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We're making chili. I just showed how to brown off the ground beef, and that's all you need
to do. You start with the . . . this is about 1½ pounds of 25/75 ground beef. I browned
it, and then I got rid of all the fat. I drained that and I threw it back in the pan, and I've
got it on medium heat. I have to say I am a diehard chili fan, and if it were possible,
I would get an RV and drive over the place doing the competition chili circuit. Right
now, I'm just trying to feed the family.
We're going to make an absolutely delicious rich-in-flavor, slow-simmered, basic chili
that you can dress up or down, heat it up or cool it off however you want. To my 1½
pounds of ground beef, I've got . . . I forgot how many, 2 big, fat bell peppers. I will
say if; you get Anaheim peppers, if you find those, replace a couple of those for one of
the bell peppers. If you want more heat . . . this is 2 jalapeno peppers, by the way. If you
want more heat, replace the jalapenos with Serrano peppers. If you have lots of different
kinds of fresh chilies, it just means a richer, deeper flavor. Go ahead and experiment with
some of the milder chilies that are out there. The heat is in the membranes. If you get rid
of the membrane, you get to keep the different flavors of everything but you don't have the
heat to knock your head off. That was 2 medium-sized onions and about 4 cloves of garlic. Those
are our veggies.
At this point, normally, I would stand here and give it about 5 minutes for everybody
to start coming together, but actually, I'm not going to give that much time; I don't
have to. We're going to simmer this for . . . let's see. It's probably about 10:30 now and the
kiddos will be home at about 3:15, so it's going to simmer for a couple, 3 hours, at
least. Chili is awesome; it's so easy to make and it's so good for you. Lean protein, the
fiber, and the fresh veggies; this is good stuff. Hang on don't move.
I have 4 of the 28-ounce cans of diced tomatoes. I drained it; I got the liquid off and I'm
keeping the liquid over here, but for right now, I just have the tomatoes. Don't get rid
of the liquid yet, here's the reason . . . there's quite a bit more that settled out of the tomatoes
already. When you're buying tomatoes, be it crushed, diced, whole tomatoes, or tomato
sauce or purée; what you're doing is trading liquid and texture. I like the diced tomatoes;
I like the texture, it's about the right size piece for this pot of chili, but I don't want
to make soup. I actually want to wait. In the bottom of my bowl even then, just after
I drained it, I still have liquid collecting. I want to wait. All of these vegetables are
going to start releasing water into this pot, and then I will decide how much of the liquid
from the canned tomatoes I'm going to add back in here. Don't get rid of it yet. Actually,
even then don't get rid of it because there's something cool you can do with it. At this
point, I'm going to let this come up to temperature, to where it would be a simmer. I'm going to
pull out my spices and I'm going to find my beans, and we'll throw it all together in
about 10 minutes.
Sorry. I've let this simmer for a bit, and you can see how much more liquid was released
by the vegetables. Yes, a lot of it came out of the tomatoes, even though I drained them,
but you're also going to have a bunch that came out of the onion, the garlic, the chilies,
and the bell pepper. That's really good stuff. I can tell already though, that we're going
to want a little more than what I've got in here, but I'm ready. Really, the last thing
that I'm going to do to this before I simmer it off for whatever, is I'm going to add the
beans. Yes, I put beans in the chili. This is not competition chili, this is feed-my-kids
chili, plus my dog. What I've got here are 2 cans of black beans and 2 cans of pinto
beans that I drained and rinsed. You can use whatever you want. Usually, I use red kidney
beans; I just was out. You can use all black beans, you can use all pinto beans; it's whatever
you like. I happen to like black beans. Love the flavor it gives, I love the texture, and
they are so good for you. Almost there.
Our seasonings; and this is what makes it chili-chili. Honestly, I will probably come
back and add more cumin and more chili powder later because we like the intense spiciness.
Let's start out with about these amounts; that's about right. I've got about 1½ tablespoons
of ground cumin. I've got probably ¼ cup of chili powder, and this is just a commercial
chili powder. You can do the whole grind-your-own thing once you get into it. I've done that
and it's really fun, but this is super easy, and it's nice and mild. If you like lots of
heat, they make high-heat versions. This is not one of them. About 2 tablespoons of oregano.
If you find fresh Mexican oregano, go ahead and use that, just don't use as much because
it's stronger. I've only got about 1½ teaspoon each of salt and pepper. Everybody in here.
I'm not going to adjust the seasonings on that until right before I serve it. You've
got to give it time for everybody to get to know each other; all the flavors to marry
and come together. That's why a lot of these things that simmer for a long time are better
the next day. Chili or beef stew; better the next day, and that's just because the flavors
had a chance to come together.
Over here, I've got the tomato water that I drained. I'm going to add just enough to
allow this to simmer down without making it soupy. By all means, if you like it soupy,
knock yourself out. It's up to you. One of the things you're doing when you're simmering
is concentrating flavors. Water from the vegetables actually will dilute the flavor, so you want
to strike the balance between just enough liquid but not so much that your pot can't
simmer down, concentrate flavors, and get everything all intensified and fabulous. I'm
going to put just a little bit more; I'd say, I don't know, maybe 1½ cups is what I ended
up putting back there.
I'm not going to cover this; I'm going to let it come back up to a simmer. A simmer
is just when the surface of the liquid is barely moving. I'm going to keep this on a
pretty low heat, medium-low heat; whatever will keep it at a bare simmer. I'm probably
going to stir it every when I think about; every ½-hour or so. Other than that, all
this needs is a little bit of time.
We've had a couple of hours with our chili pot just simmering back here, doing its little
thing, and it's really good. Absolutely . . . fragrance is really divine, I promise. I'm going to
dish him up. This is how I like to do it. You can add cheese if you want to. I don't
usually put cheese in it, but you can; you can use cheddar, I've seen mozzarella, pepper
jack is pretty good. Little sour cream and a little fresh cilantro, and that is dinner.
Check that out.
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