Carnage du Jour - 10 March 2013

What could be better on a sunny Sunday morning that a big pot of chili? OK, maybe you shouldn't answer that.

At any rate, that's what was being served after church - a cadre of crock pots lined up in the great hall for the fellowship hour sent great gusts of savoury scents congregation-ward.

So, what was in my pot?
As usual, I had a blend of beef and lamb, a variety of beans (sorry, Texas, that's the way I roll), sautéed onions and celery, a couple cans of spiced tomatoes, a can of green chiles, a bottle of Guinness, and a variety of spices to be named later.

Here is a brief synopsis of the preparation:

• 1# of stewing beef was diced and browned - ah, but before hitting the oil, the meat was coated in a mixture of cornmeal and cocoa powder, and it smelled wonderful as it cooked.
• 1# of ground lamb was browned in the now-flavoured oil, along with the diced onions and celery.
• Into the mix went a can of diced tomatoes with chipotle, and another can with green chiles, one can each of black beans, kidney beans, and black-eyed peas, and a can of green chiles. Oh, and a bottle of Guinness stout.
• Somewhere around a teaspoon of chipotle powder went in, along with a couple tablespoons of freshly roasted garlic, and another teaspoon of some home-grown chile powder (cayennes and other peppers, dried and powdered in our very own blender!).
• The final touches were some a bit of cider vinegar (it was too dark a flavour, it wanted a bit of brightening), a bit of Cholula hot sauce, just because it's delicious, and some cinnamon (probably only half a teaspoon, but I wasn't really measuring).

The whole thing worked for well over 12 hours from stove to crock pot, and the result was delicious. I'm sorry there wasn't more left for home use.