Great Chili, Bertrand Russell and a Swell Champagne Dinner
Bet you won't find that combination anywhere else!
Like many Americans, we gathered last week to celebrate the Super Bowl. Everybody brought food and this chili was my contribution. As we head into another holiday weekend I thought I might offer you the recipe.
The Basic Chili Recipe
Shopping List: 1 pound ground bison, 1 large can chopped tomatoes, small can chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, 1 bottle dark beer, 1 can black beans.
Staples: olive oil, 3 onions, garlic, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper, chicken stock.
Optional: cream sherry, balsamic vinegar, 1 ounce chocolate, soy sauce, sour cream, grated cheddar.
Serves 4-6
Dice three medium onions and saute them in olive oil until they’re soft. Add 6 cloves of garlic, smashed, and let them soften too. Add a tablespoon of chopped fresh oregano, some salt and pepper, a bit of cumin and two teaspoons of your homemade chili powder – more if you like really hot food.
Add a pound of ground bison, and cook, stirring, until it loses its redness. Puree 3 or 4 chipotle peppers in adobo sauce (from a can) and stir that in along with a large can of tomatoes, chopped up, and another teaspoon of your chili powder. Add a cup of homemade chicken stock, and a cup of a robust dark beer and let it all simmer at a slow burble for a couple of hours.
Before serving stir in a cup or so of black beans. Now you get to play with the flavors. Is it hot enough? Do you want more chili powder? Sometimes I’ll melt an ounce or so of really good chocolate and stir that in to give it depth. Other times I’ll add a spoonful of fish sauce, or a splash of excellent balsamic vinegar. Sometimes soy sauce to spark it up, other times cream sherry to mellow it down. It all depends on my mood. The point is, when you’ve made your own chili powder, everything else is just window dressing.
Homemade Chili Powder
Shopping list: Dried Ancho, New Mexico and Habanero Chiles.
I like to use anchos for their winey richness, habaneros for their fruity heat and New Mexicos for their earthy sturdiness.
Wearing rubber or latex gloves to protect your hands, sponge off 2 Anchos, 3 New Mexico and 3 Habanero chiles (they’re almost always dusty). Cut them in half and remove the tips where the majority of seeds congregate. Discard the seeds.
Put the chiles into a heavy bottomed pan (I use cast iron), and toast them over medium high heat for about 4 minutes, turning from time to time with tongs, until they have darkened slightly. Allow them to cool and then grind the chiles to a powder in a spice grinder or coffee mill. Stir in a teaspoon of toasted and ground cumin.
You can serve this chili with cilantro, sour cream and grated cheddar. But my favorite way to serve it is topped with pimento cheese. It adds a certain something.
In 1962 my mother took me to visit Bertrand Russell. He had just turned 90, and she figured it was now or never.
I’d actually met the great man twelve years earlier when I was just a baby. “It was awful,” my father told me later, “he stayed with us for a few days, and he’d made up children’s stories to tell you. But you were too young for stories and he was so disappointed he told them to me instead.” He shook his head ruefully. “The greatest mind of the century and he’s telling me children’s tales!”
To be honest, I don’t remember all that much about the later visit either. We had tea at his home while he and Mom reminisced about their long friendship. (They met in the thirties and corresponded until his death; in one letter he said “meeting you, and yes loving you, has been one of the great joys of my life.” )
What I do remember is that he gave me this little book. (You can sometimes find copies on line; I’ve seen them for as much as $1750 and as little as $11.) Given the current state of the world the book seems woefully appropriate just now.
Lulu, Alice Waters’ restaurant in the Hammer Museum, is one of those restaurants that seems to fly slightly under the radar, but I had the most memorable meal there last week with a group of friends. The chef, David Tanis (yes, the one who writes for the New York Times), is a master of simple seasonality and I always get the sense that I’m eating food that David’s made because it’s what he wants to eat.
I always want to eat it too.
This meal began with these oysters from Baja, which had the gentle brininess and plump chewiness you too rarely find. They were perfectly set off by a punchy jalapeno and shallot mignonette.
It went on to gently cured salmon topped with trout roe that crunched very appealingly beneath your teeth.
These were the tenderest, tastiest little lamb champs from Elysian Fields (Thomas Keller is a partner: you can buy the lamb here), topped with pomegranate seeds, surrounded by fresh mint and accompanied by sweet little potatoes that I’m willing to bet came from Weiser Family Farms.
It’s citrus season in LA, and this compote could not have been more refreshing….
Three outstanding bites ended the evening: a flaky walnut pastry, extraordinary dates and a slice of Le Gruyere, which just won the World Cheese Award…again.
And here are the wines we tasted: all methode champenoise, mostly not Champagne.
France, Champagne- Laurent Perrier, La Cuvee NV, Tours-sur-Marne, chardonnay, pinot noir, meunier double magnum.
POTATO CHIPS & GOUGÈRES
Flight 1: World-not Europe, not USA
Australia- Jansz-Premium Brut Cuvee Tasmania, 2018, Tasmania, chardonnay, pinot noir.
South Africa- Graham Beck, Blanc de Blancs, 2017, Robertson, chardonnay.
Argentina- Alma Negra Brut Nature, Uco Valley, Mendoza, NV, malbec, pinot noir.
India- Sula, Brut Tropical, Nashik Valley, NV, chenin blanc, shiraz, viognier.
OYSTERS ON THE HALF SHELL WITH MIGNONETTE
Flight 2: USA
California- Schramsberg Reserve Late Disgorged, 2004, Calistoga, pinot noir, chardonnay. Magnum.
California- Michael Cruse Tradition, 2018 base, Petaluma, pinot noir, chardonnay.
New Mexico-Gilbert Gruet Grande Reserve, 2016, Albuquerque, chardonnay.
Oregon-Argyle Extended Tirage Brut, 2010, Dundee, Willamette Valley, chardonnay, pinot noir.
SMOKED SALMON WITH CRÈME FRAICHE & TROUT ROE
Flight 3: EUROPE
England-Chapel Down, Three Graces Brut, 2016, chardonnay, pinot noir, meunier.
Spain-Mas del Serral by Pepe Raventos, cava, NV, xarel-lo, bastard negre.
Italy-Berlucci Brut ’61, Franciacorta, NV, chardonnay, pinot noir.
France-Francis Mikulski, Cremant d’Bourgogne, NV, pinot noir, chardonnay, aligoté.
LAMB RACK WITH POMEGRANATE
Flight 4: Champagne
Laurent Perrier La Cuvee NV, Tours-sur-Marne, chardonnay, pinot noir, meunier double magnum.
Laurent Perrier Grand Siecle NV, chardonnay, pinot noir, meunier.
Louis Roederer Vintage Brut, 1977, Reims, pinot noir.
CHEESE COURSE
Dessert
1980 Gould Vintage Porto, Alto Douro, magnum.
WINTER CITRUS COUPE WITH COCONUT MACAROONS
Next week: People have been asking about my favorite cookbooks of 2022. I’ll be talking about them, along with some upcoming food books I’m sure you’ll find interesting.
What an incredible meal at Lulu! And David Tanis as my chef? Yes, please!
You can write about GRUYÈRE day and night and that won't be quite enough for me! Many thanks . . . .