Is It Ever Not Chili Season?
 | Author:
Eileen Clarke, Rifles and Recipes
Author: Rifles and Recipes |
Is it Ever Not Chili Season?
Eileen Clarke
Rifles and Recipes
I would argue that chili is a 24/7/365 Mental Health food. For breakfast, you can always pour it over an English muffin or an omelet loaded with the queso of your choice; at the height of summer, when outdoor cooking is a ‘must’, pour it over a grilled hot dog on a toasted bun—and don’t forget some grated cheese on top of that as well. Need a stalwart dip for a football game or July 4th get-together, why not chili? Make up a tray of hot chili, sliced jalapenos, a jar of queso dip and some corn chips. (A mini-slow cooker would keep that chili nice and hot, with no trouble.)
Let’s start with a simple, fool-proof chili recipe even a novice cook can manage—like this one. A sweet, tomato-y, smoky and rich tasting chili, that’s as easy to make as it is satisfying. All that jalapeño pepper might be a bit much for some, depending on how hot those individual peppers are--and how big--so taste them and judge them against your own pepper-tolerance level. I find this level, with the jalapeños I’ve used, just about at the top of my tolerance so I generally pair this chili with sweet tea or a soda—but not a diet soda. (Sugar helps reduce the burn as much, and faster, than dairy.) If you’d rather not drink a full-sugar soda, ¼ teaspoon of sugar in a glass of water will cut the fire as well. Pop’s just more fun!
FYI: You’ll actually save money buying a tube of tomato paste rather than using the canned version. Canned may be cheaper initially, but I can’t tell you how many little Tupperware containers of leftover canned paste I’ve wasted over the years. I mean well, tossing it into the freezer, but then never see those tasty dollops again—until they’re way past user date. And I’m sure it’s not just me. Buy the tube. You’ll save money—(and freezer space.)
Cheatin’ Chili
Makes 8 cups/2 quarts
Ingredients
½ pound bacon, chopped
1½ pounds ground venison
2 yellow onions, chopped
2 jalapeño peppers, chopped
2 16 ounce cans ‘pork and beans in tomato sauce’
2 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoon molasses (dark/original)
Cooking
1. In a 3- quart Dutch oven (DO), brown the bacon over medium heat. When the edges are nicely browned, add the ground venison in batches. (If you have a 10” pan, brown in 2 batches, half at a time. You want the meat to brown, not steam. Browning the venison in bacon fat helps, but it’s not a cure-all.)
2. When each batch is lightly browned, transfer it to a bowl. Combine the onion and jalapeños and gently brown them in the Dutch oven, over medium heat.
3. When the onions and jalapeños are browned on the edges, return the meat to the DO, with any juices, and give it a good stir. Add the pork and beans, tomato paste and molasses to the pot and give it all a good stir as you turn the heat up to high. When the chili comes to a simmer, lower the heat and let it simmer slowly, covered, on the stove for 15-20 minutes.
4. Serve with your favorite non-diet soda, on ice.
Eileen Clarke’s wild game cookbook, The Wild Bowl, has 100 recipes, more than a quarter of which are chilies, including this one. The rest? From the traditional to the exotic, simple to sublime (and often both), it includes recipes for big game, wild birds and pigs, bear and anything else you’ve cached in the freezer. Available at https://www.riflesandrecipes.com/406-521-0273 or Reading Leaves and Goose Bay Glass.
