12 Jan 2011

Rachel's Mole Chili

I was asked via email for my Mole Chili recipe. Jason thought my response was funny and I should post it. So, enjoy. (The friend was on a diet, hence some of the commentary.)

 

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Recipe? I don't use no stinking recipe! But, I can give you a few recipes and tell you how I made it yesterday.

 

http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2007/10/11/cleveland-indians-chili/

Good chili for topping hot dogs or burgers or as they do in Cincinnati, over spaghetti.

 

http://offthebroiler.wordpress.com/2008/02/02/tailgate-degustation-menu-2008/

Portobello Mushroom Chili, vegetarian and very diet friendly. Based off a recipe from a diabetes cookbook, but the original portion was tiny, and it was very low in calories, so it's not like it needed to be such a small portion, plus the original recipe had no protein. I use TVP or ground turkey breast when I make this.

 

OK, so what I did on Monday afternoon. Went shopping for meat, with "ground meat" on my shopping list, thinking Turkey. But, I actually got 4 kinds of meat (7 lbs total). Ground beef, ground pork, ground turkey, and a semi boneless lean chuck steak. In a big pot (I use my 16 qt stock pot) Brown the meats individually, drain the grease into a metal bowl with a metal sieve (plastic might melt). Then RINSE THE still GREASY MEAT with warm water. Put into separate bowl to hold (6 qt pot or big bowl). 

 

The steak, I trimmed the bone and fat and made into small cubes, about 1/2 inch dice or so. That was browned last and held with the rest of the meat.

 

Now for vegetables. (I say dice below, but I mostly pulse in the food processor) Dice a bunch of onions (1 small bag, what's that? 2 or 3 lbs?) and start sweating (to deglaze the pan), then remove the lid to brown them some more before adding the other veg. About 8 Fresh Anaheim chilis (that's what they had at the Shop Rite), they're kind of medium hot, not too bad at all. If you want a spicier chili, you could use a hotter one, like jalapeño or Korean long hots, but heat can also be adjusted with dried chilies. Dice the chilies along with a red bell pepper (for color and sweetness) and saute that with the onions once they've started browning.

 

While all that's going on, peel and 1/8th cut some tomatillos. Put a head of garlic cloves (peeled, duh), in the FP. Pulse a few times, then add the tomatillos and pulse chop them too. Not fine. Once the veg are looking good, add the tomatillos and garlic to the big pot.

 

The tomatillos help start making everything soupy, but you need it to be soupier. I added 3 28 oz cans of tomatoes. A combination of crushed and diced. You want some dice for appearance and texture, but the crushed is a bit thicker and makes the sauce.

 

As that comes to a boil, you can get the spices together. I had a combination of dried Chipotle and Mulatto ground in my pantry (Kalustians I think), added a couple of tablespoons of that. Some cumin, oregano, garlic powder. I also had bought at the store a package of dried Ancho chilies. Broke them and removed most of the seeds, but not obsessively, so maybe 1/4 of seeds still there. Ground them in FP and added to pot (they smelled kind of raisony, which inspired the thought of turning this into a Mole chili). 1 tsp of salt (doesn't sound like much, but between the canned tomatoes and beans, which are salted, I never added more). Stirred, tasted, thought it needed more, but decided to let it all simmer together first. Oh yeah, a couple teaspoons of cinnamon (since it's Mole). 

 

Add meats to pot. Bring to boil, reduce to bare simmer, cover, let simmer for 1 hour. 

 

Taste, add more seasonings. It's OK if it's aggressively seasoned, because now we add beans. 1 can of beans for each lb of meat, so I added 7 cans of red kidney beans. My intention was to add a equal amount of beans as meat, which would really be 2 cans per pound, because a 15 oz can of beans really only has 8-10 ounces of beans once they are drained and rinsed. But, I didn't think to buy more than a few cans at the store, thinking I had more at home, I did, but not that many. However, when I'm eating the chili I think it has a bit too much beans. But the beans make it healthier, so that's up to you.

 

So, beans in. Simmer for another hour. Oh, throw in some cilantro at some point towards the end. Taste, maybe it needs more cumin or chile? At the end, add some chocolate. Unsweetened baking chocolate is good. I was about to use my callebaut couverture, but then I realized I had some old Baker's in my cupboard, so I went with that, which is fine for chili. I used 4 squares unsweetened and 2 squares semisweet. I added two at a time and let them sit for a few minutes to melt, then stirred them in and tasted, then added more. :)

 

I add the chocolate at the end because I wasn't sure if it would be bad to boil the chocolate, and there's PLENTY of heat in the pot to add it at the end. I allowed it to rest for an hour or so before putting into containers to cool outside. It was still burning hot.

 

Serve with some chopped cilantro on top. Despite all the different chilies in it, it wasn't very hot at all. I'm sure you're kids could handle it. Jason wanted hot sauce. So, I added a couple Chipotle in adobo, with some sauce from a can.

 

shopping list

 

7 pounds assorted meat

3 lbs yellow onions

1 lb fresh green medium hot chilies (Anaheim)

1 red bell pepper

2 lbs tomatillos

1 head garlic

3 28 oz cans tomato (1 crushed, 2 diced)

1 bag dried medium hot chile (Ancho)

7 cans red kidney beans

Unsweetened Chocolate

1 can Chipotle in Adobo (you don't use the whole can unless you want a really hot chili)

Fresh Cilantro

 

Spices

 

Dried ground chilies (Chipotle especially)

Cumin

Oregano

Cinnamon

Salt

Garlic Powder

 

OK, I think that's everything. Enjoy. :)