Chili G'mish

Every time I make chili, it's a little different. My basic recipe is to brown some ground beef, chop and saute some onions, make a sauce from tomato sauce and chili powder, add the (canned) beans, and Bob's your uncle!

It has always been satisfying and hearty and even My Beloved, who is not a huge chili fan, scarfed it up with alacrity.

This time, however, I decided to make it from scratch with dried beans from Rancho Gordo that I found at the Ferry Plaza farmer's market. The beans were irresistible, mottled with red and white. Sadly, they didn't keep their color but they were really delicious and so meaty I might actually have been able to leave out the meat. In addition to my usual onions, tomato sauce and chili powder, this "recipe" (actually, just threw in whatever I had on hand) included ground grass-fed beef from Marin Sun Farms, tomato paste, cumin, dried red pepper flakes, a generous cooking spoon full of Hungarian paprika, sliced carrots, a small can of green chiles and the lovely beans, which I soaked for an hour or two, simmered for another hour, then added to the meat sauce to finish cooking.

After the simmering, I let it stand overnight before re-heating and serving topped with grated cheddar cheese. What had started as three-alarm chili the day before mellowed as it soaked into the beans into a mildly spicy and wonderfully tasty stew. The carrots gave it some extra flavor and color interest and, although I don't normally use this yellow form of cheddar, I really liked the color contrast in the bowl this time.

Turns out you can add just about anything to chili if you start with delicious beans.