A man can commit himself to many things, a dream, an ideal, a religion, a party, a nation, or diet soda. For myself, I am dedicated to recreating the Emerald City from the Wizard of Oz in miniature, out of festive toothpicks. But I also make a mean chili. The recipe is as follows.
Ingredients
1 kg (2 lbs) beef short ribs, ½ kg (1 lb) chuck:
- You can really use any tough cut of beef here, so long as it has a lot of connective tissue in it (this rules round out). I like short ribs because of the nice big bone in it, which adds a lot of flavour. However, that does leave you with less meat for the weight – so I double the amount. Chuck is great, although not as flavourful as the short ribs. Shank is ok, but it’s got a little too much cartilage in there you’ll have to trim out.
1 ½ t kosher salt
1 ½ t pepper (ground)
2 bottles beer:
- No lager or light beer. While they have uses (cooling oneself off on a hot day and lowering standards of social conduct, respectively) they don’t impart much flavour. Avoid porter or stout (such as Guinness) as well, they become somewhat grainy with long cooking. A good ale with lots of malt is best. The hops’ bitterness vanishes when cooked, so ignore that completely. My preference is for Tankhouse Ale, but if you live outside the Toronto area that isn’t really an option for you.
3 chipotles which have been packed in adobo sauce, diced.
2 T adobo sauce :
- Homemade tastes better. There’s no two ways about it. I use the recipe here, with the addition of an ounce of unsweetened chocolate. While the sauce is hot you might want to pack in some chipotle peppers, they taste better than the canned variety.
2T tomato paste
3T chili powder :
- This is the heart and soul of your dish, so don’t buy crap. Bland powder leads to bland stew. Preferably make your own, I like to use Alton Brown’s recipe with the addition of Morita peppers and whatever else seems like a good idea at the time. It makes a world of difference.
2 t cumin: Freshly ground, of course
2 t cinnamon: Ditto
2 pinches of cloves: From a jar. Nope, of course not, freshly ground.
2 T cocoa powder: anything seems to work well, I haven’t noticed a difference between expensive and cheap brands.
2 T malt vinegar
2 T molasses
4 cloves of garlic (diced)
2 oz flour (yes by weight)
1 can whole tomatoes:
- Buy whole and dice them yourself, the tomato is a little better quality. Obviously if you live in a region where you can get fresh tomatoes that haven’t been shipped halfway around the world these would be preferable.
1 green pepper (diced)
3 onions (diced)
2 jalapenos (diced)
2 bay leaves
The juice of half a lime
10 basil leaves (sliced fine):
- This is because some people unreasonably hate cilantro, and by extension parsley. Basil is a fine substitute that nobody feels inclined to argue about.
And that’s just the ingredients. Moderation is for the weak. Ideally this takes place over three days, but it may be collapsed into two, or even one, day if you’re feeling lazy. I can’t handle the heat, so if you prefer something a little more than moderate add in more jalapenos (for an immediate “pow”) or chipotles (for a burn that builds). I should note that the technique used here is stolen from the Good Eats episode on stew, should you require visual aids I recommend watching it.
- Cut the beef into 1 ½ inch cubes, removing any big chunks of connective tissue from the chuck as you go. Sear all 6 sides of the beef on a frying pan and set aside. Pour one bottle of the beer in the pan and deglaze, reduce the heat and simmer until the beer has reduced to the point that you can draw your spatula across it and leave a trail which does not immediately disappear (usually just a few tablespoons remain).
- Pour that beer reduction into a bowl, and mix it with half the chipotles, half the adobo sauce, half the tomato paste, half the chili powder, half the cocoa powder, half the cinnamon, half the cumin, half the garlic, half the malt vinegar, half the molasses, a pinch of cloves, the salt and pepper, and one of the onions (dice this one as fine as possible). Toss the beef in this paste and seal it all in a plastic bag in the fridge. Let it sit overnight.
- Decide how long you want to cook your beef – 8, 6, or 4 hours. The longer you go, the more tender and flavourful the final product. If you cook for 8h, preheat your oven to 275 degrees, 6h is 300 degrees, and 4h is 325. You will want one rack on the top of your oven, and one on the bottom. If you can, put in a baking stone or heavy cast iron pan to moderate the heat and keep the oven from cycling on and off. Place a baking sheet on the bottom rack as well with tinfoil over it (this will catch drips).
- Take the beef out and wrap it in tinfoil. Basically two (or one, if you’ve got a giant oven) logs of meat packed tight. Wrap it in several layers of tinfoil. Make a little boat of tinfoil and set the logs in that. This is all to catch leaks, which always happen because nothing is perfect. Set that on the top rack (over the sheet to catch the drips) and grab a book, watch a movie, or stare quietly into space contemplating the universe. You’re gonna be here a while.
- When finished cooking, remove the logs (carefully! Hot liquid might squirt out somewhere) and place them on a wire rack to cool a bit.
- Grab a container and hold one of the logs over it, cut the corner and drain off all the liquid. Open the package a little more and drain out as much as you can. Then open it all the way and leave the meat exposed to cool. Don’t touch the meat, it’ll fall apart if you do. Do the same to the other log.
- When the meat is cool, transfer it to another container (carefully) and stash it and the container with your liquid in the fridge overnight.
- The next day you will have two things: solid meat, and a container of liquid separated into extremely potent chili jello and a hockey puck of chili-flavoured beef fat. Cut the beef into bite-sized cubes with scissors, removing excess fat (that hasn’t rendered off), bone, and gristle, while you do so. Set aside. Pop off the fat cap from the liquid and reserve 2oz. The rest can be stored in the fridge for another meal (mixed with butter it makes ridonkulous homefries).
- In a cast iron dutch oven over medium-low heat melt the 2oz of fat and whisk in the flour. Keep whisking. Don’t stop whisking. Keep whisking. If it smells good and nutty (it’ll be orange from the start, you can’t go by colour), great, throw in the onions and toss to coat.
- Give the onions a couple minutes in the pan and throw in the garlic, after another minute or so throw in all the rest of the spices and pastes you have – the tomato paste, the adobo sauce, the chipotles, cinnamon, cumin, cocoa, malt vinegar, molasses, and the reserved chili jello liquid thing. Stir to combine, then throw in the diced tomatoes and the last bottle of beer, along with the bay leaves. Simmer uncovered for 15-20min.
- At this point add the meat back in and stir. Cook 5 min, then add in the green pepper. Cook 3 min and add in the jalapeno. Cook for 2 min and then take the pot off the heat. Throw in the lime juice, stir, and toss the sliced basil on top.
- Eat.
Image courtesy of Iwan Gabovitch. See original here.
