Heating up on a Chili Day
The food and wine club could not have picked a better day to host their annual Chili Cookoff; it was a cold afternoon and the students were ready to eat some steaming hot chili to warm their bones.
Chili cooks competed to determine who could make the best meat and best vegetarian chili. This year there were six meat and two vegetarian chilis that ranged from classic to Indian, from chicken to lamb, and from superfood to full chuck.
In the end, Tara Anderson '16 won for best meat chili with her Chipotle Kahlua Chili and Priyanka Vyas (partner of Puneet Joshi '16) won for best vegetarian chili with her Rajma Masala.
Tara’s Chipotle Kahlua Chili
Ingredients:
- 3 slices bacon
- 3 pounds boneless chuck roast, trimmed and cut into 1" cubes
- 2 medium onions, diced
- 5 cloves garlic, minced
- 2 red bell peppers, diced
- 2 (15 ounce) can diced tomatoes
- 1 (14.5 ounce) can of black beans
- 3 tablespoons chili powder
- 2 teaspoons cumin
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 1 teaspoon cinnamon
- 4-6 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, chopped
- 4 ounces good quality dark chocolate, roughly chopped
- 3 1/2 cups beef broth
- 1 cup Kahlúa coffee liqueur
Cook the bacon in a large skillet to render the grease. Leave about 3 tablespoons of bacon grease in the skillet, and remove bacon and excess grease. Add chuck roast and brown it on all sides, on medium high heat, then set aside. In a large pot or dutch oven, cook the onions on medium heat until they are soft and browned (about 5-10 minutes.) Add the garlic and bell pepper and cook for two more minutes. Stir in the tomatoes, chipotle chiles, and spices. Add chocolate and stir until it is melted and well combined. Pour in the beef stock and add in the browned beef. Simmer the chili, covered, for 40-50 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the black beans and stir until they are heated through. Stir in Kahlúa and remove from heat.
Rajma Masala
Ingredients:
- Red Kidney Beans 400gms
- Onion 1 large size.
- Tomatoes 2 large.
- Red Dry Chilli 2
- 3 Bay Leaves
- 2 Brown cardamom
- 1 small piece ginger
- 3-4 cloves of garlic
- Butter/Ghee
- Oil 2tbsp, Cumin Seeds 1/2 tsp
- Salt 1 tsp + red pepper 1/2 tsp+ Dry Mango powder 1/4 tsp + garam Masala 1/4 tsp + Rajma masala (everest or MDH) 1tsp
For Rajma/Beans initial preparation:
- Wash and Soak overnight.
- Add salt, boil in pressure cooker on low flame. Take 7-8 whistles or till the beans are properly cooked to the point that some of them can be mashed.
For the Gravy:
- Place oil in a deep pan and when hot put cumin seeds, Bay Leaves, cardamom, red chili.
- when the above crackle add onions ,ginger and garlic made to a paste.
- When onion are golden brown add tomato Pureed.
- Cook tomatoes until they start to leave oil. add all other spices and cook for a minute or two.
- Add 1-1.5 cups of water depending upon what consistency you would like to have, along with the boiled beans.
- Cook for at least 30-45 mins on med maintained heat.
- Beans made like this go best with Ghee Jeera Rice.
*Tip: Best to keep the prepared dish for 1- 2 hrs and reheating before serving so that all the spices in the gravy seep in to the beans.