Ayurvedic Chili

The secret is in marinating the ground beef. You want a strong marinade that will let Mr. Cow keep giving something to Ms. Chili Sauce during the time they spend with each other through fire (stove) and ice (refrigerator). Of course, Ms. Chili Sauce should give back, and we'll set that up too. You want complementary tastes that play off each other.

Marinate for an hour:
About a pound of ground beef - soy sauce, Chinese black vinegar, Dijon mustard, sesame oil, red chili powder, piloncillo or jaggery, fresh lime juice, shot of brandy, cumin, coriander powder, turmeric, garlic salt and black pepper.

Slow fry two medium onions diced with one head of crushed garlic cloves (minus the skins), with 1/2 C diced ginger and about 6 jalapeno peppers. Add beef and brown. In a separate pot, stir fry 2 celery stalks diced, and one green bell pepper. Cut a lime in half and squeeze juice in, then toss both halves into the pot, and cover.

When beef is browned add 1 Tb Mole paste with half can of tomato sauce and the celery bell pepper mix (minus the limes). Mix well, then add the rest of the can of tomato sauce. Add 2 Tb chili powder. Add a cup of water, stir and simmer for 1 hour. Mole paste is quite complex - containing as it does chocolate, nuts (almonds) , seeds (pumpkin and sesame), holiday spices (cloves, cinammon), not to mention a full suite of chiles, raisins, oregano, peppercorns, and a partridge in a pear tree. The vegetable fat spice ball meets the animal fat spice ball.

I serve this with coconut-lime-raisin-chili brown rice. This works well with the chili, playing four harmonizing notes: nutty, sour, sweet, pungent to the chili's sweet, hot, pungent, salty ...

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