chocolate chili with homemade polenta crisps

Consider yourself warned: my inner foodie snoot may rear her ugly head in this post; I’ll try and keep her at bay but she’s a fierce bitch when she wants to be unleashed so just ignore her puzza sotto il naso banter. 

I don’t typically participate in hyper-American activities such as super bowl parties.  What’s so super about it besides the billion-dollar commercials advertising products you’ll rarely find in my kitchen, anyway? I know, I know, there are countless hundreds of you who will argue with me ‘til you’re blue in the face about the merits of the game diminutively referred to by the rest of the planet as “American football.”  I prefer proper football myself, and have been justly rewarded by the fact that Seattle now proudly boasts a football franchise known as the Seattle Sounders Football Club.  The games are not quite up to the snuff of Juventus games back in the motherland, but give us trailblazing pioneers a few years and we’ll elevate the Americas to global standards. 

piloncillo cane sugar boiling down for chili

That being said, as most of you know this super bowl is historic for good reason. The New Orleans Saints have not been to the super bowl, and this is a success story most of our country wants to get behind, football or no football.  It’s as if the Saints embody the phoenix rising from the ashes of Katrina and for the first time since the disaster the city is rallying with the fervor of its original spirit.  It’s an infectious spirit, since the rest of the country seems to have caught it as well.  I couldn’t just blatantly ignore it and attend super bowl deep discount shopping events all day, so I decided to buck up, rsvp to a super bowl party and make something worthy of the occasion: chocolate chili over polenta crisps.  Not sure what that means? In layman’s terms, frito pie.  If you’re still not sure what that is you’re probably a Northerner or from outside the boundaries of our fair country, so let me break it down.  You put some fritos in a bowl, smother them in chili and top the whole shebang with a generous lot of shredded cheese. 

shredded bottom round

In my case I’ll use homemade fritos- I came across a recipe last week for them and decided it would be a fun thing to try.  Since they’re made from cornmeal and baked in the oven they’re fairly healthy, so I’ve dubbed them polenta crisps.  Never one to follow the tenets of a recipe to the letter, I always welcome the chance to make chili since it’s such a footloose and fancy-free endeavor. A little bit of this and a dash of that seems to work better for the final flavor than a careful hand at measuring cumin just so and Worcestershire by the milli-teaspoon.  In this case I had a bunch of solidified chocolate in the fridge leftover from a cake experiment last week wherein I melted entirely too much, so I decided chocolate chili was the order of the day.  Well, two days really, because you do want your chili to ruminate long enough that the flavors develop, so an overnight soak in the crockpot tends to be your best bet.  Even before that you will want to soak and boil dry kidney beans.  I always use dry beans since they retain their texture so much better than the canned mush equivalents.  It’s imperative to soak kidneys overnight then boil them as they emit a gas that will upset stomachs unless you properly soak it out of them and then boil it off.  At that point they’re ready to be thrown into the chili mix and won’t harm a fly. 

homemade fritos waiting for oven

This frito pie recipe transcends season, by the way, so feel free to serve it year-round to a hungry crowd.  In the summer you can throw in fresh tomatoes instead of canned crushed ones, plus all your herbs will be nice and perky and ready for a chili bath.  My only advice is to go with your gut, use a loose ratio of 4 pounds of bottom round to 4 cups soaked kidneys, 2 large cans of crushed tomatoes, and two cups stock, cola or water. Then close your eyes and add chocolate, chipotle in adobo, cumin, cinnamon, Worcestershire, liquid smoke, clove, garlic, onion, and whatever else your heart desires. I like to sweeten it up with piloncillo which is a Mexican cane sugar that must be boiled down in water to dissolve. It’s not too sweet and adds just the right hint of delicacy to the flavor.  Do whatever you do with love and a steady hand and your chili will be amazing. 

polenta crisp topped with chocolate chili

The homemade polenta crisps take a modicum of precision- here’s the recipe I’m using, enjoy!

INGREDIENTS
1/2 cup organic, non-GMO yellow cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup boiling water
1 teaspoon olive oil
1. Preheat oven to 450F degrees.
2. Combine cornmeal and salt in a mixing bowl. Pour in boiling water and stir, add olive oil, and stir until well blended.
3. Drop mixture by heaping teaspoonfuls onto a well-greased baking sheet and press each one with the bottom of a glass. Bake for 12 to 15 minutes or until golden brown.
Makes approximately 3 dozen chips.

Recipe reprinted from this NPR post.