Halloween Chili

A recipe to feed a crowd

If you like the crisp edges of lasagne, the soaked croutons, the whipped cream that gets icy around the chocolate scoop - you’re in the right place.

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Hi folks! Every Halloween, we open our doors to friends and neighbors offering a refuge from the candy-fueled street parades of Park Slope. Weary, scared, and strung-out crocodiles, ghosts, and ghouls make their way to our cauldron of chili to be restored.

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Halloween Chili

A bowl of chili can calm nerves whether or not you’ve OD’d on Nerds, and this one is famously settling. It doesn’t require any unusual ingredients but guides you to develop depth and breadth of flavor rarely lavished on humble chili.

Begin by devoting yourself to the base: sweat, then sweeten the onions and peppers until they become jam. This takes time and attention. Then, after you’ve done the usual—added the spices, cooked the beef for ages, and stirred in the beans—finish the chili with a bruised sprig of rosemary and a dash of balsamic vinegar for fragrance and lift.

This recipe scales easily and is best made in large batches that justify the time you’ll spend on the base. On Halloween, I serve it with orange sweet potatoes—pricked, roasted whole, then scooped out of their skins and mashed. When I’m not after a black-and-orange color story, I serve it with basmati rice.

Serves 6

6 tablespoons olive oil

5 pieces (~1.5 pounds, 700 grams) yellow or white onion, diced

6 pieces (~2 pounds, 900 grams) red bell peppers, diced

2 tablespoons Kosher salt

8 garlic cloves, minced

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1 tablespoon sweet paprika

1 tablespoon smoked paprika

3 bay leaves

1 fresh chili (optional)

2 pounds ground beef

2 (15 ounce) cans beans of your choice, drained and rinsed

Balsamic vinegar, to taste

1 sprig rosemary

Pour 4 tablespoons of olive oil into a heavy-bottomed pot, then add the onions, peppers, and salt. Sweat over medium heat with the lid on until everything is soft and wet, about 20 minutes. Then remove the lid, turn up the heat, and cook, stirring regularly, until the vegetables become sticky and sweet, about 20 more minutes. Don’t rush this.

Nudge the veg to one side of the pot, add two tablespoons of olive oil to the cleared space, and then add the garlic, cumin, both paprikas, bay leaf, and chili. Let this bubble in the oil until the garlic becomes sticky, about 2 minutes, before stirring it through the onions and peppers.

Add the beef, breaking it up with a spoon and combining it with the base. Stir and cook until the beef turns gray, about 10 minutes. Add 3 cups, 750 milliliters, of water to the pot, and simmer over medium heat until the beef is completely tender and gleaming with a layer of paprika-stained tallow, about 90 minutes.

Add the beans and just enough water to re-incorporate the separated fat and make the chili sloppy, 1/4-1/2 cup. Continue to simmer until the beans taste like they were cooked with everything else, about 20 minutes.

Season with a dash of balsamic vinegar and bruise and bury the sprig of rosemary in the chili. Taste and smile.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

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