Superbowl Chili

I’ve been neglecting my blog. I wonder how many blog posts start with that sentiment in the first sentence. Oh well, let’s talk food. Big food. Superbowl food.

Now, I’m not the biggest sports fan, but I try to pay some attention to the game. While the Patriots didn’t pull it off, I think I did OK with this scratch chili recipe.

Starting out…the ingredients:

• Top Sirloin
• Fresh Tomatoes (Roma,Vine Ripe)
• Fresh Garlic
• Yellow Onion
• Tomato Sauce
• Tomato Paste
• Jalepeno peppers
• Green Peppers
• Dried ancho chipotle chili peppers
• Chipotle Morita Chili peppers

Step 1: Soaking the beans. This you have to do the night before…longer if you can help it. I got a mixture of dried kidney beans and black turtle beans from Whole Foods and soaked them over night.

After they had some time in the bath …it was time (afternoon the next day) to rinse. Basically, you drain off all the beans, take out the cracked and nasty ones, etc.

Now that they were rinsed…it was back into a pot, with a little bit of yellow onion, garlic, and cumin. I think I also added a little bit of water. These would cook for a few hours before I added them to the chili.

Once the beans were underway…it was time to tackle the peppers, toms, and meat!

The peppers can be done a number of ways.   I like to roast the peppers and then peel the skins off.  Which I did for a couple of the jalepenos.  I dice them up, and put the peppers in with the beans, meat, and some I saved for the jalepeno cornbread.    I also keep a baggie of dried ancho chipotle peppers.  I usually chop a bit off of one, put it in the mortar and grind it up into a powder.  I use a bit of this powder to season the beans and the meat.

The tomatoes are a bit of work, but I think worth it.  Both for making salsa and for the chili I tend to take the skins off the tomatoes first.  I suppose you can use canned tomatoes, many people do.  I think they do have a nice concentrated flavor, but I like the fresh ones .  I heat up a pot of water (about an inch and a half, cut an “x” on the top of the toms and drop them in.  I also keep a pot of cold water with ice ready.  After a few seconds (10-20) in the boiling water, you can see the skins starting to peel off the toms.  Then we drop them into the ice bath.  Once cool, I pull them out, and the skins should come right off.  This keeps you from having skins floating around in your chili without toms attached.  I dice up the toms, taking out the seeds.

The meat is Top sirloin that I chop up into cubes then dust with cumin, cinnamon, the ground up ancho pepper, salt and garlic.  I mix it up in a bowl so the cubes all get a nice coating of the spices. I toss them into a pot with some olive oil and brown the meat.  Then once brown I toss in some onions.

Once that is ready, I toss in some jalepenos and some of the tomatoes.  Seasoning a bit here and there with salt and pepper.  A little bit of tomato sauce (maybe half of one of the little cans, and a tablespoon or two of tomato paste add a bit of red color and a saucier consistency to the chili meat mixture.  Now, let this cook for a while.  Say…30 minutes.  Keep an eye on your beans, they should need some attention.  Throughout this process you should be keeping them stirred, simmering over low heat.  You are hoping that they get semi-soft, once they do, add them into your chili mixture.  Now they will cook in with the rest of the spices in your chili and meat and add some nice flavor.

I cooked up some jalepeno corn bread too.  Unfortunately, I can’t remember the process…I have a picture of it though…and it was tasty!

The chili came together in the end…at about halftime.  It was meaty, thick, and hearty.  A nice way to start off the second half.