Smokey Southwest Chili with Beans [Update]

The best chili I've made to date. This time I've made a chile puree instead of using chili powder, and added an unexpected ingredient. But it's still my trademark Southwestern-style fresh and smokey chili with organic ground beef, tomato base, and beans. This recipe makes a very large batch.

Ingredients
chile puree
3 dried whole ancho chiles
3 dried whole New Mexico chiles
1 dried whole habanero chile (go for 2 if you want it murderous... you could also use other small dried hot chiles and add fresh habanero with the veg)
1-2 C chicken stock
2 dried whole chipotle chiles in adobo sauce + 1 T sauce

Either toast the dried chile peppers in a pan or heat in a microwave at 15-sec intervals until they are pliable enough to remove the seeds and stems (using rubber gloves!). Place them in a saucepan, cover them with stock, and simmer until they soften and plump up (about 10 minutes). Pour the chiles and stock plus the chipotles and adobo into a blender and puree until smooth.

beef
2.5 lb organic ground beef (grass-feed preferred)
1 t ground coriander
1 t ground cumin
1/2 t cayenne pepper
1/2 t smoked paprika
1/2 t salt & pepper

In a large stock pot on high heat, brown the beef and seasonings. Aim for good caramelization, but no burning. My trick is to pre-heat the pot then put the meat in all at once, leave it for a good few minutes until my nose tells me it's on the edge, then add the seasonings and start to stir it all up.

veg
beef fat from browning
1 green bell pepper, diced
1 red bell pepper, diced
2 large jalapeno peppers, seeded and diced (again, add more or add other hot peppers depending on your spice preference)
1 small yellow onion, diced
1 small red onion, diced
2 small shallots, minced
1 bunch scallions, chopped
4-6 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 t salt & pepper

Carefully remove the beef from the pot, leaving the fat. Saute the vegetables in the beef fat until they are soft.

chili
veg
beef
chile puree
3 15-oz cans kidney beans, drained and rinsed (you can soak and cook your own beans if you want, but I'm lazy)
2 15-oz cans fire roasted diced tomatoes (you can roast your own tomatoes in tomato season)
1 28-oz can crushed tomatoes or tomato puree
1 T ground coriander
1 T ground cumin
1/2 T smoked paprika
2 T fish sauce
salt & pepper to taste

Add the beef back into the pot along with the chile puree and the rest of the ingredients above. Bring to a boil, taste for salt & pepper and adjust accordingly, simmer until ravenous. Serve with shredded cheese, sour cream, and cilantro.

My Best Batch of Chili Yet

No, I will not tell you my secret ingredient! It's a SECRET!

The main difference between this batch of chili and previous ones is that I roasted fresh Roma tomatoes rather than using canned tomatoes. I think it made a huge difference.

Halved tomatoes with stem ends removed

Coat with olive oil, sprinkle with salt & pepper

Post-roast

Prevent juice escape!

White and green onion, red and green bell pepper, and garlic 

Sauté the onions and peppers until soft, then add minced garlic

Brown ground beef with chili powder, cayenne pepper, ground coriander, smoked paprika, and S&P

Remove beef to crock-pot

Purée the roasted tomatoes and grab a big can of beans (because beans are good, dammit!)

Mix everything up in the crock-pot, then before adding a bunch of spicy stuff, set aside a few cups for your mother-in-law (unless you don't like her)

Make a slit in a habanero pepper

Chop up some roasted mystery peppers

Stir it all up and set the crock on low for several hours

Roast tomatoes
Get a bunch of tomatoes. Like, I don't know, 5 pounds or something - enough to fill a sheet pan with halves. Choose whatever variety looks reddest or is organic or whatever. I chose organic Roma tomatoes. Cut them in half and remove the stem ends. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil and lay the halves cut-side up. Lightly coat the tomato halves with olive oil, then sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast at 375°F for about 30 minutes or until the 'maters are soft with dark brown juices seeping out. Be sure to collect all the juices by bringing up the side of the foil. Dump it all into a food processor and purée the shit out of it.

Chili
Dice about 1/2 cup of scallions, 1/2 a medium yellow onion, 1/2 each of a red and green bell pepper. Sauté the onions and peppers in some kind of fat (I happened to use bacon grease since I had just made bacon, and because of that, I didn't add salt). Once those are soft, add a few cloves of minced garlic. Cook that all for another minute, but don't let the garlic brown, much less burn. Remove the vegetables.

In the same skillet, brown 2 pounds of ground beef with a couple of tablespoons of chili powder, a good sprinkling of ground coriander, some cayenne pepper, and a dash of smoked paprika. Salt and pepper it, of course. I used grass-fed beef, part ground chuck and part ground sirloin, and there was very little fat. If there is more than a tablespoon of beef fat, I recommend removing the cooked beef with a slotted spoon so as not to have super-greasy chili.

Mix the vegetables, beef, tomato purée, beans, and more spices if required (I required more chili powder and salt) in a crock-pot or large stew pot and cook on low for several hours. If you want more spice, add a whole habanero with a slit in the side, or some chopped jalapeno or Serrano. If you want deadly chili, chop up a habanero or two. Since I had left over roasted peppers from the pizza I made a few days ago, I chopped up some of them and threw them in. Please be careful with the chili peppers - either wear rubber gloves, coat your hands in oil, or wash your hands really well immediately after handling the peppers, and do not touch your eyes or other sensitive parts!

Serve
When you're about ready to eat the chili, stir in the secret ingredient. I'll give you a hint: it's fresh, green, tart, fragrant, and sweet. Serve with chopped scallion, cilantro, shredded cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, and/or whatever you want.

I swear there's chili under there

NICSA 8: Home Groan

The Something Awful Forums are very special. Very special indeed. There is a sub-forum, Goons With Spoons, which is "dedicated to the discussion of cooking, food, and beverages."

Every so often, GWS "hosts" what is called Iron Chef Something Awful, or ICSA. Slap "Newbie" in front of that and you've got yourself a NICSA, which "differs from ICSA in that it excludes regulars from entering the final poll."

A few months ago, we got a heads up that the next NICSA challenge would be local/home grown. As I'm both a newbie and obsessed with local food, I decided to enter... NICSA 8: Home Groan. My entry, Cafeteria Fraiche, is summarized below.

Smoked trout and smoked bread

Maple-toasted pecans, pickled red onions, smoked figs, mizuna salad, raw milk cheese, and butter

Daube de boeuf with celeriac purée

Persimmon fool with maple whipped raw cream

This food was so good. The smoked trout was so amazing, in fact, that I had a hard time believing I had  actually produced it.