Superbowl Chili
By: Tricia
Published: Thursday, February 18, 2010 - 8:50am

Ingredients




3 pounds lean ground beef
1 1/2 pounds sirloin steak, cut into small chunks
1/4 cup olive oil
2 mediums carrots
2 mediums yellow onions
2 tablespoons finely minced garlic
2 teaspoons tablespoons plus 1  chili powder
4 teaspoons cumin
4 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons chopped chipotle chile pepper in adobo sauce
28 ounces can diced tomatoes, drained
6 cups to 7  reduced-sodium beef or chicken stock
15 ounces cans black beans, drained and rinsed
Garnishes:

chopped fresh cilantro

sour cream

monterey jack cheese

chopped green onions

freshly squeezed lime

Preparation

1 In a large heavy pot set over high heat, saute ground beef and steak chunks, stirring frequently, until browned, about 8 minutes. With a slotted spoon, remove beef to a plate and pour off the remaining liquid in the pan. (I used a strainer over a large bowl, and put all the meat in it to drain the excess fat off). 2 Add olive oil to the same pot that you cooked your meat in and set over medium heat. When hot, add carrots, onions, and garlic and saute, stirring, until softened, about 5 minutes. Return beef to pot, and add chili powder, cumin, oregano, salt, and chopped chipotle chile; stir and cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes and broth. Bring to a simmer, reduce heat to a gentle simmer, and cook for 30 minutes more, stirring occasionally. Much of the liquid will cook down during this time. 3 Stir in all but 1/3 cup of black beans and cook 5 minutes more. Mash reserved beans with a fork, and stir into the chili to give it extra body. If chili is too thick, stir in as much as 1 cup additional broth and heat several minutes to warm. Chili can be prepared two days ahead. Cool, cover and refrigerate. Reheat over medium heat, stirring often. 4 Ladle into bowls and garnish with toppings. Enjoy!

About


Yesterday was Superbowl Sunday. Following football has never been a ritual of my own, but it is a deeply ingrained part of Andrew's life. Because of this, I've learned more about football this past year--the rules, the players, the teams--than I ever dreamed of knowing! When I do find myself watching with him, it is usually a mix of laughter and horror. I tend to watch football with a different lens, shall we say, finding the humor in the facial expressions of the coaches (intense!), the hilarious dances a player makes (or chest bumping with his other teammates) when he gets a touchdown, the constant butt slaps (?), and of course, the tight pants :).
I'm going to take a little bit of a leap here, but I found the relationship between the theory of yin & yang and football food to be quite uncanny. Football is fantastically yang. Attributes of yang include: bright, fierce, outward, fast, and masculine. The attributes of yin are: quiet, inward, dark, solitary, and feminine. There is a whole theory about yin and yang pertaining to food where having too much of one or the other tends to offset our bodies and our minds--basically making us feel out of balance, off kilter, blaaah--you get the point. Some examples of yin foods are: alcohol and chemicals, dairy, oil, sugar and coffee, spices, leafy green vegetables, roots and winter squash. Foods that are classified as yang are: salt, eggs, red meat, cheese, poultry, fish, and grains. One example of how the yin & yang theory works is people tend to naturally want to nibble on something salty when they are, say, having a drink. Have you noticed that bars usually have bowls of salted peanuts or salty hot wings to have with the pints of beer or alcohol they serve? The salt (or yang) offsets the alcohol (or yin) balancing the two out so you (theoretically) don't overdo it--that is entirely up to the consumer, however, as to how much of either is actually consumed ;). So if you eat something hearty with your glass of wine or beer, say, a Superbowl Chili + homemade guacamole, you'll feel pretty good--because you've balanced the beer (yin) with some meaty chili (yang). It's interesting to think of foods having these properties--and another way to think about eating :).
In tribute to this masculine (yang) day, we made some super-meaty chili and homemade guacamole--part of a food group I've lovingly dubbed Dude Food. Those of you with boyfriends, husbands, sons, and/or all male households (including the dog) know exactly what I'm talking about. Personally, red meat doesn't do much for me, even high quality meat fresh from the butcher--it makes me feel sluggish and dulled out. There are some nice cuts of Italian cured meats that I enjoy in small quantities (and usually with a glass of wine with a side of some salty olives! yin and yang...) like prosciutto or a nice salami. But I digress, because I'm not talking about hoity-toity food, I'm talking about dude food here--straightforward, simple, and can be quite delicious.
The guacamole is so simple, I learned how to make it from a Mexican woman in my early twenties. You take 2-3 fresh, ripe avocados, 2-5 limes, some sea salt, and 1 garlic clove (chopped finely). You scrape the avocado into the bowl, removing the skins and pits, you squeeze the hell out of the limes, one at a time into the bowl, sprinkle with about a teaspoon of salt (or to taste), and add the finely chopped garlic. Then with a big fork (or if you have a big mortar and pestel, that would work too), smash it all together leaving big hunks. Dip your chips and enjoy! In the summer, I finely chop a ripe tomato too, taking out all the seeds, and add it in--delish.
The chili seemed to be a big hit with Andrew and his friend Scott--it was a bit meaty for my taste, but I still ate a small bowl of it gladly. Make sure you have fun toppings for it like sour cream, monterey jack cheese, chopped green onion, cilantro, and you can even squeeze a little fresh lime juice on the top. This recipe is generally a crowd pleaser :).