Not even a Kick

I often fantasize about starting my own restaurant with my own motley crew of employees, and Pinky and I have hashed out themes, many many themes. Oh dreams. One of my friends suggested I start a restaurant called Red Army Rice Bowl, and I quote, "the gimmick is that the only thing on the menu is a tiny bowl of plain rice and if you complain the guard hits you in the kidney with the butt of his rifle." I really, really liked that idea. However, another more sensible idea is to base a restaurant off comfort, leading me to the well-known and beloved comfort food, soups and stew. Stew. Stew is a big theme in my life in general, it's really the only true true definition of comfort food. Come cold weather, I often make this killer Taiwanese pork stew on rice that's a home classic deep-in-the-bone snuggle in blankets when I feel bad or alone food. I'm also a fan of the ginger chicken and bamboo stews...which don't go over so well because someone in the house can't stand the smell of preserved bamboo. Anyways, moving onto classic American stew that has recently frequented our abode. Chili. Pinky is usually the chili guy, I usually let him have at it in the kitchen and figure that since the only chili I ate growing up was from Wendy's, I'd be a loss in that department. Seriously, his chili is fantastic and different from what I'm giving you here, but that's for another day. I'm particularly excited about this recipe because folks, folks, I actually used real dried Mexican chilies. 

Mexican, Salvadorean and pretty much all form Hispanic foods rank really high in my list of "cuisines I

like." I say that as if it's a crazy important list, but it's really not. I pretty much eat everything. Pinky and I recently felt the Mexican food bug and we bought several ingredients from the local tienda, or mini supermercado...yeah..my Spanish needs work... because we wanted to make some Tepache, which I don't think I ever posted on woops my bad, as well as some Mole sauce (the Rick Bayless one on SAVEUR), which we also still haven't made, woops our bad. As a direct result of our delays, there are several forms of dried chilies just hanging out in the kitchen, like ancho, guajillo, chile de arbols, chipotle, pasilla and so on so forth. Also, random note, Tito's chicharrones are delicious, especially the salt and vinegar ones. Continuing on, being the oh so logical person that I am, I decided, why not put real chilies in chili stew (rather than using just chili powder)? Couple that with leftover pork and ground beef from hamburgers in the fridge, you got yourself a meal.

The usual notes. Making stews and soups is about building flavor, and so, I like to cook my ingredients in separate batches, browning the meat in the pot first, then cooking select aromatics in varied parts, and finally de-glazing the pot and bringing it all together for a slow cook. Slow cook is important, especially with pork shoulder or butt cuts; the general rule is low and slow until the pork is tender and pretty much just tumbles apart in your mouth.

Guajillo Chipotle Chili
this is mild in heat, if you want spicier, you can up the chili count


1 lb can red kidney beans, or combo of black, pinto and red
1 lb can whole stewed tomatoes
1 lb pork shoulder or butt, cut into chunks
1 lb ground beef
2 dried guajillo peppers
2 dried chipotle peppers
1 medium sized fresh Korean pepper, diced
2 fresh poblano peppers, diced
1 large white onion, diced fine
1 head of garlic, cloves crushed and roughly chopped
1 C apple cider (or a light beer)
1/2 C strong brewed coffee
chili powder, or any sort of beef rub

2 TB instant espresso granules
salt and pepper to taste
salted butter or oil
jalapeno slices, scallions (to decorate)

First things first. Prepare the dried chilies. Boil a pot of water on the stove, turning off once it reaches full boil. Grab your chilies. They should be flexible, not brittle, which is an indication they haven't been stored right or maybe their just too damn old. Wipe them down with a wet paper towel to make sure there isn't any dirt on them. Then slice them open with scissors or a knife, de-seed and de-rib them (reserve some of the seeds if you like your chili to be spicier, and splay them open so that they are relatively flat. In a dry relatively hot pan, toast the now-splayed open chilies for only a couple seconds on each side. You should be able to press down on the chili with your fingers and not burn yourself (meaning the pan should not be too hot). You don't want to burn the chilies, you just want to wake up the oils and get the aroma going. Once that is done, drop the chilies into the hot water and immerse, steeping for 20 minutes or until soft.

While the chilies are steeping, dice up your aromatics and peppers and season your meat. Toss the pork chunks in some salt and some instant espresso (or coffee) granules. Season the ground beef with the chili powder (the amount depending on your spice level desires), or with any sort of beef rub you have on hand. At this point, the chilies should be read so pull them out of the water and lay them on towels to dry a bit. Dice up the re-hydrated peppers really really fine, almost to a mush and mix in your preferred level of seeds. Once all your ingredients are prepped and on hand, you are ready to start cooking. I don't think I've forgotten anything in the picture (besides having not diced up the dried chilies).

Put a heavy large pot on the stove and turn on the heat to med-high. Let the pot get hot, and then add a tablespoon or so of salted butter, letting it melt and shaking the pot around so the butter is even across the bottom of the pot. Using tongs, lay in your pork chunks and left brown, turning them so they brown on at least two sides. The remove from the pot and reserve in a bowl. Add the ground beef and brown as well, removing and reserving the meat for later. At this point, the bottom of your pot should be brown and gritty with bits. Add another two or three tablespoons of butter, and then add in the diced onions, poblano peppers, korean peppers, and half the garlic, sauteeing and stirring the vegetables until they soften. Once they soften and are emitting their aromas, de-glaze the pot with the 1/2 C coffee and 1/2 C of apple cider, stirring with a spatula and scraping up the brown bits until the bottom of the pot is clean. Let this simmer for a bit until some of the liquid has evaporated off. Then remove the vegetables from the pot and reserve in a bowl.  Add some more oil (sometimes I feel like I'm using way too much butter so I switch to grapeseed oil later in the game) to the pot. It should instantaneously become hot and do that slick slide around the pot thing we all know and love. Take the remaining garlic and diced guajillo and chipotle chilies and add to the oil, stirring and letting them fry for a minute or two in the oil. Then re-add your onion and pepper medley. Cook that for a bit. Re-add your meats and cook that for a bit.

Once it looks like that, you're ready for the final steps. Crank open that can of beans and pour it in. Open the can of whole tomatoes and pour in half the liquid (pour out the other half, unless you really love tomato flavored soups), and get this, here's one of my favorite parts, squeeze the whole tomatoes in your hands until they burst and eke out from in between your fingers, breaking up the flesh. Use your hands, people, it's quite refreshing. Add the remaining apple cider or beer until everything solid in the stew is covered by liquid, stir, and lower the flame to, well, low. If the chili looks too soupy, cook it for a bit with the lid off so that some of the liquid can evaporate off. If you like the amount of liquid, cover immediately. At some point, once the liquid level is at your preferred amount, you should add on the lid and cook for 45 minutes to an hour, even longer if you want, or until the pork is tender. Closing the lid traps the heat inside and lets the stew cook at an even temperature, rather than fluctuating around when not covered.

And that's it. The final result will be a red and brown and very tasty chili, with a little kick. Serve with cheese, scallions and some fresh Italian or French bread.