saint_monkey

some of you may have had my chili in the past, and wondered what goes into it. this is a recipe gleaned from a few years of experimentation, and focused towards my personal likes and dislikes in chili. (for example, i do not like kidney beans, so i sub red beans, because i DO like those.) like all chilis, it is a work in progress.

• a tablespoon or two of canola or safflower oil (if vegetarian, no oil if not.)
• a pound of the meat or meat substitute of your choice (i use soy-based choritzo (mexican sausage.) it browns up and has the texture and taste of the real thing, so it makes a good fake meat for chili.)
• a tablespoon of ground cumin
• at least a tablespoon of chili powder, 2 is more like it.
• an onion
• a spicy pepper (your tastes dictate whether this is a scotch bonnet, an anaheim, a goathorn, a jalapeno, etc.)
• 2 cloves of garlic
• one shot of a "top-shelf" tequilia
• diced tomatoes (about 28 oz)
• a cup each, of cooked pinto beans, cooked black beans, cooked red beans
• a 15 oz can of tomato sauce
• half a 4 oz can of tomato paste
• a bottle of beer, a nice medium flavored beer like Henry's or Corona for those that are afraid of the idea of a beer based chili, (or vegetarians) but this chili tastes best if you use Guinness. (of course.)
• one half of a baked Hokaido squash
• one half of a bunch of steamed black kale
• 2 tablespoons Lea and Perrins worchestershire sauce (vegetarians may want to sub "wizards" worchestershire sauce, since it uses no anchovies, but personally, i can suffer the little fishes.)
• a tablespoon or more of tabasco sauce.
• salt to taste
  

take the oil and heat it up in the bottom of your soup pot. (medium to medium high) add the cumin and chili powder to the hot oil. cook for 30 to 40 seconds. (toasting your dried spices like this makes them more aromatic and brings out the flavor.) add the diced garlic the diced pepper, and the diced onion. let this cook a while. the onions will begin to turn transparent, but not sweat. add your sausage or ground beef and brown it. one browned, drain off excess fat (if using meat) and deglaze the hot pan with the tequila. if cooking this vegetarian, add the tequilla to the onions before the soy sausage. cook the tequila on the heat for about a minute, until the alcohol smell no longer rises, then add the beans, tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, tobasco, worchestershire, and beer. cook this on medium heat for a bit, until it comes to a bubble. then lower heat and cook for a while, at least an hour, but the longer it goes the better. about 10 minutes before serving, add the squash and the kale (otherwise, they will simply dissappear into your chili.)

now, for some fun options. mesa flour or cornmeal can be added to thicken this up quite a bit. add that about an hour after the beans. you can also add a lump (4 oz or so) of a fine semi-sweet or bittersweet chocolate along with the toamatos and beans. (Use Giradellis, Sharfenberger, Mexican cocoa, etc (NOT a Hershey bar, Hershey bars are high in Buteric acid, and this gives the chili an odd taste,) the point of adding the chocolate is to create a Mole sauce, which mellows it out a little. believe it or not, this pairs very well with the sweet Hokaido squash and the cumin in the chili.) Since mystery doesn't like chocolate, i have to leave it out.