10 Weeks of Winter

When it’s chilly have some chili…

I put up outdoor Christmas lights today. This year I went with a red and white alternating strand. I’m feeling candy canes as an aesthetic. Putting up the lights was simple enough, but the process of getting there took some doing. Recent wind storms have blown dried leaves and debris onto my balcony, which collect between the potted plants and become like nets for trapping dirt and other bits of organic matter. Plus, we’ve had rain, lots of rain, which fill the saucers and soaks through the trapped muck and starts to smell like decay. It was my task to clean up this mess so that I could reach all around the railing to string the lights, and of course to improve the appearance of things. It’s not a large space, but it sure took up a large amount of time. Lots of lifting and moving heavy wet flower pots and cleaning muddy places, then muddying them up again. It was work, but the good kind, the satisfying kind. The kind where when you’re finished you can look upon your work and sigh with pleasure at the lovely sight you created: a nice tidy lit up winterized balcony.

After being outside for half the day, I was more than ready for something toasty warm and delicious for dinner, and there’s almost nothing better or easier than chili to fit the bill. I like a meaty chili with lots of beans – a nice thick and spicy soup that feels like a meal when you eat it. It’s not a sipping or slurping soup, it’s soup you can chew. I make chili year round, but in winter my preference is for a spicier batch with a little bit of cinnamon or cloves to give it an extra rich flavor.

Its wintery food qualities aside, chili is a great dish to batch up and eat over several days. It has nearly unmatched versatility and can be eaten as a soup, on top of baked potatoes, with corn chips, with eggs, or with cornbread. I’m pretty sure you could put cold chili on top of a salad and be delighted with it. It’s hard to get bored of something that goes with so much. Beyond the versatility, chili is cheap. It’s a food that’s inexpensive without even trying. A great bowl of chili tastes like a top quality meal, yet, even if you used the most expensive ingredients you could find, it would still cost you less to make than many supposedly budget friendly meals. A single chili recipe makes a lot of really good food for a very low cost. You just can’t beat chili (unless you have a bean intolerance, in which case I feel for you).

My winter chili recipe is a take on the typical or traditional recipe with some flavor and consistency modifications that make it especially good during the cold season. Using bone broth instead of water makes the chili heartier, thicker, and more satisfying. I like to make chili with ground bison (which is available through the local butcher) in the winter. Bison has mild flavor like beef, but I find it adds a juiciness that makes the chili a little richer. Roasted red peppers are one of the best ingredients to enhance flavor with a smokey peppery taste, and using at least one fresh hot pepper (instead of only relying on dried ground spices) give the chili more pepper flavor instead of only adding heat. And as for my secret ingredient I must give credit to my grandpa, he once gave me Folgers instant coffee to add to my chili and I have never made another batch without it.

The recipe…

Winter Chili Recipe

Total cook and prep time: 1 hours and 15 minutes

Makes about 10 servings.

Adjust spices to taste. To appeal to multiple palates, use the spice measurements below and add additional cayenne to individual servings to amp up the heat for those who like spice.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 lb ground beef
• .75 lb ground bison
• 1 large yellow onion chopped
• 3-5 cloves garlic minced
• 1 hot pepper (e.g., jalapeno)
• 2 13oz cans kidney beans
• 1 13oz can black beans
• 1 13oz can garbanzo beans
• 1 27 oz can peeled tomatoes
• 1 27 oz can crushed tomatoes
• 2 cups bone broth
• 1 jar roasted red peppers
• 3 tsp salt
• 2 tsp ground black pepper
• 2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 2 tsp garlic powder
• 1½ tbsp chili powder
• 2 cinnamon sticks
• 2 tbsp instant coffee

Instructions:

1. Sauté onions and garlic in 1 tbsp olive oil until golden (about 5 to 8 minutes).
2. Add ground meat and saute until browned.
3. While browning the meat, finely chop hot pepper and drain and rinse the canned beans.
4. Mix the hot pepper into the meat, stir, and set meat and onion mixture aside when it has finished browning.
5. In large soup pot add remaining olive oil, heat, and add drained beans.
6. Add contents of peeled and crushed tomato cans and bone broth to the pot with the beans. Mix and continue to bring up temperature.
7. Remove roasted red peppers from fluid and roughly chop. Add chopped roasted red peppers to the soup.
8. Add remaining spices and instant coffee. Stir thoroughly.
9. Add the meat and onion mixture to the soup pot and stir again.
10. Bring soup to simmer and adjust temperature or cover to let slowly simmer for about 30 minutes.
11. Stir every 8 minutes to keep from burning. If the soup is too thick or dry add broth or water.

Serve with shredded cheddar cheese, chunks of avocado, and a dollop of Greek yogurt. Best with buttered sourdough bread on the side.

Chili photo album…

Sauteing meat and onions.

Draining and rinsing the beans.

Prepping the chili spices.

Bowl of chili.