Sunday Chili

Spent the day making some simple Chili for lunches and dinner. Actually happy with how it turned out for once. I'm sure I made some huge mistakes but wanted to share.

I got the recipe from Food Lab's perfect chili. I also tried a few things I've seen some chefs on tv do.

Brined the short rib in JD/salt bath

Everything else for the recipe, had to get Marmite and Anchovies which are new ingredients for me. The recipe called for Thai Bird chili, but jalapeño and habanero seemed a bit more mild.

The recipe, from food lab, skips the traditional chili powder for a more potent purée made from decide chili. I used 3 different types

De-seeding and chopping

Grinding some star anise, coffee, coriander and cumin

Ground and toasted the spices

Gratuitous onion chopping

Garlic chopping

Chili chopping

Toasting the peppers

After the peppers and spices were toasted I seasoned and browned the meat

Trying not to crowd my small Dutch oven

Lots of browning

Beef is browned and cooling while I finish making the purée

Beef fat saved for the onions

Always buy extra stock, I went through my stuff making the chili paste and then had to run to the store

Mixing the chilies and stock

Blending the chilies, spices, anchovies, and marmite. Smelt great looked awful and tasted bitter. I'm not a big coffee guy so the flavor really stood out

Chili paste, hopefully it will taste better than it looks

Separating the meat from the bones. I used the bones in the recipe for some more fat and because I am terrible with a knife, and missed a lot of good meat

Browning the onions in beef fat

Adding the jalapeño and garlic

Adding chili paste, all starting to come together

Adding the rest of the ingredients, at this point I had to run out to buy stock to help fill it up

Now we wait... And wait (3 1/2 hours)

It's done!!!

Made some vegan cornbread to share with the GF

Removing the bones before serving

Finished product! It came out really really well. I am really happy with the recipe. I like to make big meals but rarely do they turn out well. Next time I might use ox tail as I feel there is more meat there, but wow! Thanks for reading, never been happy with a recipe before but this was awesome. Check out serious eats food lab, some great well thought out recipes.