Yesterday was chili night

What is this? Two food related posts in a row? What happened to the dragons? Don't you all worry. My dragons are fine. They are more than fine--they are fine and well fed! The fact that this blog oscillates between my writing and food related topics is not going to surprise anyone that knows me well. I am very openly obsessed with food and cooking and come from a family of foodies, where everyone knows how to cook and enjoys a good meal, whether it's a sophisticated tasting gourmet dinner, or a simple down to earth homey one pot dish. As it stands, I'm very passionate about a few things in life. My husband, my writing, and food. Get me started on either of those subjects at your own risks only.

Yesterday was chili day. That means starting to chop early enough for my mise en place to be done by 10am, and the chili to be on it's way to a one way trip of at least 6 hours before reaching it's destination in the Parthenon of comfort food at 11am at the latest. Chili is one of dishes that are often misunderstood imho. A good chili is not a complicated thing to do, and it's definitely not an expensive dish to make, except maybe for the peppers (and even then we are talking single digits). All you need to make a good chili, is a good pot, patience, and time.

Yes, I've put a good pot first. Not that you can't have a good chili without a good pot--it's just a lot harder. Because it has to simmer for so long, and because nobody has the time to stay next to the stove and stir for 6 hours, a good pot is truly essential. Of course, you can always start your chili on the stove and then let it cook in the oven on low, but I found that if it should work in theory, the end product never quite manages to be as tasty somehow. I'll put a note on pots at the end of this post.

And then, there was patience--the most underrated ingredient to good food in my opinion. Can you make a chili in an hour? sure. But the flavors won't have time to marry and combine. You'll need to boil it hard on high heat instead of simmering it on a corner of your stove for a full day. There are no miracles in life, stews (which is essentially what a chili is) take time. In fact, it would even have been better for me to cook that chili the day before my guests arrived and reheat it, letting the flavors expand overnight.

Back to my chili. I'm an advocate of beans, unless I plan on freezing. Now let me warn the purists that will materialize out of thin air and start screaming of heresy. This is MY chili. I never pretended it was the exact copy of the first chili that was ever made. I don't give a rats ass if you approve of it or not. I like beans in my chili, and if you don't like it, you can bite me.

This little detail being taken care of, back to the beans. I experimented with fresh and canned beans, and I have to say that as much as I always try to use fresh ingredients, in that case, canned beans give me better results. I like to mix two types of beans, pinto and red kidney. I think they have very distinct textures and both  contribute to the end result. Of course, if I plan on making a batch for pure freezing purposes, I won't add beans. I also won't reduce the chili quite so much, because it will finish reducing when I reheat it; I'll also add the beans at that stage in that case.

I don't think that there is a "best chili" recipe. Chili is like gratin dauphinois. As Joel Robuchon (my cooking GOD) says it: "The best gratin dauphinois recipe is the last really good gratin dauphinois I ate".

I don't pretend to have the ultimate chili recipe. I have the chili recipe that I ended up with, after adjusting it to my particular taste, and to what I wanted to find in a chili.

I must be onto something though, because guests always come back for more.

And if you managed to read all of the above without falling asleep your face embedded in your keyboard, then you definitely deserve to get a copy of my recipe. So here goes:

For my chili, you will need:

• 1 pound of chuck, cut into half an inch cubes
• 2 pound of ground chuck, 80-20.
• 1 pound of bacon
• 2 yellow onions, finely diced. 
• 2/3 of a head of garlic, de-germed and pressed.

• 3 bell peppers, preferably green (they have more flavor), cored, peeled, and diced into half an inch cubes. (why peeled? because it makes them a lot easier to digest). It's also really easy to do with a simple vegetable peeler. Yes, yes, I know, I could have roasted them under the broiler and done the plastic bag trick--I just couldn't be bothered lol) 

• 2 cups of strained tomatoes
• 3/4 of a small can of tomato paste
• 2 cans of pinto beans, with juice
• 2 cans of kidney beans, drained but not rinsed
• 1 cup of fresh chopped cilantro
• 4-6 cups of beef stock (approx cup per hour of simmer)
• 1 12oz bottle or can of beer.
• 1 small can of chipolte in adobo sauce
• 1 tsp of onion powder
• 1 Tbsp of garlic powder
• 3 Tbsp of chili powder
• 2 tsp of paprika (not smoked!)
• 2 Tbsp of ground cumin
• 1 tsp of cayenne
• 2 Tbsp of ground coriander
• 1 Tbsp sea salt, plus adjustments later.
• Green onions and sour cream for garnish.

