Potluck: Chocolate Chip Chili

I'm only one week late preparing my potluck recipe but since I'm not officially a member of I Heart Cooking Clubs then who's to know!  For crashing February's potluck, I chose Chocolate Chip Chili from Nigella Lawson's cookbook, Nigella Christmas: Food Family Friends Festivities.  It may be old to everyone else but I've not tried it before.

I turned up Carly Simon (see sidebar) and started chopping. ....and, you say it's time we moved in together, raised a family of our own you and me.....hum, hum, hum.... I halved the recipe for myself.

Ingredients

10 (or 5 linked pairs) chorizo sausages (not the salami sort), approx. 1 1/4 lbs

3 1/4 lb boneless beef shank, cut into 3/4 inch cubes

3 onions (about 1 lb), peeled

3 cloves garlic, peeled

1 fresh long red chile, seeded

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Seeds from 3 cardamom pods

2 teaspoons ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1 teaspoon dried red pepper flakes

1/4 cup tomato paste

1/4 cup tomato ketchup

4 x 15 oz cans red kidney beans, drained

3 x 14 oz cans diced tomatoes

1/4 cup bittersweet chocolate chips

1 cup water (swished out in one of the diced tomato cans)

Instructions:

-Heat the oven to 300 degrees F.

-Finely chop, or process the onion, garlic and chile.

-Heat the oil in a large ovenproof pan (with a lid) or cast-iron or enameled Dutch oven and fry the onion, garlic and chile until soft, on low for about 10 minutes, then add the cardamom sees, cumin, coriander, cinnamon and red pepper flakes.

-Stir the oniony spiced mixture together and then add the chorizo, sliced into 1/4-in. coins, letting them ooze their paprika-orange oil.

My note: Once I allowed the chorizo's paprika-orange oil ooze, I could have stopped right there. In fact, I did taste at this point and it was delicious.  Hum, hum, hum,..You don't have to prove to me that you're beautiful to strangers, I've got loving eyes of my own....hum, hum, hum, you belong to me!...

-Drop in the cubes of beef, turning them in the pan with the chorizo and onion mix, to brown the meat.

-Stir in the tomato paste, ketchup, drained kidney beans and diced tomatoes. Add the water and bring the chili to a boil.

Proof that I added the chocolate chips! 

-Once it's started bubbling, sprinkle the chocolate chips over the chili and give it a good stir. Put on the lid and transfer to the oven.

-Cook at this low heat for 3 hours. Once cooked it is best left overnight to improve the flavor.

Serves 12

Lawson suggested in her interview with NPR that she normally would top the chili with a dollop of guacamole and eat the chili with a baked potato.  I passed on the potato. For guacamole, I used a preprepared guacamole and freshened it up with one ripe avocado cut in chunks for texture, a few splashes of fresh lime, and cilantro. ...hum, hum, hum...And I know what I think I've known all along, Lovin' you's the right thing to do....

Finished product. Yes, I'm aware I put this in a cappuccino cup but I was going to eat on the sofa while I watched a movie and I thought it would be easier to eat. I watched "Everybody's Fine" starring Robert DeNiro, Drew Barrymore, Kate Beckinsale, and Sam Rockwell.  It was a good Saturday night movie. The chili was very good, but not great. The chocolate added "real depth and a velvety savoriness", as Nigella stated.

The apartment smells wonderful, the movie was a good story, and the chili is a keeper, if only for the novelty of the chocolate chips. From outside my apartment, to all a good night.... I know nothing stays the same, But if you're willing to play the game, It's coming around again, So don't mind if I fall apart, There's more room in a broken heart....Carly Simon