Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Perfecting vs Inventing

If something is worth doing. . .well some people would say it’s worth doing in the newest, most ingenious way you can think of doing it. Why make meatloaf when you can curried ostrich meatloaf? Who needs regular old lasagna when you can make foie gras and morel lasagna with balsamic gastrique? Why? Because meatloaf and lasagna are delicious in their “natural” state. Period.

I’m not saying that cooks, whether they are professional chefs or home cooks, shouldn’t be creative. Of course they should, that’s what is amazing about food, there is an infinite number of ways to cook it, pair up flavors, and play with textures. Take a lovely piece of halibut and try to come up with the most exciting way to cook it and try to think of the most brilliant thing to serve it with and voila you are a genius, if only for the length of the meal. However, some things need to not be about innovation but about perfection. Instead of wracking your brain to reinvent the cheeseburger, wrack your brain, experiment, and find the absolute best way to make a cheeseburger. Try different grinds of beef, more fat, less fat. Try mixing the salt and pepper in the meat, try forming the patties and only salting the outside. Toast the bun, don’t toast the bun. Believe me, it will not be boring, there is something wholly satisfying about making something simple and traditional the very best way you can imagine making it. You will be surprised how much the people who eat it respect it as well. While a clever new concoction of halibut, ramps, and shitake mushrooms might be gobbled up with gusto at a dinner party, people will gush, tell tales, and beg for the recipe for the perfect chili. They will then pass that recipe down to their children and their grandchildren, probably somewhere along the way claim it is theirs. . .but oh well, it’s that perfect chili that matters, isn’t it.

And so here is the perfect chili. Feel free to take it as your own. Serve it at your next Super Bowl party, make it every chilly Sunday throughout the winter. Pack up the leftovers, freeze them and reheat them on a bright winter afternoon after you come in from ice skating. But whatever you do, please, for the love of food, don’t reenvision it in the style of Thailand, or add tofu, fava beans, or anything else of that ilk. All you have to do is make this one.

Chili

1 lb ground sirloin

1 medium yellow onion, chopped medium fine

1 large (28oz) can Tomato Sauce

1 small (14.5oz) can Chopped Tomatoes

1 small can (15oz) pinto beans

3 T neutral oil

3 T all-purpose flour

1/2 c ground cumin (may seem excessive, but it is the secret)

1/4 c chili powder

3 T fresh ground black pepper

1 small red onion, finely chopped for garnish

2 c shredded cheddar or Colby-jack cheese

Salt

In a large stock pot or Dutch oven, sweat the chopped yellow onion, salted lightly in the oil on medium low heat until slightly soft but not brown. Season the ground beef with salt and 1 tablespoon of both the cumin and the chili powder. Add the ground meat to the onions, turn up the heat to high and brown the ground beef. Do not drain the fat and juices released by the ground beef. Sprinkle the flour evenly onto the cooked meat and cook for 1 minute stirring constantly. Add the tomato sauce, chopped tomato, and drained but not rinsed beans. Stir to combine, make sure to get the solids at the bottom of the pot. Add all of the cumin and chili powder and black pepper. Stir to combine. Bring the chili to a boil and then reduce to a simmer and cook uncovered for 30 minutes to 2 hrs, stirring occasionally. The longer it cooks the better it will be. Serve the chili topped with shredded cheese and finely chopped red onion. The chili is also delicious served over pasta (chili-mac) or over corn pancakes (corn bread batter with a tablespoon of vegetable oil added to thin, cooked on a griddle or in a pan like regular pancakes). Leftovers store wonderfully in the fridge for a few days and in the freezer for a few months.