Three-Bean, Five-Chile Chili

I made chili this weekend. It was a great chance to use some of the roasted green chiles from the freezer (for more info, see this post about chiles) as well as to try our toasting and grinding cumin myself rather than using the store bought stuff (for more info, see the post I've been meaning to write since Christmas...but haven't). I was quite pleased with how it turned out, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you.

Since it's five chile, let's go through those first:

New Mexico Green Chiles (4) roasted, skin stem and seeds removed, then diced: These aren't too hot, they just give a little warmth and some nice flavor.

Jalapeno (1 large) stemmed, seeded, diced. Serrano chiles (3), stemmed, seeded, diced: The jalapeno and serrano can both be fairly hot. You can tun the heat down by removing the membrane and ribs inside the chile. I removed it from half the jalapeno and 2 of the 3 serranos.

1 tsp Ancho powder: The ancho is a dried poblano chile. In this case, it has been completely dried and ground into powder. It adds a little heat and slightly darker chile flavor.

1/2 tsp Chipotle powder: Chipotles have really nice smokey flavor, which works wonderfully in this recipe.^*

All the chile amounts can be easily adjusted to match your tastes and heat tolerances. As I made it, the chili has a nice bite, but is not overpowering.

To start, toast about 1/2 Tbsp of cumin seeds in a dry skillet over medium heat. Move the pan around constantly to keep them from burning. When you start smelling them, but they haven't browned, take them off the heat and put them somewhere they can cool down. A plate? Sure, why not. Once they have cooled, grind the seeds into a nice powder. I used a mortar and pestle, but you can use a coffee grinder too.

In a large pot, heat about 2 tsp of oil (just enough to keep things from sticking) over medium-high heat. Add 1/2 of a medium to large onion to the pot and saute. When the onion is mostly cooked, add 4 cloves of garlic, smashed, chopped or otherwise obliterated, along with all of the green chiles (not the two powdered ones just yet). Add a teaspoon or two of salt and cook all of the various veggies (even though technically the chiles are fruits and the onion and garlic are marginally veggies at best), then turn the heat to medium and add two 28 oz cans of diced tomatoes. Sure, you could add fresh tomatoes instead if you want, but how many you add depends on how big they are, and if you saw the tomatoes at our grocery store right now, you'd know why I went for cans. Add in the ground cumin, ancho powder and chipotle powder. Roughly chop a handful or so of cilantro (the brighter taste of the herb will help to give balance to the chili...I suppose if you don't like cilantro you could use a different fresh herb, like parsley, but I'm of the opinion that parsley tends to taste like lawn clippings.) Allow this mixture to cook for a while to heat through, before adding the beans. I used canned beans that had been rinsed and drained. Again, you could avoid the canned and go for dried, but I'm too lazy to deal with all of that. Add two cans each of black (or turtle) beans, pinto beans and kidney beans, and heat for about 20 minutes or so until it's hot all the way through.

Once the entire mixture is hot, you can serve right away or let the chili rest a little while so that the flavors can mix and mingle and get to know each other better. After a few years of saying, "You know, that chili is better the second day," I've started making it the night before and allowing it to stay in the refrigerator overnight before heating it again the next day. Of course, that doesn't mean I don't sneak a spoonful or two the first night. After all, I have to check to see if it's cool enough to go into the fridge, don't I?

When you get ready to serve it, you can serve it as is with a little cornbread on the side or maybe add some fresh chopped cilantro and a little sour cream on top. It doesn't matter. Chili is one of those things that everyone has a recipe for and everyone likes a little different. Experiment and find out what you like. As for me, I think it's time for another bowl.

^*Ok, fine. Chipotles are actually smoked jalapenos^**, so there are really only four different varieties of chiles in there, but the point is that there are actually 5 distinct chile flavors and four types of preparation used for them. Two of the chiles were still raw when they went into the pot, one was smoked, another dried and yet another had been roasted. The flavors layer on top of each other and each provides something distinct. I stand by my somewhat questionable counting practice.

^**Also, if anyone happens to know how to make blogger let me properly make a n~ only with the ~ above the n, so that I can spell things like jalapeno correctly, I would appreciate it.