:1 if you can]. Bring it to a boil and, if you're using a big enough pot, let it go in a rolling boil for a while [at least the first hour. This speed up the process]. I made more beans than I am going to need for the chili, so I will use the rest to make some kickass borracho beans [sans the beer, obv. I will actually be able to use the vegetable stock I made earlier to enhance the flavor of those borrachos. can't wait!]. You want your beans to cook all the way through but you don't want them to get too soft. Remember, they are going to cook again in the final products, respectively.

In all its glory: our ingrediants. This chili is going have a base ratio of 2:1 beef to pork, some roasted poblanos and Anaheim chilis, some tomatoes, some toasted cumin, some jalapenos for heat, and even a little red wine. It's going to be bomb.

Roasting chilies is a personal favorite of mine. It is relatively easy to do, and if you have the time it provides you with a wonderful weapon in your refrigerator arsenal. Roasted chilies are as versatile to me as roasted garlic (where do you think I got all the roasted garlic oil I've been using?). If I have access to a gas flame (which I did in this instance) I simply put the dry pepper on top of the grate and literally let the flame burn the skin until every inch of the pepper is covered in black blistered skin. It's no problem to roast them in the oven, lightly covered in oil, under the broiler until black, but this method tends to overcook the pepper in my experience. We want a more al dente chili because it still has to stew in the chili and we want some sort of intregrity in the finished product. Where were we? Oh yes, just pulled the "burned" peppers off of the heat. At this point, put the chilies in a container, covered, until they are cool enough to handle As it cools, the steam will loosen the skin for easier peeling. When the chilis are cool, lay them flat on a cutting board and scrape them gently with a knife (the skin should come right off). Carefully cut an incision and unfold the pepper so as to scrape off the seeds and ribs. You can now dice your peppers and store until ready to use (this can be done up to the day before).

Here we go...chili making time! You want to start by browning the meat. I use a cast iron dutch oven, an excellent choice for this dish for its rad conductive properties. Cast iron is maybe the best tool to overcome, in my opinion, the greatest obstacle to home cooking success: electric stove tops. I caramelized the onion pretty deeply, adding a dash of water at one point to prevent burning while prolonging caramelization time. When the onions got sexy I added the celery and jalapenos, sauteeing for a short while longer. While those cooked, I toasted some cumin seeds on the stove top in another cast iron pan. Toasting these seeds awakens their essential oils and makes the aroma nearly irresistible. The next step was to grind these seeds in my trusty mortar and pestle (which I don't utilize nearly enough, IMO). At this point the freshly ground cumin as well as the chili powder got tossed in and stirred until the fragrance filled the air. A little deglaze with red wine loosened up my pan, and at that point it was down to adding the rest of the ingredients.

I let the chili simmer for a little over an hour, until the stew was balanced between liquid and filling. The best thing to do at this point is to cool it down, let the flavors marry overnight in the fridge, and reheat to order the next day for optimum flavor...but obviously I couldn't wait. I served myself a heaping bowl with a little tomato and cilantro for garnish.

In case you're wondering, it was delicious. I can't wait to eat some for breakfast...with a fried egg on top! Mmmmmm....

Here is the secret formula:
February Chili
Yield: 2 Q (4-8 servings)

1 # 85/15 lean ground beef
1/2 # lean ground pork
1 T garlic oil
3 c onion, small dice
1 c celery, small dice
1/2 c jalapenos, seeded and minced
4 T cumin seed, toasted and ground
2 T chili powder
1/2 c roasted poblano, peeled and diced
1/2 c roasted Anaheim chilies, peeled and diced
1/2 c red wine (Malbec from Mendoza)
28 can organic diced tomatoes
2 c pinto beans, cooked and drained
2 c organic beef broth

garnish: cilantro and diced roma tomatoes

-Brown beef and pork. Drain pan, reserve meat.
-In the same pan, heat garlic oil and sautee onions until well caramelized. Add celery and jalapenos and continue to sautee until soft. Stir in toasted cumin and chili powder until wildly fragrant.
-Deglaze pan with the wine, stirring to dissolve the brown bits stuck to the pan. when mixture turns thick and resembles a marmalade add the tomatoes, roasted chilies, beans and broth.
-Bring the stew to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for an hour until there is balance between the liquid and the filling and the sauce starts to coagulate.
-Serve immediately with cilantro and fresh tomato. Alternatively, cool down the mixture, let the flavors marry overnight, and reheat to order the next day.


So there you have it. I am happy with the results, for sure. And the best part, this recipe is totally slow-carb compliant. Give it a shot at tell me what you think.