Chili

It's winter and I was at home with not much going on so it seemed like a good day to make chili. I've tried it all sorts of ways but after some thinking about what I liked and didn't, I came to the following mini-epiphany:

Chili is essentially a beef and bean stew or soup, depending on how runny you like it.

Thus, treat it like a beef soup or stew, again, depending on how you like it, i.e., don't just toss a bunch of stuff in the pot and hope, or you will end up with either over-cooked or undercooked parts. Yes this is obvious in retrospect, but for some reason I just never thought of it that way. As I was aiming for a runnier chili today, here's what I did, and why:

Beef: 2 lbs beef stew meat. Ground beef is traditional but try it with chuck steak, it's better. Really. :) I lightly floured this and browned it in the bottom of the stockpot with some garlic and onion. Don't skip the browning, this develops a lot of flavor.

Vegetables: Two medium white onions in chunks, two medium carrots in slices, two sticks of celery in slices, eight sun dried tomatoes, julienned, one can whole peeled tomatoes (liquid included). These add some nice flavors and textures but I wanted to avoid over-tomatoing the chili.

Liquid: In this case the pale ale I had in my refrigerator, two bottles worth. Beer adds a certain bread-itude to a dish and a pale ale or light lager is much lighter than a dark. More liquid is needed but I just used good old H2O for that, maybe two cups more but I'm not exactly sure. For thicker chili, just add less H2O.

Spice: Don't be shy, the dominant flavor of chili is the spice with the beefiness underlying it! Three jalapenos, seeded; two serranos, chopped and seeded; one tablespoon allspice; four tbsp cumin powder; one tsp cinnamon; two bay leaves; 1/4 cup prepared mustard; 1/4 cup sherry vinegar; one tsp cayenne powder; eight cloves of garlic; salt (as needed); two tbsp dried oregano.

Beans: One can of canellini and one can red beans, rinsed and drained. (Get rid of the salt and starch.)

The main thing is that the chili has to cook long enough for the connective tissue in the beef to break down but not too long so as to turn everything into mush. This needs to be done low and slow, ideally in a Dutch oven but you can also use the stovetop if you're careful, but be sure to stir often enough to make sure you don't get burning on the bottom. Cook until the beef is tender. The vegetables aren't main players and should be fairly soft but still intact. Depending on how intact you want them, you might need to add them partway through the cooking process. The beans are a problem. Canned beans need to get the flavor of the broth but are already soft and don't need to cook, so add them very close to the end.

It was good today, it will be much better tomorrow.