Just a note before we start. I have divertuculitis, which is a conditions that prevents me from consuming anything with seeds. That's why my tomatoes are strained, and why I seed all of my peppers, even the chipoltle in adobo ones. If you decide to leave the seeds, please remember that for the same amount of jalapeno peppers you will end up with a much--much hotter chili. I also use sea salt. It's not quite as strong as kosher salt, so make sure you adjust the salt proportions to the type of salt you use, by tasting as you go.

1. Dice your bacon pretty small and render it, starting on a cold pan with a little canola oil on medium low. Cover and let all that wonderful pork fat melt. Take the bacon out with a slotted spoon, and reserve it for whatever you can use bacon in--mash potatoes, potato skins, salad, you name it. You get the idea.
2. Add 2 Tbsp of butter in that wonderful pork fat, and add onions and peppers. Season with a little salt to help them render their water. Saute on medium heat until peppers and onions are nice and caramelized.
3. Add the garlic let it fry for a minute or three, making sure it doesn't burn.
4. Add the beef cubes, raise the heat to medium high, and saute until the beef is nice and brown, stirring once in a while so the onions and garlic don't burn. DON'T SALT YOUR MEAT YET.
5. Add the ground beef and stirr. Saute until it's starting to brown and the meat is almost cooked through. Don't break it up too much, it will add more texture to your chili. 
6. Once the water released from the beef has almost disappeared, add all the spices and the salt and toss. Let it all fry in the pan, stirring often, for a good 5 to 6 minutes on medium/medium-high.
7. Add in a small can of chipoltle in adobo, seeded and chopped, with the juice of the can. Stirr and let cook for a minute so that it coats and permeate all the beef.
8. Add the strained tomatoes, the tomato paste, the beer and the beef stock. Cover and bring to a boil
9. Add the 2 cans of pinto with the juice, and the 2 cans of red kidney without the juice (but not rinsed). About this, one small word. I used to use masa or flour to thicken my chili. I found out that using the juice in the box (and all the starch coming from the beans it contains) brings me the same result, without having the flour making my chili stick to the bottom of the pan as it cooks.
10. Add the chopped cilantro.
11. Stir. Cover. Bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer on LOW, and come to check on it and stir every 45 minutes or so. If it reduces too much, add a little stock. 
12. Simmer for at AT LEAST 4 to 5 hours. More is better. 
13. Once it's ALMOST to the right consistency, taste it for salt (taste a beef cube, not a bean). Add salt if needed to make it taste delicious. I always end up adjusting the seasoning at the end and adding more salt. Something as simple as seasoning well is often the difference between an "ok tepid dish" and a great one. 
14. Serve with chopped onions, cheddar and sour cream. 

Side dishes? You have quite a few options. You can make a southwestern-type pilaf (with onions, garlic and a little tomato paste). You can serve it with a pile of nachos. Or on top of fries. 

I take baby yukon gold potatoes that I cut in two in the lenght and boil in well salted water with 2 cubes of beef bouillon until the potatoes are tender. Then I toss them with a Tbsp of butter in an aluminium disposable pan, and roast them under the broiler, first skin side up, then flesh side up, until they are nice and toasted. I then add the chopped bacon I ended up with earlier, a little salt and a generous amount of shredded cheddar cheese, and hop under the broiler until the cheese melts. These small potatoes are always a giant hit.

About pots:

I used to make my chili in a huge Le Creuset cast iron pot, and it was working very well. Last Christmas, Dave (my husband) bought me this amazing pot, the "Pauli never burn" sauce pot, that I had been contemplating for some time. I have to say that it brought the pleasure of cooking chilis, gumbos and the likes to new heights. It is virtually impossible to burn something in that pot. They are a few drawbacks, of course. First of all, it weights as much as a dead horse that just had a good meal. But then again, so did my cast iron pot. The second drawback is that it takes a while to heat up at the beginning, and that browning and sauteeing is a lot slower too. When I'm really in a hurry, I do the browning in another pan, than transfer it to the pauli pot for the simmer part, deglaze the old pan and dump it in too.

Anyway, here is the link to the Pauli pot. http://reviews.chefscatalog.com/8855/24703/reviews.htm