The wind is howling again today, ugh. It’s been blowing for days and everyone in town is grinding their teeth; angry and edgy, hoping for a bit of calm before they go stark raving mad. I thought seasonal affective disorder (SAD) was just a wintertime thing, but it’s like fingernails on a chalkboard when the Spring gales whistle through the eaves. We need something to soothe our nerves a little.
Making a big pot of soup always seems to put us back into harmony and balance in the winter, so we decided to see what was in the larder and create something to dissolve the (SAD). Something smoky and spicy, to thrill the tastebuds. We’re calling it Smoky Hill Chili and unlike Texas Chili, Colorado Chili has beans, so that was the first order of business.
“Chili is one of the great peasant foods. It is one of the few contributions America has made to world cuisine. Eaten with cornbread, sweet onion, and sour cream; it contains all five elements deemed essential by the sages of the Orient: sweet, sour, salty, pungent, and bitter.” ~ Rex Stout
This morning we sorted the beans and removed the rocks, dirt clods, and husks. Then a quick rinse before soaking them for 8-10 hours in cold water and a splash of apple cider vinegar. Beans, legumes, or pulses contain their fair share of vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants but also contain lectins, tannins, protease inhibitors, and phytic acid. These antinutrients impair digestion and inhibit mineral absorption, but a good (long) soak and cooking them in an autoclave or pressure cooker reduces the antinutrients significantly.
We wanted to include plenty of happy ingredients, so we used some Sirloin, bell pepper, jalapeño pepper, green chile, onion, garlic, Roma tomatoes, Zucchini, and the Anasazi and black beans. Zucchini might seem like a strange ingredient for chili but we have a freezer full of it, so we’re always looking for ways to use it and it works very nicely in soups and stews. It’s probably the most common garden veggie here in Smoky Hill country.
The spicy and smoky came from Cumin, Smoked Paprika, Mexican Oregano, and one of our favorite spices; chile powder from Hatch, New Mexico. There is something special about the chiles grown in the Rio Grande Valley. We wish you were here to enjoy a bowl with us. Since you’re not, here’s the recipe.
Smoky Hill Chili
Equipment
- 1 Pressure Cooker
- 1 Dutch Oven / Soup Kettle
Ingredients
- 1 cup Anasazi Beans from Colorado pressure cooked
- 1 cup Frijole Negros pressure cooked
- 350 gr Sirloin Cut into 1/4" pieces
- 1 Bell Pepper diced
- 1 large Onion diced
- 3 large Jalapeños diced
- 8 oz Green Chiles from Hatch, New Mexico
- 2 cups Zucchini diced
- 5 medium Roma tomatoes blanched, skinned and chopped
- 2 tbsp Beef Tallow
- 32 oz Beef Bone Broth
- 32 oz Filtered water
- 1 tbsp Salt or to taste
- 2 tbsp Chile Powder from Hatch, New Mexico or to taste
- 1 tbsp Cumin or to taste
- 2 tsp Smoked Paprika or to taste
- 2 tsp Mexican Oregano or to taste
Instructions
- Clean, rinse and soak Anasazi and black beans, use a bit of Apple Cider Vinegar. Soak for at least 8 hours, overnight is perfect.
- Slice and dice the meat and veggies.
- Heat the Beef Tallow (medium-high) and saute garlic and onion.
- Add Bell Pepper, Jalapeño, Green Chile and Sirloin, continue to saute.
- Add Beef Bone Broth and Water bring to a boil and simmer for about an hour.
- Cook the beans in the pressure cooker while the simmer is going. We usually go for 13 minutes in our Insta-Pot and let it de-pressure.
- Rinse beans and add them to the kettle.
- Add the seasonings and continue to simmer and taste until everything is amazing, spicy, smoky and beautiful.
- Eat!