Recipe: Damn Good, Thick and Rich, Anasazi Bean Chili

In 1986 I was shopping to outfit the kitchen I would be sharing with my then future second ex-wife. I happened upon a cast iron dutch oven and was immediately filled with images of that cast iron pan filled with hot bubbling delicious, rich, spicy, hearty chili. In my mind, I saw the black of the pan and the rich reddish chili steaming in it with another pan filled with cornbread next to it. I picked it up and looked it over. I loved the heft and substance of the thing. It also didn't hurt that as I child I remember my grandmother always making me johnnycakes on an ancient cast iron griddle. Hey, I'm a romantic, SO WHAT?

Well, I bought that dutch oven and after I was married, I left it in one cupboard or another for the next 10 years! Ok, I may have made stew in it once-MAYBE. One day however, I was making my first filet mignon and I used it to roast the steaks in. From that point on, I started using it as much as possible. In fact, it started me on a love affair with cast iron. "Love" in the practical and innocent definition of the word, not the creepy call-the-police kind of way. Today, I cook almost exclusively in and on cast iron. My collection includes an assortment of pans both antique and contemporary including a wok, friers, dutch ovens, griddles, comals, fry pans of every conceivable size, etc. For my money, if you're willing to do a little maintenance, cast iron is the best cookware you can buy and the stuff will withstand everything short of a direct hit by a thermonuclear weapon.

Getting back to the subject at hand, today I make all my chili in that pan I bought back in 1986. In fact I hope my daughters enjoy cooking as much as I do so that they can cook their family meals in the same pans and then pass it down to their children. I'd like my cast iron pans to become a family heirlooms because cooking is love and love is an energy and things like cast iron pans absorb energy and if enough chili and other things get cooked in these pans by people who love each other over a few generations, I firmly believe that my cast iron cookware could be the nucleus of a future world peace and previously unknown era of brotherly and sisterly love. You couldn't do this with a new fangled pan, they just don't last. Especially that coated non-stick nonsense-YUCK! Stay away from plastics and teflon people, it's all bad.

All I'm saying is that you should consider some cast iron in your collection of pans. There are certain things like chilis and stews that just benefit from the even heating these pans offer.

If you have any antique pans though, send them to me, they're no good for you-really!

In the recipe below, I call for the use of ancho chiles and a chipotle hot sauce. These give this chile a rich and hearty flavor and a tiny hint of smokiness. I also use Anasazi beans which are not easy to come by. Hey, food can be an adventure you know? These are an heirloom variety of beans.

The Anasazi were a tribe of Native Americans that predated the Navajo, Pueblo and other tribes from the same area. There's some mystery in there that I don't have time to go on about, but they're long gone. They were an agricultural tribe, among the things they grew were these fine beans. (they're pretty too, Google 'em and see). If I'm to believe what I read (and I want to) these beans were basically extinct. Then one day some archaeologist was looking for the fossilized bones of an extinct pachyderm and he came across an Anasazi pot sealed with pine pitch. Inside were these very beans. When they planted some to check their viability some of them grew and today we are fortunate enough to have them again thanks to some dedicated heirloom growers and consumers (like me, yo!). It's like eating history. Well, not history as in old meat or fruit cake, but you know what I mean!

Damn Good, Thick and Rich, Anasazi Bean Chili

1 TBS peanut oil
3 lbs. beef (cut into 1/4" to 1/2" cubes)
1-1/2 cups onion (chopped fine)
8 cloves garlic (chopped fine)
3/4 tsp garlic powder
4 cups chicken broth
1/2 cup tomato sauce
3 TBS cumin seeds (ground)
10 1/2 TBS chili powder
2 large ancho chilies (soaked until soft, deseeded and minced)
2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp meat tenderizer
4 cups of cooked beans (pinto, etc. I use Anasazi Bean)1/2 tsp light brown sugar
2 tsp chipotle hot sauce1 cup sour cream
1 cup nacho and Monterrey Jack cheese (shredded)
3 green onions (sliced)

Set a large cast iron dutch oven over medium heat. Add 2 cups of the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Reduce to a simmer and add the onions and garlic and simmer for 10 minutes.

Add the tomato sauce, and all dry spices except for the meat tenderizer and sugar. Stir together thoroughly. Continue to simmer on low.

While chili mix is simmering, place another cast iron pan over high eat. Add the peanut oil and brown the meat in small batches. Sprinkle each batch with a little meat tenderizer and set aside.

Add the browned meat and final two cups of chicken broth to the simmering chili mixture, continue on a low simmer for 2 hours. Stirring occasionally.

Add the beans and mix in well. Continue simmering for 30 minutes.

Remove from heat. Stir in the light brown sugar and the chipotle hot sauce.

Serve topped with shredded cheese, sour cream and sliced green onions.

Damn Good, Thick and Rich Anasazi Bean Chili by Henry Krauzyk from Chop Onions, Boil Water.

