Chili
A great dish for sharing with family and friends on a cool spring evening.
Does chili have one l or two? I’ll never get that right. What I do know is that it is delicious and warming on a cold winter (or spring) day and that it is great to prepare for your family and friends, because the recipe can be expanded to feed as many people as you want (I usually include ½ pound of meat per person). And food is always best when shared with family and friends…. Leftover chili tastes even better the next day. If you make enough, you can feast on this for the next couple of days! You can garnish with any or all of the following: shredded cheese, sour cream, chopped scallions, or chopped cilantro. I like to serve this with homemade macaroni and cheese (which will be the subject of next post).
You will need a sharp chef’s knife, a pot that can hold about 8 quarts, a wooden spoon or spatula to stir with, and a small bowl.
Ingredients:
3 or 4 thick strips of smoked bacon, chopped
1 pound ground beef
1 pound ground pork (see note 1)
1 28-ounce can crushed tomatoes or tomato puree
4 whole cloves garlic, chopped
1 medium onion, chopped (see note 2)
1 fresh or canned jalapeno pepper (see note 3), chopped (seeds and all!)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1/4 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper (see note 4)
1 tablespoon dried basil or oregano (see notes 5 and 6)
About 3 to 4 cups of water or beef stock, or water plus 12 ounces gluten-free beer (Yes, beer! see note 7)
½ tablespoon sea salt (see note 8)
Black pepper
Can of black beans or beans of your choice (see note 9)
Instructions:
Warm up the pot on medium heat and add bacon
Let bacon fry gently to render the fat
Once the bacon is slightly brown and the fat is rendered, add the chopped onion, garlic, and jalapeno (see note 10)
Fry the vegetables together with the bacon, stirring frequently until the onion is clear
Scoop the veg/bacon mix into a bowl and return the pot to the heat
Put the beef and pork in the pot and turn heat up to medium high
Stirring often to break of the ground meat, cook until the meat is brown
Return veg/bacon mix to pan
Add the crushed or pureed tomatoes, and the water and/or stock and beer
Add the cumin, basil/oregano, cayenne pepper, salt, black pepper and stir
Let the chili start to bubble, then turn down heat to medium-low to simmer for at least an hour
Drain canned beans, rinse under cold water, and stir into the chili
Continue simmering until the beans are warm, taste for seasoning (see note 11), and serve
Notes
Note 1: It doesn’t have to be half beef/half pork. You can use all beef, or mostly beef. I often make a larger batch with 2 pounds beef and 1 pound pork.
Note 2: One frustrating thing about recipes is that the always say something like a large, medium, or small onion. But my idea of a medium onion may look like a small onion to you or a large onion to someone else. It is totally subjective. So I weighed my onion, and it came to 5 ¾ ounces, to give you an idea of my medium onion.
Note 3: Do you grow hot peppers in a pot or in a vegetable garden? Here’s a tip: all the peppers that you can’t use—put them in a plastic zip-loc bag and stick them in the freezer. They freeze really well. When ready to use a pepper, let one thaw partially and chop it up. They are best used in recipes like this where they are cooked, because the texture will turn mushy when fully thawed.
Note 4: How much cayenne you use is up to you. The cayenne I have is pretty hot, so I don’t use much. Also, it is better not to make the chili too spicy to begin with for those who have a low tolerance for spicy food. You and your guests can always add hot sauce to the chili when it is served if they want it spicier. Also, you don’t have to use cayenne pepper to begin with; it can be your favorite hot sauce.
Note 5: I actually used something called an “Italian Seasoning”, which has basil, oregano, and other things in it. Just use what you have in the kitchen. Whether you use basil, oregano, or thyme, or a seasoning blend like that, it will taste good. Always feel free to substitute something if you don’t have it on hand or just feel like trying something else; don’t feel constricted by the recipe.
Note 6: Hey! Where’s the “chili powder”? So…I never use chili powder. If you look at the ingredients of chili powder, it is primarily salt and plus cayenne pepper, plus other unnamed spices, which I imagine are garlic powder and oregano—those seasonings are already on the ingredient list, so no chili powder is needed. If you have chili powder in the kitchen and prefer to use that, by all means do so, but you’ll probably want to leave out the cumin, cayenne, and salt until you’ve tasted and decided if you need more spice.
Note 7: Beer in chili? Yes, I’ve made chili with beer for a long time. The main reason I leave it out sometimes is because GF beef is difficult to find. Whole Foods sometimes has it, but most other supermarkets don’t. So, if I come across GF beer, I’ll buy a 6-pack and keep it on hand for when I make chili. If using beer, add it at the same time as the tomatoes and make sure to simmer at least an hour to burn off the alcohol and allow the flavor of the beer to completely meld into the chili. No one will ever guess that beer is your secret ingredient!
Note 8: Before you add salt, check if the canned tomatoes you are using contain salt. If so, you’ll probably want to add less salt; taste before adding.
Note 9: I don’t always add beans. Lately, I’ve been making just meat chili. I don’t have a vegetarian chili recipe, but I expect it would be mostly beans with some chunks of red and green bell pepper cooked just until tender.
Note 10: If, after rendering the bacon fat, it seems a bit dry and like you might need more oil to fry the onion, etc., add a bit of neutral vegetable oil; I used some grapeseed oil.
Note 11: When you taste, if it seems a bit acidic from the tomatoes, add half a teaspoon of sugar, which will cut the acidity. You are also checking for level of salt and spiciness.
Cat Update
We recently were worried about not being able to get Seraphina’s special food. Seraphina has a special veterinarian diet that calms her down. When we first brought her into our home, she was overgrooming, so that she had bald spots on her stomach and back. Her vet prescribed Royal Canin Calm cat food, and it has worked. But lately, it has been very difficult to find. We used to buy directly from her vet, but he hasn’t had it in stock much lately, and all the online pet suppliers, like Chewy and PetSmart—even the Royal Canin website—are saying it as out of stock. She was running very low, and I placed an order with Chewy. They sent an email saying it couldn’t be delivered, as it was out of stock. Then we had a mysterious notification from FedEx saying a package was on its way….What could it be? I hadn’t ordered anything. Imagine our surprise when it turned out to be a package from Chewy with Seraphina’s food! Seraphina seemed quite pleased, as the photo shows.
