Chili Stu

I've never made chili before. My approach in this case was pretty much to prepare it as I would stu, but allowing chili-type ingredients to stand in for stu-type ingredients. My figuring of what belongs in chili was based on a combination of my impressions, those of Alec (who was around to help me make this) and a skimming of the ingredients panels on cans of chili and packets of chili flavor powder.

Ingredients:

1.5 lbs	ground hot Italian sausage
1.5 cups (approx)	mixed beans
4	roma tomatoes, cut into chunks
1	red onion, chopped
1 clove	garlic, minced
1 large	potato, cubed
1 can (28 oz)	diced tomatoes in juice
2 tbs	tomato paste
4	dried chiles
2	jalapeño peppers
	crushed red pepper
	chili powder

Procedure:
I elected out of curiosity to start with dry beans rather than canned beans. Supposedly they taste appreciably better. If you use dry beans they take a while to reconstitute so be sure to do so ahead of time. I used about equal parts black beans, pinto beans, and black-eyed peas. I bought some fresh chiles at the farmers' market a few months ago and let them dry but I imagine that you could also buy whole dried chiles.



Brown sausage and (whole) jalapeño peppers. Once the peppers have blackened slightly discard the seeds, dice them, and set them aside. Add the potatoes and cover for several minutes. Once potatoes are soft, add onion, garlic, and jalapeños. At this point your entire kitchen should start to smell pretty amazing.

Add red pepper and chili pepper. Keep in mind that you've got several sources of spice so don't overdo it on any one. Also don't go overboard on the chili powder. It has a very strong flavor and will tend to cover up the subtleties of your other peppers' flavors. Both seasonings should be added continuously in small amounts.



Add diced tomatoes, fresh tomatoes, and beans. Add dried chiles as well (don't crush them!). Cover and keep on high heat. Let all of the flavors seep into each other for about half an hour. Then discard dried chiles and serve. Makes 3 servings on its own, but should probably be paired with bread to serve 4.



Were I to make this again, I would change several things. It turned out very thick, for one thing. I would use at least half again as much tomato since that really makes up the fluid part. I also recommend adding another half onion, chopped very small. And double the potatoes. They were surprisingly good.