Recipe: Turkey Tips with Chipotle Ketchup

Have you ever heard someone from England, Australia or New Zealand pronounce a foreign word that they have a need to use? Well, to an American ear it is friggin' downright funny. Not that Americans don't err themselves. I cringe every time I hear a well-meaning countryman pronounce "filet" with a hard "t". Yikes! I'm not writing this to make fun of Americans though.

Back to the people who make our language sound funny. Over the course of my life I have been fortunate enough to make many friends in the aforementioned countries that print money with the queen on it. Among the many benefits of having such friends is the abject pleasure I take in listening to them speak. I like the accents. They are interesting and often very, very amusing.

My very informal personal research has revealed that it is the preference of the inhabitants of these odd and strange commonwealth lands to Anglicize the foreign words they need to adopt for various reasons. This as opposed to the American method of adopting them as close to the language of origin as possible. A trait which I find respectful.

I'm sure it doesn't seem like much of a thing until you hear your Kiwi editor pronounce things like "risotto" (rihz-OTTO), "basil" (Beh-ZILL) or "Parmesan" (oh I can't even write it). Better yet, nothing, NOTHING beats hearing her pronounce "chipotle" (well except maybe my friend Sally from Northern England pronouncing "Feng Shui" (FEHNG-SHOOEY). Back to my rant: When pronounced in its native Mexican language "chipotle" seems the perfect sound to describe these smoked jalapenos, especially if they're packed in adobo sauce. However, when a Kiwi pronounces it, the sound is reminiscent of what you hear when you drop an empty metal canteen on concrete. Instead of that perfectly suitable "Chee-pote-lay" you get "CHEE-POT-UHL!"

CHEE-POT-UHL!

It also sounds like the call of a very large, flightless, messy and unpleasant bird!

CHEE-POT-UHL! CHEE-POT-UHL!

If you ever happen upon one of these pleasant and patronizingly polite foreigners I encourage you to offer them an Italian or Mexican menu. You'll have hours of fun listening to them! I did it with a Portuguese menu once and I still laugh every time I go back to that restaurant! Funny foreign chatter aside, this is a quick and easy recipe. Season the turkey to your personal taste and adapt the spicy ketchup to your comfort level. Personally, I make a large quantity of the chipotle ketchup and keep it handy in the fridge just like regular ketchup.

Turkey Tips with Chipotle Ketchup

1-2 lbs. Fresh turkey tenderloin or breast (cut into 1" cubes)
Montreal Steak Seasoning
1-2 Tbs olive oil
1-2 Tbs butter
1 can of Embasa Chipotle Peppers in Adobo Sauce
1 cup of ketchup.

In a large bowl, toss the cubes of raw turkey with your desired amount of Montreal Steak Seasoning (I think I'm somewhere around a tablespoon per pound of turkey, maybe a little less). Cover and set aside while you prepare the chipotle ketchup.

In a blender or food processor combine 2 Tbs of the adobo sauce (from the can of chipotle peppers), the cup of ketchup, and 1 of the chipotle peppers (stem and seeds removed)* blend until smooth.

Set a fry pan on medium-high flame. Add the olive oil and when it begins to shimmer add the butter and cook the combination until the butter is no longer foaming. Add the turkey cubes and cook, stirring frequently until just cooked through.

Serve with the chipotle ketchup on the side.

I serve these with fries or tater tots. Yeah!

* Freeze the balance of the chipotles and adobo for future use.

Recipe: Turkey Tips with Chipotle Ketchup, Chop Onions, Boil Water by Henry Krauzyk

Review: Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce

I can always remember where I was in my life when I've tried some important foods. Chimichurri was in Oranjestadt, Aruba. Manapua was in Honolulu, Hawaii. Boeuf Wellington was in Providence, Rhode Island. Oh man, the charbroiled hot dogs they sell on the street in Ponta Delgada, Azores are something else! The list goes on and on, but you get the picture and you can probably relate

The first time I ever had Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce was in the Cancun Airport in the Yucatan as I was leaving Mexico after another great vacation in Playa del Carmen. I was walking around looking for a cold beer and I walked into a small hot sauce shop. The guy behind the counter asked me if I wanted to try any and I chose a serrano-based hot sauce and the Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce I bought a couple of bottles of the Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce on the spot and I've never looked back.

When I ran out of my initial purchase, I quickly found a new supplier and I've used the stuff religiously ever since. I guess you could call it my favorite hot sauce. It is thick, rich and the smokey chipotle flavor just makes anything you put on it a taste sensation. It's not one of those set-your-butt-ablaze hot sauces that all the low-browed chest pounders love to brag they use. It has just the right amount of heat to make it a food experience rather than a dare.

I've tried other chipotle flavored hot sauces just for comparison and they just don't match up. The others are always too watery, too vinegary, or too something that just falls short of the Bufalo brand. I'm sticking with this stuff.

Recipe-wise I use it on and in a number of foods. My favorite thing to put it on are my wife's cheese burgers (recipe forthcoming). Now, those burgers are among my favorite foods anyway, but when she shakes some Bufalo Chipotle Hot Sauce on them... BANG! I am into yum yum outer space!

Bufalo's homepage here.

Nutritional information here.

I rate this stuff 4 out of 4 stars.