A PASSABLE CHILI

Food: of all the things you can stuff in your mouth, it's probably one of the best. But feeding yourself delicious food isn't always the easiest task. It can be time consuming, expensive, and comes with some risk of taking off half a finger in your mandoline (DO NOT CLICK THAT LINK IF YOU'RE SQUEAMISH).  That's why we should all have an arsenal of simple, easy-to-reheat meals that can save you time, money, and digits. 

A Google search for "raw vegan chili recipe" yields 863,000 results and, even if you exclude all the porn, that's a ton of recipes. This leads me to believe that literally everyone likes or loves chili. My chili has meat in it, but making chili is all about dialing in the flavor however you prefer it. Make it with whatever you have close at hand. Make it hot or slightly less hot. Put beans in it or don't (but please refrain from being an elitist about it). All you have to do is learn to deliver a passable chili and you'll be ready for a lifetime of picnics and potlucks.

RHYS'S PASSABLE CHILI

STUFF:

• 2-3 lbs. beef chuck roast or ground beef
• 4 strips bacon
• 2 yellow onions
• 6-8 cloves of garlic
• 2-6 fresh jalapeños and/or other fresh hot chillies
• 6-10 dried chipotles
• 2 cans/boxes diced tomatoes
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 liberal splash red wine vinegar
• 2 cups red wine
• 2 tablespoons molasses
• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder (100% cacao)
• 1 tablespoon worcestershire sauce
• A couple spices, all to taste: black pepper, salt, ground cumin, smoked paprika, crushed pepper

STEPS:

• Grind the meat (if you have a meat grinder). Toss the roast in the freezer for about half an hour before grinding the meat. If you don't have a meat grinder, I recommend grabbing one, especially if you're a burger fan: it makes a world of difference and it's easy. The difference is less noticeable in a chili, but I still like using fresh ground meat when I can. Either way, I guarantee that the chili will be passable.
• Boil water. Put the dried chipotles in a bowl and soak them in very hot water for twenty minutes. Remove the chipotles and retain the water (it's like chipotle tea). Pulse the rehydrated peppers in a food processor or blender, adding just enough of the water to create a thick paste (which will keep in the fridge for a couple of days). Set this paste aside. 
• Mince the bacon and garlic. Dice the onions and fresh chillies, removing the seeds from the chillies if you want to reduce the spice level. Season the beef with some black pepper and salt. Heat up a smidgen of olive oil in a big stock pot and a cast iron pan simultaneously. Drop the bacon and garlic into the stock pot and the ground beef into the cast iron pan. Once the fat is really coming out of the bacon, add the onions and fresh chillies. 
• Brown the beef and pour off a little of the fat. Once the onions have sweated down, clear a spot in the middle of the pot and toast the tomato paste for a couple of minutes, then stir it into everything else. Add the chipotle paste, then the beef. Shake in a little cumin, paprika, and crushed red pepper to taste. Splash some red wine vinegar in the mix. 
• Add the red wine and cook it down. Add the brown sugar, molasses, cocoa powder, and worcestershire sauce. Add the diced tomatoes, rinsing out the containers with about four cups of water. Cover and cook on low heat for a couple of hours, adding water if it gets too reduced. If you're going to add beans, add them right before serving in order to prevent them from getting mushy. And use dried beans: it takes some prep, but you'll be rewarded.
• Taste the chili. Once it's good, eat the chili. 

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