Nearly World Famous Gordon Chili

Towards the end of last week, with the Super Bowl coming up, the House of Gordon set about to concoct their enormous vat of chili for consumption during the big game (and throughout the entirety of the following week also). It is a great undertaking, with heady culinary skills needed to successfully navigate through to the delicious finished product. To record our latest batch for posterity and the historical record, Chris occasionally paused to put down the kitchen utensils and snap a few photos; with Kimberly shaking her head in amazement after each flash of the camera.

Gordon Chili is a voluminous hodgepodge of ingredients culled from Martha Stewart, Williams-Sonoma, and plain old trial-and-error. Here's the picture diary of our chili extravaganza.

1 pound of beans and 5 pounds of ground beef:


18 roma tomatoes, 7 vidalia onions, and 1 garlic bulb:











And, depending on local grocery stock (Harris Teeter, The Fresh Market, Lowe's Foods) the chile ingredients seem to change year to year: mulatto, ancho, poblano, anaheim, serrano, holland, etc. Various adjustments and modulations occur with each creation, leaving us wondering just how in the hell our chili will turn out in the end:

Tomatoes are charred in the pan. Quartered onions and garlic follow. Once cooled, the tomatoes are peeled and cored. Onions and garlic join the tomato flesh in the blender to be pureed.

And now, respiratory system danger ensues. The chiles are smoked in the pan. (The same pan is used throughout to meld all flavors into each other.) The first time we smoked the chiles, Kimberly mistakenly missed the warnings in Martha Stewart Living to provide adequate ventilation to the proceedings. A minute or so into the inaugural chile smoking, Chris's eyes well up and violent coughing erupts. Now we know, and the windows are open and the stove exhaust fan blows. The culprits:

The chiles steep in a broth/water/beer mixture for 5 minutes as the tomato/onion/garlic puree waits. Then the chiles get blended also...albeit in portions, as doing the entire volume overtakes the blender's lid with chile remnants staining the cupboards and ceiling.

The beef is browned. 1/3 is done in the bottom of the mammoth pot and 1/3 in the same pan we've been using all along. Puree, tons of spices (2 cups of chili powder (!), cumin, oregano, coriander, etc.), and the pan-browned meat are all added to the pot. The final 1/3 is browned in the pan again and mixed in. Chocolate chips are sprinkled in (a good handful more when Kimberly isn't looking) and a healthy dose of ground cinnamon finishes it off.

It simmers. And simmers. And simmers. It absolutely CANNOT be consumed that day. It needs to sit. It needs to meld. It needs to coalesce. We cooked this up Friday for the Sunday game. It's worth the wait.

A scrumptious recipe of brown sugar cornbread is baked up the day of the game; a perfect accompaniment to our chili. Just the right amount of sweet to compliment the spicy.

Gametime, and the entire package is ready to go. A dollop of sour cream, a sprinkling of shredded cheddar cheese, and a hoppy India Pale Ale like Bell's Brewery "Two Hearted Ale" fits the bill to wash it all down. Another successful Gordon chili endeavor.