John­ny Cash’s Colum­bo Chili

John­ny Cash’s Chili a la Kristen

1 oz/30g dried porci­ni mushrooms

1 cup/220ml very hot coffee

1 lb / 450g ground/minced veni­son (if avail­able) or ground/minced beef (chuck or sirloin)

1/2 lb / 225g veni­son steaks (if avail­able) or beef steaks, such as sir­loin, or a rump roast, cut into bite-sized pieces

1 large onion, fine­ly chopped

1 and 1/2 cloves of gar­lic, peeled and chopped

1 table­spoon canola/rapeseed oil

24 oz / 680g canned tomatoes

1/2 large red bell pepper

2.5 jalapeño pep­pers (option­al)

1/2 habanero pep­per (option­al)

1 pack­et McCormick’s Mild Chili Sea­son­ing Mix (or your favorite brand)

2 tbsps Pen­zeys Chili 9000 Seasoning

Salt and pepper

1/4 cup / 32g chili pow­der (New Mex­i­co chili pow­der if available)

1/6 cup / 21g cumin

1/2 table­spoon sage

3/4 tea­spoon oregano

1/2 table­spoon cayenne pepper

15 oz / 400g can black beans, drained

15 oz / 400g can pin­to beans, drained

15 oz / 400g can chili beans/kidney beans in chili sauce

12 oz / 340g can kid­ney beans, drained

1/8 cup / 25g sugar

A hand­ful of self-ris­ing cornmeal*

Gar­nish­es (option­al): let­tuce leaves, tor­tilla chips, sour cream, grat­ed ched­dar cheese, cilantro/coriander leaves

In a bowl just large enough to hold the mush­rooms, cov­er them with the hot cof­fee and stir thor­ough­ly.  Leave a spoon on top of the mush­rooms to hold them under the liq­uid.  Leave to rehy­drate for 20 min­utes, then drain, reserv­ing the cof­fee.  Chop the mush­rooms coarse­ly and set aside.

In a large pot, heat the oil over medi­um-high heat. Brown the steak in the oil in batch­es, drain­ing off some of the fat if nec­es­sary. Remove from the heat and set aside. In a sep­a­rate fry­ing pan, brown the ground meat over medi­um-high heat. Drain off the fat and set meat aside.

With the oil remain­ing in the pot, brown half the onions and gar­lic over medi­um heat until they are caramelized. Now add the well-drained ground beef and steak. Stir and heat it all up. Add the cans of toma­toes, the bell pep­pers, hot pep­pers (if using), and the remain­der of the onions and gar­lic. Heat to a brisk sim­mer, stir­ring often.

John Carter Cash says that his dad would nor­mal­ly add the spices in the fol­low­ing order, first the chili pack­et, fol­lowed by some salt and black pep­per, chili pow­der, cumin, sage, oregano, and cayenne pep­per. John advis­es tast­ing the chili and once the spic­ing it is to your lik­ing, drain the cans of beans and add to the mix­ture. Now taste again, as the beans mel­low the fla­vor of the chili. Once the chili is to your taste, add the mush­rooms and the cof­fee. Stir well. Cov­er and sim­mer for at least 30 min­utes, stir­ring occa­sion­al­ly. Add sug­ar to your taste. Sim­mer, cov­ered, for at least anoth­er 30 min­utes, mak­ing sure to stir so the chili does not burn. Now add the corn­meal and stir in.

* If self-ris­ing corn­meal is unavail­able, you can make it your­self. Just com­bine 1 cup / 120g of corn­meal, 1/3 cup / 40g all-pur­pose/­plain flour, 1 & 1/2 tea­spoons of bak­ing pow­der, and 1/2 tea­spoon of salt. Put the left­over mix in a sealed con­tain­er and save for your next batch of John­ny Cash chili.

Serve with desired garnishes.