Beef & Spolumbo’s Sausage Chili + Chili Cheese Fries
My goal this week: to be in bed by 10 every night. (With a book, if possible.) And to chip away at the contents of my freezer, which is currently being held closed by duct tape. Also: go to the gym.
(Check. Except for the early bedtime part.)
Confession: many of the containers in my freezer contain chili. It’s not that I’m particularly fanatical about chili, but it is the sort of thing I tend to make in large batches, often to use up surplus meat or beans, and rarely do we get through an entire pot. I fancy myself the sort to come home after a long day, slide whole potatoes in the oven and some frozen chili on the stove, and have chili baked potatoes in no time. I hardly ever do this, but I love the idea. It makes me feel very on the ball, like a squirrel with an overflowing nut tree. That must be held closed with tape.
And so because I’m not forthcoming with new dinner creations this week (also? I left the cord that connects my camera and computer in Jasper, and it appears no one has any of same anywhere in Calgary, and so I’m waiting for the cord to be shipped back before I can upload any images I took in the past week) I thought I’d share a chili recipe with you. I’ve had a lot of requests for this one. It was tough to nail down a recipe, since my method is generally to toss stuff into a pot – I’ve been making chili for years – since winning the Calgary Stampede chili cook-off when I was 12 – and I didn’t write the recipe down that time either. Start with lean ground beef or sirloin, or try slow-cooking stewing beef in beef broth or beer, then starting with that. Sausage adds flavour, but you could ditch it and add more beef. And lots of beans.
And in a fortuitous twist of events, I heard today that Canadian Beef is having a contest, in which they send five people to Eat, Write, Retreat, which I’d dearly love to go to. (Shauna will be there!) I’ve been milling around the website now and then, trying to justify the expense of going (all by myself!) for the weekend (in DC! never been!), and if I could win my admission, that would take the edge off.
Hell, I was going to share a beef recipe with you anyway. (It’s a random draw from whomever wants to write a beef post, so don’t worry – you don’t have to do anything.)
By the way, if you’re in Calgary, for every pound of ground beef you buy at Second to None Meats (all naturally raised Alberta beef), they donate a pound to the Calgary Inter-faith Food Bank. How completely cool is that?
Another thing you can do with a freezerful of chili? Make chili cheese fries! Best on sweet potato fries, topped with any cheese that will turn gooey.
Beef & Spolumbo’s Sausage Chili
canola or olive oil, for cooking
1 large onion, peeled and chopped
1 red bell pepper, seeded and chopped (optional)
3-4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 lb. lean ground beef or ground sirloin
2 Spolumbo’s Italian or chorizo sausages (or whatever you have available-the big, fresh ones)
2-4 Tbsp. chili powder
1 Tbsp. cocoa
1 tsp. cumin
1 – 19 oz. (540 mL) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 – 19 oz. (540 mL) can kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 – 14 oz. (398 mL) can brown beans, with pork or in tomato sauce (optional)
1 cup beef broth or Guinness
1 cup salsa
salt and pepper to tasteHeat the oil in a large pot set over medium-high heat. Sauté the onions in for a few minutes, until they soften. Add the red pepper and garlic and cook for another minute. Add the beef and sausage, squeezed out of its casing, and cook it, stirring and breaking up any lumps, until it’s no longer pink.
Add the chili powder, cocoa and cumin and cook for another minute. Add the tomatoes, beans, beef broth and salsa and bring the mixture to a simmer. Reduce heat to low and simmer for about an hour. Keep it covered if it’s thick enough for your taste – if it seems thin, leave the lid off so that the excess liquid can evaporate. Season with salt and pepper as you see fit.
Serve hot, topped with sour cream and grated cheese, or cool it down and then refrigerate it for a day or two; reheat over low heat on the stovetop. To make chili cheese fries, serve hot chili over oven-roasted fries, topped with cheese curds or grated cheddar, Gouda or Monterey Jack. Serves 8-10.
March 11 2011 | beef | 9 Comments »
