Call for Recipes: Alec’s Chili Recipe

It was two years ago when TILife’s copy editor, Elspeth Naismith, presented "Call for Recipes!" The article showed a tea towel that proudly hangs in her kitchen and provides the ingredients for a "Traditional 1000 Islands Shore Dinner," written by the late Les Cook, a renowned Canadian fishing guide. Elspeth suggested that our River communities have many farmers, restaurants, storekeepers, and, yes, both year-round and summer residents who have favourite recipes with special River meanings. Since then, we have published some fantastic culinary suggestions!

Alex's Chili Recipe

Serves: 8 – 10 Prep time: 15 mins Cook time: 1 hr 30 mins

This recipe came from a friend many years ago. He hadn’t actually ever written it out, until I badgered him to do so. What you see below is the end result of Alec’s original draft, with which he and I have both subsequently tinkered.

You'll need a large soup pot and a large frying pan.

Ingredients:

• 1 lb (454 g) hot (or sweet, or spicy) Italian sausage meat
• 1 lb (454 g) stew beef, chopped
• Two 15 oz cans black or garbanzo beans (or whatever you prefer)
• 28 oz can crushed tomatoes (see notes below)
• 1 – 1½ cups (1 large) onion, diced
• 4 cloves garlic, smashed and minced, or crushed with Kosher salt
• 2 peppers (any colour, but usually 1 red and 1 green) diced
• 1 Habanero pepper, seeded and minced
• One 12 oz beer (your current favorite or whatever you have handy)
• 2 Tbsp hot or mild chili powder (see notes below)
• 1 Tbsp dried oregano
• 1 Tbsp brown sugar
• 1 Tbsp Kosher salt, or ½ Tbsp table salt
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1 – 2 cinnamon sticks
• olive oil for sautéing

Instructions:

1. First, add crushed tomatoes to the soup pot and warm on low heat.
2. Dry the beef on a paper towel and brown on all sides in a little olive oil, in two or more batches (don’t crowd the meat in the pan), then transfer to the soup pot. Next, remove sausage meat from its casing, brown it in the pan, and then add to the pot.
3. Sauté onion, peppers, garlic, and Habanero in the sausage fat and olive oil; a little caramelization is great, but not necessary. Add to the pot when done.
4. By this point, you should have a nice bit of residue built up on the frying pan bottom, so deglaze it with the beer. Once the pan has been deglazed, scrape the pan contents into the pot, then add the rest of the beer. Drain and add both cans of beans. Stir well, and add the spices.
5. Simmer on medium low for about 1 hour. Taste and adjust the spices as needed, give it another 10 minutes, and serve. Alec says cheese, chips, sour cream or yogurt, and anything else is optional, but beer is pretty much mandatory!

Notes:

Alec uses crushed tomatoes, but I prefer to use whole tomatoes and crush them with my hands into the pot. Crushing them yourself gives the chili more texture. Go with whichever you prefer. Or use diced tomatoes.

Alec also said that he had good luck buying dried ancho and chipotle peppers and using those instead of chili powder, so you could give that a try. I’ve never asked if he reconstituted them, or just ground them up, but I you could try it both ways!

The easiest way to reconstitute a dried chili pepper is to put it in a glass measuring cup, add ½ cup or so of water, microwave it for about 1½ minutes, then let it stand for about 10 minutes until softened. Chop it up or purée it and use in Step 4, but check for heat before adding to the pot.

By Elspeth Naismith

Elspeth Naismith grew up in Gananoque, graduated from McMaster University in Hamilton (B.Sc (Bio)), and then from Centennial College as an RN. She also joined the Naval Reserve (thanks to a high school chum), and after spending time on both east and west coasts, she took a break from nursing and accepted a 3-year posting to National Defence Headquarters in Ottawa. The "break" turned into 25 years, and included jaunts to East Germany, Wales and the Irish Sea, and Bosnia. She retired from the Navy in 2011 and moved back to Gananoque in 2013. Today Elspeth not only leaves her mark on all TI Life articles, as she is the "Real Editor," "Comma Queen," and "overall lifesaver," but she is also an official recipe tester for America's Test Kitchen.

Illustration by Marie-Ann Erki

Marie-Anne Erki is a Kingston artist and emeritus professor of civil engineering at the Royal Military College. Marie-Anne initially considered a career in architecture, but her love of mathematics led her to become a structural engineer. She says, "At a time before computer assisted drawing (CAD), both disciplines required a huge amount of freehand and mechanical drawing. After a quarter of a century of great fun as a structural engineer, I decided to pursue painting full time." We at TI Life are fortunate that Marie-Anne has agreed to be our Official Illustrator, and you will find her work in many of our articles. You can also see her works at marieanneerkipaintings.blogspot.com/