JA Chili Recipe

Chili is what got us through SANDY without having to eat Meals Rejected by Everyone or Canned Soup.  I thought of this ahead of time and it worked.  Chili gets better with age and can be made ahead.  Chili is a year round food that I gravitate to especially in the winter.  It is a bold FLAVOR RIOT done correctly and does not have to have meat, beans or be "hot."  It IS intended to be flavorful and "spicy."

Chili is a secret food in NYC.  Everybody likes it but there is not the culture that surrounds it in the Southwest.  In the Northeast, it is a staple in ski lodge cafeterias and is ALWAYS uninspired and insipid.  Worse, it is frequently an awful afterthought on a hot dog.  Ouch.  "Pearls before swine."

I did not grow up with Chili.  My first real taste was in Grad School when we were all sitting in a Newport, RI restaurant.  Everybody but me ordered the Chili. So I fell in line to see what I was missing.  It was good and I was hooked.

Not knowing much about the Divine Bowl of Red, I saw a spice mix called Wick Fowler's TWO ALARM CHILI in a store.  There were SEVEN packets of ingredients in the kit, added at different times.  Amazing.  This taught me what went into Chili and how to cook it.  I was in love but had to know more.  

Enter Jane Butel and her book CHILI MADNESS.  No longer just in love at this point, I became OBSESSED.  The JA CHILI recipe is an amalgam of the 35 recipes she featured.

The most important fact to know is that the base Chili pepper is the most important ingredient.  Yes you can buy whole dried peppers, toast them for two minutes @ 350F and put them in a food processor to make the fine powder.  This is a bit of work and you need to watch CLOSELY to be sure you do not burn them.  By the way, these are the LARGE chilis that are not very hot.  You may want to spice up your Chili using the HOT smaller chili spice like Cayenne peppers or powder.  Yes, you can start with a simple bottle of McCormick Chili Powder, just don't expect fireworks or the "Meg Ryan reaction."

Good quality commercial chili powder is available but you need to shop at gourmet markets.  The supermarket variety never appealed to me as I never wanted to make ski slope chili.  In NYC, Chelsea Market has a good powder available at the Manhattan Fruit Exchange.  Dean and DeLuca has good powder as well but at 3x the cost.  What ever route you use, go with 4 TBS of the powder to start and adjust from there for the future.  FYI, the WEGMANS chain of grocery stores has a great selection of whole dried peppers.

Chili is like making Spaghetti Sauce.   Everybody has a different version.  You can leave out the meat for a vegetarian variety.  Have fun with this, this version below is recently updated. I do a different version every time using the basic principles and what is in the fridge.  Hopefully, you don't need a Hurricane as an excuse to cook chili.

JA

JA CHILI

BASE Ingredients

2 lbs of Meat: Beef or Pork, Lamb or Chicken,  Coarse ground is best.

2 TBS generic olive oil for sauteeing onions  (EVO will be overwhelmed)

1 large or two medium onions chopped finely

4 cloves of chopped or pressed fresh Garlic

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28 oz can of tomato sauce

1 small can Tomato paste (6 oz)

1 - 12oz bottle of amber or dark beer or stout

SPICES

4 TBS Chile Powder from good dried chilis: Ancho, Passila , Anaheim, California, New Mexico  OR GOOD STRAIGHT CHILI POWDER

1 TBS Cumen

1TBS Oregano

1.5 TSP Hot Cayenne pepper or hot Paprika (to taste) (OPTIONAL)

COOKING

0. Prep ingredients listed in BASE Ingredients above.

1.  In a large 3 quart  sauce pan or Dutch oven,  Saute the garlic and onions till soft (5 min?) medium heat with the Olive Oil.

2. Add the meat to the mix and cook till almost cooked, 5-10 minutes, not bloody.

3. Add all the remaining BASE ingredients and stir .

4. Add all the SPICES and stir, bring to simmering, lower heat

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5. ADD OPTIONAL BASE INGREDIENTS  (at the bottom of this page) as you choose.

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6. SIMMER 30 minutes to one hour, stir occasionally adjust spice to taste.

7. THICKEN at end with 1 or 2 TBS of Masa Harina corn meal (best) or 1 TBS cornstarch.

8. Add  OPTIONAL TOPPING / BOTTOM (below) IF DESIRED and SERVE

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OPTIONAL TOPPINGS:

-  Sour Creme

-  Shredded Cheddar Cheese

-  Shredded Mozzarella (I like it on Cincinatti Chili)

-  Shredded Fresh Cilantro (Coriander)

-  Raw chopped Onions (Sweet Vidalia) or other

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OPTIONAL BOTTOM - Serve over

-  Spaghetti (Cincinatti chili)

-  Ripe Avocado Halves

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OPTIONAL BASE INGREDIENTS to add or substitute to the basics

BEANS: Love 'em or Hate em, use one or more... Makes a version of New Mexico Chili.  Not allowed in Texas.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chili_con_carne for more on Geographic Variations.

     /   Dark Kidney  /  Mexican Pinto  /  White Canelini  / Black Beans / Garbanzos, etc.

Chipotle Pepper sauce from a jar, maybe 1 TBS)

Dark Chocolate bar

Almond slivers or other "soft" nuts

1 TBS of Dark Molasses

Liquid Smoke  (go easy)

Pork Sausage

Chorizos

Pumpkin seeds (Shelled pepitas or raw seeds)

Sesame Seeds (4TBS - don't be shy with these or they will get totally lost)

1 TSP Cinnamon ( for more of a Greek flavor)

1 tsp Allspice

Beef Boullion cube

Sauteed Mushrooms