Chili Sunday

I made chili on Sunday for three reasons.

First, its been really cold lately.

Second. This guy told me I needed to make Chili.

Third. The greatest sporting event in the World was being played that day.

Runner Up Reasons include “Chili is Awesome” and “Meat is good”. Also the Super Bowl was on.

Long story short, the Chili ended up being a megajam. The Super Bowl was not bad either. The commercials I liked are as follows:

• The one where the Aztecs created a dimensional warp to steal the Kia from the aliens who stole it from Poseidon. (Oh yeah.....I went with Poseidon rather than Neptune. I roll like that. Hardcore.)
• The one where the monkeys crashed into the guy's car.
• The Super 8 preview looks amazing.

Thats pretty much it.

Also, there was some sort of luxury prison ad that I didn’t quite get. What was going on there? Feel free to comment if you understood it.

Anyway, Next Stop: Chilitown, USA.

Chili:

Caveat: This is not your standard Chili. StephSmoke and I kind of modified a pork stew recipe to make this chili. So all you chili purists out there can suck it. Because it was delicious.

Boom. Roasted.

We really just braised some beef in a vegetable rich liquid and added chili powder at the right time. It really was good. Here's how we did it.

First, we seared off some beef chunks. Beef chunks is a technical culinary term. Set aside.

Next, we seared up some ground beef.

Remember to get the pan really hot.

Set Aside.

Next, we made the braising liquid. We pureed cilantro, garlic, tomatoes, jalapeños, tomatillos, and some chicken stock.

It was good enough to drink. (and I did).

Step 11: Sweat some vegetables.

We chopped up an onion, some garlic, and 3 different types of chili peppers. I just grabbed every kind they had at the store. One each. It cost under a dollar.

These are just some of the peppers.

Next we put in pan with oil salt and pepper and heated it up. (aka cooking)

When it started to get translucenty we added 4 or 5 quartered tomatillos, browned them, and then we added a few of the remaining cherry tomatoes and let them break down.

When it all was soft and delicious, we added two or three tablespoons of the chili powder. We added this brand because it is amazing. We let it cook for 5 - 10 minutes on low to absorb the flavor.

Mix it up NICE.

Next, we added all of the vegetable stock puree to the pan.

And added back in all of the meat. Make sure to pour all of the oil and juice from the container back into the pot. That's where the healthiest stuff is.

Then we brought it to a boil and reduced it to a simmer.

Then we added some tomato paste for a little extra flavor.

We covered and cooked for two hours. After that we added the bay leaf we forgot to add originally and cooked for another 30 minutes.

And thats pretty much it. The chili is cooked. The stew chunks have all broken down and the tomatillos and tomatoes have released all of their goodness into the mix, and the cilantro stems and leaves have dissolved, and the chili powder has rehydrated and the whole thing has gone delicious. We let it cool and went to work on some extravagant toppings, including chopped red onion, jalapeño, fresh chopped cilantro, sour cream and sharp cheddar cheese.

We used this type of Cheese. IT WAS INTENSELY SHARP.

We put it all on top of the piping hot chili.

Boom. Delicious.

That is where the flavor is. Right inside there. But really, it was amazing.

Thanks for reading everyone!!!!

Kangaroo Tacos coming soon!

(not really)