Chili

beef suet or salt pork	1/2 lb
stewing beef or venison	2 lb
white or yellow onion	1 medium
garlic	1 small clove
green or red bell pepper	1 small (optional)
green pepper sauce	1 t, more to taste
dried chili peppers	at least one, more to taste
powdered cayenne pepper or
red pepper sauce	to taste
paprika	1 T
cumin seed or ground cumin	1 T
woodruff	1 t (optional)
oregano	1 t
salt	1 t, or to taste
tomato purée	2 c
beef broth	2 c
flour	2 T

If salt pork is used, the salt should be washed off and the pork dried and ground. Lean ground beef may be used instead of stewing beef. If possible, use freshly ground cumin seed. There is no substitute for woodruff. Mexican oregano should be used if it is available. If you must add beans, pinto beans should be used. Chili, of course, contains chili peppers, but their flavor is more important than their fire. I try to balance flavor and fire by combining green pepper sauce, a mild dried chili and a hot powdered chili. Commercial green pepper sauces, made with jalapeño peppers, are very flavorful and not as hot as red pepper sauces. For the dried chili, the mild and smokey pasilla works especially well. Finally, the heat is adjusted to taste with a powdered hot chili, like cayenne, or a red pepper sauce, like habanero. The paprika provides color and flavor, but if you need even more heat, you can use hot paprika.

Render the suet, remove the solids and reserve 2 tablespoons. Chop the onion, and bell pepper. Brown the meat and when almost done add the onion and bell pepper and sauté. Remove any excess grease. Slice the dried chili lengthwise, remove the seeds, wash, pat dry and chop. Slice the garlic, add the chopped chili, green chili sauce, cumin, oregano and paprika to the sauté and cook for 5 minutes. Add the tomato purée, woodruff and 1 cup of beef broth, bring to a boil and simmer for 1 hour. In a small skillet reheat 2 tablespoons of rendered grease, add the flour and prepare a dark brown roux. Add 1 cup of beef broth to the roux, stir until thickened and add to the chili. Adjust to taste with salt and powdered cayenne or red pepper sauce. If desired, previously soaked beans could now be added. Adjust the seasoning then cook slowly for at least an additional 20 minutes, or 1 hour if beans were added.

Except for the roux, all the cooking can be done in a large stew pot. If a crock pot is available, the initial sauté should be done separately in a large skillet while the liquid ingredients are heated to a boil in the crock pot.

Recipe from An Eclectic Cookbook (Copyright © 1987, John S. Garavelli), page 3–9.