Chili! Yep, we had an impromptu chili night with our friends R and J. They brought over some delicious kale and pasta, and we had a hybrid Italian-Southwest meal that turned out rather well. I don't have a recipe for my chili...my ingredients depend on what's in the pantry and what I feel like eating. However, there are a few key ingredients that form the foundation:
onion
ground meat (beef and bison are my favorite)
tomato paste
diced canned tomatoes
canned beans
cumin
cayenne pepper
The rest is variable, but these seven ingredients are what, in my opinion, make chili taste like chili. There are those (I'm looking at you, Alton), who maintain that beans are not necessary, but I think a can or two of black or red beans add a heartiness and textural variety that chili just can't do without. No offense, Alton. Your chili powder recipe is awesome. So here's how my chili variation turned out on Friday night.
I diced one small yellow onion and two thick slices of bacon and browned them together in my cast iron Dutch oven. I added two minced cloves of garlic and one pound of ground bison. I sprinkled the bison with approximately two tablespoons of cumin seeds (which I toasted in a pan and ground in a mortar and pestle), about a teaspoon of smoked paprika, a healthy shake of Mexican green chile powder (chile not chili, contents unknown, brought back from Baja by my brother-in-law some years back), about a teaspoon each chipotle chile powder and cayenne pepper, and two teaspoons of salt. When the bison was browned, I added one small can of tomato paste and cooked it for a few minutes to caramelize the paste - an important step in stock-making and one that will add an additional layer of flavor to your chili.
I opened up one large and one small can of diced tomatoes (28 oz and 14.5 oz, respectively) and added them to the Dutch oven. Then I added one 14 oz can each of black beans and red kidney beans. I let the chili simmer for a few minutes to let the flavors marry before tasting it for seasoning. I added another tablespoon of cumin seeds (whole this time), another dash of smoked paprika, a pinch of salt, a few grinds of black pepper, and three big splashes of Chipotle Tabasco sauce. Then I added three tablespoons of cocoa powder. Try it sometime. The bitter cocoa mellows and deepens the chili spices and tends to bring out any smokiness you've added, which in this case was quite a lot, what with the bacon and the chipotle and the smoked paprika. Then I let the whole business simmer on low heat for half an hour. The result: thick, meaty, hearty, spicy-but-not-too-spicy, dark, flavorful, delicious smoky chili. We topped it with crema agria (Mexican sour cream) and some chopped cilantro. And some fresh pasta and kale with shallots, but that's a food hybridization story for another time. Adios and happy trails!
Quilting postscript: I'm currently waiting on a shipment from fabrics.com...they were out of stock on one of my items and just informed me yesterday, so my next project is out there somewhere, navigating the nether regions of the US Postal Service. Ew.
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