Beer Me That Chili

Third Variation: 13 October 2012

With special dinner guest Tracy Olivera; featuring a single bite by Erin Vetter

My sister was up from DC for a few days and I was excited to “talk chili” with her and show off my culinary skillz (with a “z”).   Since I was still taking care of the bed-rest wife (which sounds like a shitty mystery book, “The Case of the Bed-Rest Wife”), she said she’d help around the house and mentioned how she wanted to learn how to sand drywall.  As luck would have it, the unfinished nursery had some drywall to sand.  Perfect! 

But back to the chili.  I gave this one a ton of thought, perhaps too much, and after some serious half-assed research, decided to include a 12 oz. bottle of Guinness, cinnamon, sugar, crushed red pepper, tomatillos, a white onion and a wide array of peppers.  It was a bad idea.  Individually, these things could have worked well.  Together, it was a cluster-fuck of flavor that strayed too far from ‘Chili’ into the realm of stew.  It was good, and if Tracy’s expectations for my food weren’t so low, I’m sure she would have been more open to criticize it.  Good for her though, being nice.  I wasn’t sure how I felt about this chili until I had the leftovers.  Chili leftovers are notorious for improving with age.  These degraded quickly into something that tasted like desserty sweet dark brown sludge.  I still ate it, but it was merely to get food into me.  I did not enjoy said leftovers.

On the preparation - The tomatillos were a bitch to skin – didn’t peel the way I expect a goddamned tomato to peel, but I guess they’re not tomatoes, they’re tomatillos.  I had half an onion leftover and went with a white onion, so there exists the possibility that there were too many onions.  Of all the new spices included, only one made the cut into the next batch – crushed red pepper.  If last week’s game-changer was cumin, this week’s game-changer was crushed red pepper.  Seriously, that red pepper got in there and the tomatillo asked how the meeting went, and the red pepper said, “I crushed it” like a douche-bag.  I also timed this batch perfectly, even cooking it a little too long – staying up late to cut veggies and waking up at 8:00 to brown the meat and start the crock pot. 

A part of the preparation that I found worthwhile was cooking the onions and garlic in the meat grease.  I picked up this little trick somewhere and finally had the balls to try it this time.  It seems to be going well, and I will continue this method as it is fun and makes me sound like I know what I’m talking about.

Ingredients:

½ lb. ground beef

½ lb. hot Italian sausage

1 yellow onion

*1 white onion

4 cloves of garlic

4 jalapenos

1 red bell pepper

2 serrano peppers

3 Red Fresno peppers

2 cherry peppers

1 vine-ripe tomato

*6 tomatillos

*1 12 oz. bottle of Guinness

1 can of kidney beans

Spices: 

*Cinnamon; *Sugar; *Crushed Red Pepper Flakes; *a couple shakes of Chipotle Tabasco Sauce; cumin;

Toppings:  See Second Variation