Black Bean Chili

Ingredients

• 1 lb dried black beans
• 10 oz sausage
• 2 yellow onions, ¾ inch dice (approximately 1 lb)
• 6 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 can of whole plum tomatoes (Mine were San Marzano)
• 5 cups chicken, beef or vegetable stock (I used chicken)
• 4 dried chipotle chilies
• 4 dried guajillo chilies
• 1 1/2 tsp ground mustard
• 1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, ground
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• 1 tbsp tomato paste

Preparation

1. Pick over the dried beans and soak them in 8 cups of filtered water overnight (I am being picky with the filtered water. In my opinion, however, it is important to use the same water you drink for most cooking applications.)
2. Open the can of tomatoes and use your fingers to crush the tomatoes. They do not have to be a perfectly smooth consistency, just broken up.
3. Create the chili base by putting the tomatoes, their liquid and the 5 cups of stock in a large saucepan. Start to warm it up. If your tomato can is unlined, you may want to put the contents of the can in first and simmer it for a few minutes. I do this to cook off the aluminum taste. You can actually smell it cooking off. This also works for canned pumpkin, etc. Simmer for 5 minutes or so, and then add the stock.
4. Put the sausage in a skillet and brown it, breaking up into smaller pieces as you go. The size of the pieces is up to your preference. With 10 oz of sausage, it would be best to do small chunks in order to better spread it out in the chili.
5. Cut the stems off the chilies and shake out most of the seeds. Grind them and add the powder to the base. I use a coffee grinder. I grind them until they are pulverized, but not too fine. It is OK to have a lumpy, non-uniform texture. I try not to make it too fine, as I do not want to be breathing the particles for the next few hours. If you are not used to chili powder wafting around your kitchen, you may want to skip this step and use pre ground powder. Probably 3 tbsp would be the equivalent, but I do not know. If you have another method for grinding chilies, use that.
6. Dump the rest of the spices in the base. Keep warming it, but the goal is not to get it to a boil or even a simmer. Just get it warm so that the slow cooker is not starting out cold. I find it easier to mix powdered spices in a liquid rather than dumping them into the crock at the last minute. This is totally my thing, and is not required for success. If the liquid does come to a boil or simmer, it is not a big deal, I am just trying to stress that the temperature of the base before it goes into the crock is completely unimportant, just warm it a bit.
7. When the sausage is done, remove it from the pan using a slotted spoon. You can just dump it in the base if you want, or reserve it for a little bit. If you want to taste the base before putting the beans in, you may want to reserve it, because it may not be cooked all the way through.
8. Remove most of the fat from the pan, leaving 1½ tbsp or so, and sauté the onions and garlic until the onion is translucent. If you choose to not use the pork fat at all, use a different skillet and 2 tbsp of olive oil instead.
9. Rinse the beans, put them in the bottom of the slow cooker and then add the onions and garlic. Pour the base over the beans (funny phrasing) and add the sausage if you left it out. Stir it up and set the slow cooker for 8 hours on high.
10. Do not put salt in for the cooking. Add it before serving. If you want, put the chili in a pot, season it and simmer for 10-30 minutes while dinner is coming together. You could also just salt it in the slow cooker when the time hits 7 hours, 30 minutes
    

Notes

• This was pretty darn good.
• Next time, I will just do the beans, water and bay leaves in the slow cooker, and do everything else separately. I can put the sauce aside, and combine the two before serving. It would probably be best to let them simmer on the stove for a half hour while I am setting the table, etc. I could add the sausage to the beans, too, to give them a bit of flavor.