Chili Con Buffalo

Hiya folks

Got a recipe here for some Buffalo chili that Becky and I whipped up the other day. It was so tasty I figured I'd share it even though it's not related to Thanksgiving. It's pretty easy to make but you may want to cut down on the amounts used for ingredients. We cooked a huge batch so there would be leftovers.


Ingredients:

3 red bell peppers
3 jalapeno peppers
olive oil
1 large white onion
1 large red onion
6-8 cloves of garlic
dried sage
2 lbs ground buffalo
salt
pepper
sage
1/2-3/4 cup red wine
2 cans of whole foods kidney beans
1 can of whole foods white beans
2 cans diced tomatoes
cumin
salt
pepper
paprika
chili powder or habanero sauce


To start fire up the oven to 350

Slather all 6 peppers with olive oil and put them on a baking sheet in the oven. Roast until they are squishy and parts of the skin are brown.

Meanwhile, coarsely chop the onions and put in a large saute pan with a decent amount of olive oil. After a minute or two (or if you're like me when you're done chopping it) toss in the garlic. Wait until the onions and garlic are almost completely browned and put in some dried sage. I used 3 or 4 dried leaves from the plant in the back yard. A couple teaspoons or even a tablespoon would be sufficient I think but I like the taste of sage, especially with buffalo.

Once the onions and garlic are nicely caramelized dump in the buffalo and start breaking it into small chunks, stirring frequently. When the meat starts to brown dump in the red wine in order to keep some moisture in the pan. The meat should have some contact with the onion, garlic mixture before the wine is added so it can absorb some of those flavors, at least that's the thought. After the wine is in the pan add about a teaspoon of salt and fresh ground black pepper. Stir until fully browned then turn down the heat to low and cover the pan.

The peppers should be finished by this point so pull them out of the oven and deskin. I find this easiest to do under a slow trickle of warm water. The peppers should be tender enough to easily tear apart but not disintegrating. Get rid of the skins, the stem, and the seeds then mince the peppers and add them to the meat.

Put the beans and the tomatoes in a large pot and turn to medium high heat. Immediately add the meat to the pot and allow to simmer. There are two schools of thought here, first is to not drain the beans and tomatoes and second is to drain the beans but not the tomatoes. When making this recently we followed method one, no draining. The chili was overly wet and we had to boil the whole mess for 10 minutes to reduce the liquid. I think this may have had the effect of really boiling all the tasty flavors together but I don't know as I've yet to try method two.

Stir the chili to combine the ingredients and allow to simmer for 10 to 15 minutes. Add cumin until you can taste it. I know this is inexact but I'd say it was a tablespoon, maybe more. Add salt and pepper to taste, tho' beware as the chili is hot and if you're me you'll burn your tongue. Almost a tablespoon of salt might be a reasonable measure for how much I put in. Several teaspoons of paprika to give a bit of spice and that chili color that we expect. More sage can be added at this stage as well. For heat some chili powder or habanero sauce can be used. Tabasco is frowned upon because of the vinegar taste that it brings (plus it's cayenne). I bought a bottle of Hula Girl at the Alien Fresh Jerky store in Baker, CA and used two healthy dashes of that to make a decently spicy chili. Since I know not everyone loves the spicy food like me I'll leave that part of the flavoring up to the cook.

Hope you enjoy.