A Tale of Two Chilis, Part 2

Marion’s robust chili uses red wine and soy sauce, along with more traditional ingredients, for a big, satisfying flavor. Recipe below.

I am nothing if not a procrastinator. Back in January, when I posted A Tale of Two Chilis, Part 1, I promised to follow up with Marion’s excellent chili recipe as Part 2. So here we are with spring right around the corner and I’m finally getting to it.

I also have a nice white bean chili dish made with chicken that I’d intended to get to as a hearty cold weather dish. But after two different chilis, my Tuscan beans from last week and Patricia’s delicious Brazilian rice and beans, I think I’ll take a little break from writing about beans.

That said, we don’t think of chili as a strictly cold weather meal at our house. Except for when the weather turns blazing hot—usually all of August here in Chicago—we’re happy to make it and eat it pretty much year ’round. Try Marion’s robust chili recipe below and I think you’ll be right there with us. I’ll turn the kitchen over to her now.

Marion’s Chili
Serves 4

1 lb dried black beans [see Kitchen Notes]
olive oil
1 lb ground sirloin [see Kitchen Notes]
3 tablespoons very good quality chili powder [if you can choose the spiciness, choose medium]
1 tablespoon cumin powder [see Kitchen Notes]
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper or to taste
a big grinding of black pepper
4 tablespoons tomato paste
1/2 teaspoon dried oregano
1/2 cup beef broth [not bouillon]
1 medium onion, chopped coarsely
2 cloves of garlic, minced
3 tablespoons soy sauce
salt
red wine [about ½ of a 750ml bottle—see Kitchen Notes]

grated sharp cheddar, sour cream, hot sauce, finely chopped onions [optional]

Put the dried black beans in a large bowl, rinse and sort them, discarding any floaters. Pour off the rinse water and cover with fresh water to about an inch above the top of the beans. Put the bowl in a cool place and soak the beans overnight or at least 8 hours.

In a heavy skillet, heat the olive oil, then add the ground sirloin and brown it, chopping it into small pieces with the spatula. When it is nicely browned, pour off any excess fat and liquid [see Kitchen Notes]. Put the beef into a big pot.

Pour the beans, including their soaking water, into the pot. Add the chili powder, cumin powder, cayenne, tomato paste, oregano, chopped onion and garlic, salt and a thorough cloud of fresh-ground pepper. Stir everything together. Then pour the beef stock and a half cup of red wine into the pot. Stir again. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat and simmer.

The next part is to be patient. This will take a long time—figure three or four hours. Keep the heat rather low, so the pot is gently bubbling, and continue checking back from time to time, to give it all a stir and make sure there is enough liquid and ensure nothing is sticking to the bottom. This is not the time to get involved in any other activity that demands undivided attention, like an appendectomy or Puzzle Pirates. Just keep checking back and stirring now and then. The idea is to cook the liquid down and let the beans get tender, while everything stews together into chili harmony. When the level of liquid seems too low or the stew is too thick too soon, add more red wine. After two hours or so, start tasting the beans for tenderness.

When the beans start to hint that, at some point in this calendar day, they will become just the right degree of soft yet toothy, and this whole discordant bubbling mass will indeed evolve into something beyond the sum of its parts, that’s the time to start adjusting the fine points, with cayenne, black pepper, wine.

Keep being patient. When this is ready, you’ll know.

Serve hot in a bowl, and offer grated sharp cheddar, sour cream, Cholula hot sauce, and finely chopped onions for optional garnishes. Leftovers, by the way, are terrific on pasta—capellini is my favorite.

Kitchen Notes

Beans: Having said all this, yes, of course you can make this with canned beans, and thus severely reduce the cooking time to 30 or 40 minutes altogether. Try this with one can each of black, red [not kidney], and cannellini beans, which makes a very pretty appearance.

Ground sirloin and fat content. If you are very concerned about fat content even with this lean ground beef, once you brown the meat, take it out of the pan and drain it on paper towels; then pour the meat straight from the paper towels into the cooking pot. You may also choose to grind your own meat, in the food processor [coarse grind]—that way you can choose a nice piece of sirloin or chuck and trim away any visible fat, to ensure meat that is nearly fat-free, and fresher too.

Spices. Good chili needs good chili powder. Not some meek off-price brand [one pound for one dollar] or something that’s been sitting at the back of your cabinet since just after the Spanish-American War, but something fresh and snappy. This reminds me of Conquistador chili, of beloved memory. Inexplicably no longer manufactured by The Spice House, this had the most wonderful scent and made the best chili con carne ever, and was also quite swell sprinkled on sliced cucumbers with a squeeze of lime juice—and by all means when you find your ideal chili powder, try it that way too.

The same rule of fresh and snappy is true of cumin powder. A couple of years ago, my sister came back from Dubai with the most amazing cumin powder. Let me tell you, very fresh cumin powder from the Middle East, where it is really understood, is about a dillion times better than that stuff that passes for cumin powder on this side of the Atlantic.

Cooking wine. At our house, the cooking brandy we use is not something we would drink. But cooking with wine is different. Don’t ever cook with any wine that you would not drink. On the other hand, don’t use a wonderful wine to cook—that would be a crime. For this dish, there are plenty of very modest red wines out there that are just right. At our house, we often turn to the basic Three-Buck Chuck merlot or cab sauv from Trader Joe’s.

Also this week in Blue Kitchen

Rock & roll, LOUD and raw. That’s what New York’s Yeah Yeah Yeahs served up on their self-titled EP. Give it a listen in this week’s What’s on the kitchen boombox?