Chili

With all the talk of fresh and seasonal these days, you might forget that it's winter.  Fresh and winter don't exactly go hand in hand.  Is it possible to be preserved and seasonal?

Chili is the perfect vessel for our experiment.  It’s a cowboy dish.  Close your eyes.  Picture a group of cowboys searching the fields for perfect leaves of sage and delicate edible flowers.  If you've ever seen a cowboy movie, I bet you a have pretty silly picture in your mind's eye right now.  The great cowboy cooks of yesterday traveled with bags of dried herbs & spices, so that's what we're going to do too.

If you feel like being purely preserved, you could use beef jerky as your protein, though I wouldn’t recommend it.  (If you do, use less salt!)  I would encourage using grass fed beef.  Not only does it taste better, but you’ll also be keeping the cowboy spirit.  Cowboys might not have spent hours searching for the most beautiful sprig of rosemary, but they didn’t feed their cows corn, either!

They say a great chili cook never reveals his secrets.  Well, not exactly, at least.  So all you get is a list.  Since I'm a nice guy, I'll give you a little help; ingredients are listed by the amount I used, & I didn't use more than two tablespoons of anything.

2 Lbs. Grass Fed Ground Beef

1 32oz. Can Ground Tomato

Salt

Chili Powder

Crushed Ancho Chili

Cocoa Chili Blend

Garlic Powder

Coriander

Onion Powder

Black Pepper

Italian Seasoning

Ground Sage

Bay Leaves

Worcestershire Sauce

Cinnamon

The Kitchen Sink

Brown beef & remove excess fat.  Add half your spice mix, and cook one minute.  Add tomato and remaining spice mix. Cook at least 45 minutes, up to 3 hours.  Stir occasionally. 

*It's best to slowly build the flavor of the chili. Start with less spice than you think you need, then add as necessary.