Tuesday, April 11, 2006

Hell's Kitchen Chili

This is a pretty elastic recipe, so feel free to make substitutions. I call it Hell's Kitchen Chili because of all the flavors I associate with New York--Italian sausage and plum tomatoes. When I was at New York University in the graduate writing program, a couple of us used to sometimes have a bowl of chili in this place right off Washington Square. It was bar chili, served in a crock and topped with cheese and raw onion. No rice in that chili, and I'd like to think mine's a little tastier. But it's really just a good bowl of bar chili.

3 poblano peppers
1/4 cup olive oil
2 cups chopped onion
6 garlic cloves, chopped
1 lb. hot Italian sausage
1 lb mild Italian sausage
2 lbs ground chuck
2 green peppers chopped
2 red peppers chopped
3 32 oz cans of whole Italian plum tomatoes, drained
2 tablespoons of tomato paste
2 to 8 (depending on how hot you want your chili) serrano peppers
2 cans of kidney beans
1 cup red wine
6 tablespoons of chili powder
3 tablespoons of ground cumin
salt and pepper to taste
2 lbs of fresh plum tomatoes (unless tomatoes are in season, in which case, any good tomato*)
shredded Monterey jack
sour cream
sliced green onions
a pot of cooked white rice

(This recipe makes about 10 really large servings, I use a dutch oven to make it.)

1. Cut the Poblanos in half and roast them, skin side up, under the broiler until skins split and blacken. Drop them in a brown paper bag for at least ten minutes to let them steam, then peel the skin off and chop them. If all the skin doesn't come off, no big deal, it's chili. In fact, if you don't feel like roasting them, just chop them with the green and red pepper and don't worry about it. I'm not even sure anyone but me cares about this step.

2. Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil for about 5 minutes, or until they start to soften.

3. Add the sausage. If I can't find bulk sausage, I just cut the casing and take the sausage out of there. Once the sausage has browned, add the chuck and brown it as well.

4. Add the chopped sweet peppers and poblanos and cook about ten minutes, or until the peppers start to soften.

5. Take the chili off the heat and add the tomatoes (I drain them in put them back in the can then mash them with a fork or use a stick blender to kind of pulp them up and release some of the inside juice) the beans, the wine, tomato paste, chili powder and ground cumin, salt and pepper and let this all cook for about ten minutes. Longer if you want.

6. Add the chopped fresh tomatoes and cook another ten minutes.

To serve, put a mound of white rice in the bottom of a bowl, smother with chili, top with sour cream, cheese and sliced green onions. I like to serve this with cornbread and really cold beer. Veggies and dip are good, too, because the crisp veggies are a nice contrast. Desert should be something like chocolate chip cookies or pie.


*In winter, when most tomatoes have no taste, plum tomatoes sometimes do.

3 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

This sounds awesome, can't wait to make some {8-) I'm thinking of going for hottest chili in the cook off this year - think this one can qualify? Can I use your name for it too???
Since you've been mentioning beer and that you don't drink it too often, I used to... back when my body allowed me to partake of excess, I thought I'd share some need to know info about it. This web link will transport you magically -oops, sorry - flash backs (just thinking of chili and beer...) will take you to the Beer Advocate page with info that every beer drinker should know.

http://beeradvocate.com/news/stories_read/327/

Back when I drank it regularly I never had to worry about the beer expiring - nowadays: when we go the the annual OctoberFest party at a friends, we've brought beer from the year before - and of course the hostess also had some left from the last party. Now we know better, buy less but drink more often if not more.
I was happy to learn that the darker Bock beers last longer - they're my favorite.
Julie

April 11, 2006 3:03 PM  
Blogger Maureen McHugh said...

Julie! I think if you're going for hottest chili, omit the beans and make all the sausage hot. And maybe up the chilies.

I'll check out the beer page! At least for the dog if not for me.

April 11, 2006 8:38 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Thanks Maureen, I'll let you know when I win.
Is it too late to offer a blog title idea? I love cookies more than beer.
First, I have to say how much I enjoy your blog. You have great people commenting and that site that gives value to blogs was way off with yours - its priceless.
OK, now that I've buttered you up ;) (with the truth) here's my idea:

Free Quarks

The reason is not only because it gives me giggle fits, but did you know that they come in FLAVORS?
They are:
Up
Down
Charm
Strange
Top
Bottom

In Wikipedia it says:
No search for free quarks or fractional electric charges has returned convincing evidence. The absence of free quarks has therefore been incorporated into the notion of confinment, which, it is believed, the theory of quarks must possess. However, it may be possible to change the volume of confinement by creating dense or hot quark matter. These new phases of QCD matter have been predicted theoretically, and experimental searches for them have now started.

Admittedly, I have a wierd sense of humor - but the word quark really cracks me up.
Hope you like it!
Julie

April 12, 2006 11:18 AM  

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