Recipe o’ the Week: Black Bean Steak Chili

So I’m going to try to post a new recipe each week.  These will, for the most part, be originals, although, when the occasion arises that I post someone else’s recipe I will of course give proper credit.  So, if I don’t give someone else the credit, you can safely assume it’s mine!  

Thursday night, is chili/soup night at the Walls residence, and tonight I decided to throw in a few twists on a traditional recipe.  First off, I will say, that I rarely measure my ingredients, so I apologize in advance to you precision chefs.  I’m just not that disciplined.  I also like to use fresh ingredients when I can, but it is winter in St. Louis, so you will need to cut me some slack in that arena tonight!  

What you will need:

1 lb. dry black beans

2 lbs. beef sirloin tri-tip steak cubed

14.5 ounce can diced tomatoes

2 cloves garlic

onion powder

cumin

Mexican chili powder

salt

optional garnishes -- shredded cheddar cheese, sour cream, rice, lime juice

The first thing I did was make my black beans.  I usually make my beans in a crock pot, but in the interest of time, today I boiled them for an hour with 2 cloves of garlic first.  I like to cut the cloves in half just to release the flavor.  Then I transferred the beans over to a crock pot (set on high) and added the steak.  I waited to add the tomatoes, but, in retrospect, it would have saved more time to add them at the same time as the steak.  Since I always season my food to taste, I added the spices about an hour before serving the chili to give them some time to simmer.  (I can see how it would be to my advantage to have exact measurements for the spices because I could just place all the ingredients in the crock pot at once in the beginning.  But I can’t exactly season to taste when there is raw meat in the mix!    However, adding the spices in an hour before serving worked out just fine.)  The chili simmered in the crock pot for about three hours.  But then we had to eat it.  And it was delicious.  Harry said it was one of the best meals I’d ever made.  But then again, he says that a lot!  

About the garnishes.  We mexicans like to garnish our soups with mexican rice, a squeeze (or two or fifteen) of lime juice, and chopped onion.  I don’t think the chopped onion would go well here, but the lime juice and rice were fantastic!  Of course, I do have my own recipe for the rice which I will share soon.  Maybe tomorrow night?  

Notes:  You could use canned black beans instead of making your own.  If you wanted to make the chili in the crock pot, I would remember to add enough water to cover all of your ingredients.  You’ll have a lot less water if you use canned beans.  Also, it is hard to over season with chili.  You could easily put in a 1/4 tsp of each spice at the beginning and still season to taste at the end.  If you followed both of these suggestions, you could  throw all of your ingredients into the crock pot at the beginning of the day, set it on low and come home to a delicious chili dinner at the end of the day!