Texas Comfort Food: Payson's Papa's Chili
My friend Payson is a good ol' boy. He actually did most of his growing up in Michigan, but his daddy's Texan roots sent off some shoots that pulled Payson back to Dallas when he started getting a hankerin' to settle down.
It makes me laugh that I'm even using words like ol' and hankerin' because Payson hardly fits the stereotype. I don't think I've ever even seen him in a cowboy hat, although I think he owns one. He has low-key but impeccable taste, a closet full of Ralph Lauren and really only starts sounding like he's from the Lone Star state when he gets a few glasses of Merlot in him. But somehow, even in the years when he lived in Seattle (which is how we met), or all the years between him leaving Seattle and settling in Dallas, I always thought of him as a Texan.
It may owe in large part to this recipe, which his daddy always made for the family and which he passed on as if he were handing me a sacred treasure. I have fond memories of this chili. Way back in the day, we lived in the same apartment building and were both being paid far too little for the work we did. He'd make a big pot of this chili and eat it for a week. Sometimes he'd invite me over for a bowl, which we'd eat with coleslaw and buttered bagels, 'cause that's the way his family always enjoyed it.
Myself, I like to stick to the more traditional grated cheddar, chopped onions and maybe a little sour cream, but either way, it's a mighty fine meal.
Payson's Papa’s Chili
vegetable oil
1 large green pepper, diced
2 medium onions, diced
1# top round steak, diced
3-4 T. chili powder
2-4 c. cooked chili beans
1-28 oz. can tomatoes
1 can tomato sauce
Heat a large skillet over medium high heat. Add oil. Saute the pepper and onion until onion is translucent.
Add the steak to the vegetables and stir until meat has browned.
Add in the chili powder, beans, tomatoes and tomato sauce. Add a pinch of salt.
Cook over low heat a minimum of 2 hours on stove top or overnight in a crock pot.
Adjust seasoning with salt & pepper to taste.
2 comments:
How much are you getting paid by a major corporation to work for this website?
Because I think it's superfantastic. And I think that you, and whoever drew that picture in your banner must be getting paid by someone.
This is SO not the kind of stuff that someone would be doing for free.
Where should I send my money?
JP, you are so superfantastically adorable that I don't even know what to do with you. Make you some fried okra, perhaps.
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