chili for chile?

All these news reports about Chile have been making me want chili. I know they're unrelated, and that's probably insensitive of me, but they sound the same! Plus, at least it means i'm thinking about the trouble in Chile. It's my equivalent of praying... i'm not religious, so i don't say prayers for people, instead i send my thoughts, and things like that. So last night, we ate chili, inspired by Chile.

Ok, so maybe it's REALLY inspired by Mexico. Regardless of where it originated, chili is a wonderful thing. It comes in so many varieties, and they're all wonderful in their own way. In it's simplest form, chili (or chile) refers to the peppers themselves. A bowl of green chile is basically a bowl full of chopped up stewed green peppers. A bowl of tex mex chili is basically a bowl full of meat stewed in dried chili powders and tomato. MY chili is of my own making, with no specific recipe.

My general plan involves a bit of oil, garlic, onions, bell peppers, sometimes a spicy pepper of some kind, diced tomatoes, at least one can of beans, cumin, and chili powder. And I usually prepare some kind of meat on the side, as simple as browned ground beef, for the husband to mix into his serving. Sometimes i cook it with meat, but usually not. I'm a veggie chili kind of girl (I prefer my meat on a bun with cheese and ketchup). There are many nice things about this dish, one being that it's so easy to prepare, with no real rules, and a fairly short cooking time. Basically i throw everything in a pot (starting with garlic and onions in oil), and let it cook until it's the right consistency, somewhere between 15 and 60 minutes. Flexible, my kind of cooking.

Another good thing about cooking chili is that it always, without fail, makes me feel better. Whether it's mental or physical, wielding a knife, reaping the delicious rewards, and clearing out my head a bit with the spice never fails to improve my status. Mood problem? chop chop chop! Sad? Emotional and guilt free (super healthy!) eating. Sick? Lots of vitamins and sinus clearing.

Last night i tried adding chipotle peppers in adobo to the chili, something i've never cooked with before. I didn't realize that the tiny cans contain more than one WHOLE chipotle pepper! Seeds and all! I wasn't sure what to do, so i tried my best to scrape out the seeds, and chopped up the rest of one pepper, adding it and a couple of teaspoons of sauce to the chili pot. Holy cow what a spicy mess that made on the counter! I wonder what the normal way of using chipotle is? I'd already added a bunch of chili powder to the chili, so i'm not really sure what it would have tasted like using chipotle instead of chili powder, but i did notice that it made the chili much more smoky-sweet than usual. I also used fire-roasted tomatoes instead of regular diced tomatoes, so it's possible that they contributed to the smoky sweet flavor. I'll have to try again using only 1 unknown ingredient! All in all the chili was a sucess, sprinkled with shredded cheese for me, and over rice and meat for the husband. I wish i'd had some corn to throw in, i think that would have made it a more complete bowl of flavors. Still, it made a great burrito for lunch today!