Sunday: Instead of cleaning, cooking!

Which is by far the better option.  Since my parents are visiting this week, I won't be able to make chili for the Super Puppy Bowl. Because of that, I decided to make it today instead.  Ingredient panorama!

Ok, let's start at 6 oclock and spiral around.

• Third of a pound of bacon. My actual request at the meat counter was "whatever that pile is," but that's probably a risky suggestion.
• Pound of ground beef
• Pound of beef chuck roast.  They don't sell local stew meat, so this was the next best option.
• Can of beef stock.
• Can of tomato paste.
• Can of chipotle peppers (although I didn't use them all).
• Two cans of tomatoes.  I went with whole, but then needed to stick blender them a bit. I don't know what the lesson is on this one.
• Soy sauce.
• Worcestershire sauce.
• Spices: paprika, cayenne, chili powder, cumin, coriander, smoked paprika, oregano, dried ancho flakes from last year that I've kept in an old cinnamon jar.
• Super dark 88% chocolate.
• Onion.
• Garlic.
• Fresno pepper, because they seem to be on every cooking show I see now a days.
• Two jalapenos.
• Unpictured: salt, sugar, a half cup of old wine that was hiding in my fridge.

"That seems a little bit involved for chili, don't you think?" Yes. Yes I do.  That's why I make it once a year.

Step One: Toast the cumin and ancho flakes in a pan to get the flavors going.  I guess you could toast other things if you wanted, but I didn't have anything else to toast.  I then ground this all down in my mortar and pestle, and moved on to the next stage of the sauce.

Step 2: Bring halfish of the can of beef stock to a boil and add the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and a scoop of the tomato paste.  Lower the heat and add all the spices (which look really cool, and I should have taken a picture, but I didn't so you'll just have to take my word that it looks really cool.  They all pile up on the surface and float there until you stir them in).  I also added the sauce from the chipotles, and about 1/2-3/4 of the peppers from the can.

Step 3: Chop up the chocolate and add that to the sauce.  I ended up with like almost two ounces here, when I was aiming for closer to one.  This made the sauce have a really strong chocolate smell throughout the cooking (it went away in the final product, but just be warned that 2oz is probably too much).

Step 4: Keep the sauce on a low simmer, then stick blender the hell out of the peppers and everything to mix. I didn't take a picture of this because stick blendering is too fun.

Step Whatever: Brown the beef in a bit of olive oil.  You can do this while the sauce is cooking, and you probably should, because I think I spent like two hours doing prep and initial cooking, so do these serially would make that even longer.  I did the ground beef first, and then sliced up the chuck roast into bite size stew bits.

Step e: Remove the beef from the pan.  I pulled the ground beef before putting in the stew meat, as that allowed the stew meat to cook without having to worry about the ground beef getting underneath it.

Step 9: When the beef is browned and removed, chop the bacon, and add it to the pan.  The goal here is to render out the fat to use to cook the vegetables more than anything else.  I got impatient (as you can see), and added the chopped garlic at this point, instead of waiting for the bacon to crisp up.  It doesn't really matter, since all the liquid that gets added later would ruin any crispiness.

Step tree: Dice up the onion, and add to the pan to cook.  Once the onions are translucent, add in the minced (or, more so, really small chop) peppers.  I minced the fresno, and one of the jalapenos, and then sliced the other jalapeno in half to add in later.  I used this strategy last year, and it seemed to work well.

Step "wow, that doesn't look appetizing": Hrm.  There's a lot that happened before this picture.  First, use the wine to deglaze the pan after the vegetables are cooked, and then add the meat back in.  Drain the tomatoes into the sauce, and add the actual tomatoes to the pan.  Stick blend the tomato juice into the sauce to thin it out a bit, and then add the sauce to the pan.  Stir everything together, and finish by adding the halved jalapeno, the rest of the stock and tomato paste, and cover.  Simmer for two-three hours, stirring periodically.  I tested it about a half hour before it was finished, and added some salt and some sugar (to cut down on the acidity and spice a bit).

Step: Plated.  I was lazy and didn't want to make cornbread, so I just threw some doritos on the plate.  Yes, I know.  Lazy.

With added cheese, because cheese makes everything better.

The main problem I had with last year's chili was that all the spice seemed to be on the back of the tongue, which felt like something was missing.  I don't know if it was the chipotles or the fresno I added this year, but this was fixed this time.  It's a bit overly spicy, clearly being on the hot side of the spectra.  However, despite the usual mechanics of spicy foods, this one washes away with just water.  I don't understand why, but it's really convenient.  You can eat as much as you want until your tongue is screaming, and then cool it all down just as fast.

This is probably tomorrow's dinner as well, and then the rest of the week will be whatever, based on my role as tour guide.  I made about eight cups, most of which went into the freezer so I'll have enough leftovers to make it through the rest of the year.

• Tomorrow is apparently Draw a Dinosaur day.  I'll be participating, as will everyone who isn't lame.
• Remember how pie charts are almost never the correct way to plot data?  This is a wonderful example of why.
• Baby squirrel!
• Hey, I've been there!