Each Labor Day, my mom would make a huge canning kettle full of her signature chili, what we didn’t eat, she’d freeze and we’d have it throughout the year. When I had my own place, I began making what I called an “annual vat of chili”, I’d gorge then freeze to have in the coming winter. I liked a more sweet chili, rather than spicy, so I put in more tomato paste than normal, chili powder and no chilis, lots of beans, tomato sauce. This was the good life.
Fast forward a few decades and now I find myself living with food allergies, gluten allergies, IBS and Rosacea. The past few years I haven’t made my annual ‘vat of chili’, due to the bloat, pain and rashes involved. The pain just was not worth facing to have a few bowls.
This year, I decided to experiment with an IBS and Rosacea friendly chili. Instead of tomato sauce, I’m using red pepper soup (with just a hint of tomato soup–the pain should not be great), and will process two jars of red peppers with liquid. No beans, due to the IBS, no rice to pour over due to gluten allergy. This will be a 3-meat chili with beef (just to add flavor-otherwise a no-no), chicken and pork. You can see above where I have the meat marinating in red wine and taco seasoning (no chili available).
I’ll start simmering tomorrow, have a test-bowl then eat to my heart’s content on Labor Day!
Brick ONeil 