Recipe: Gilroy Super Garlic Chili

CALIFORNIA: GILROY SUPER GARLIC CHILI
Source: Chili Nation by Jane Stern and Michael Stern

The small town of Gilroy, California, is the Garlic Growing Capital of the World, producing hundreds of thousands of tons of aromatic bulbs every year. The fertile farmland east of Monterey Bay also yields bountiful crops of tomatoes, onions, and peppers; so when local produce is harvested and processed, the air smells like an Italian food festival. Humorist Will Rogers once declared Gilroy "the only town in America where you can marinate a steak just by hanging it out on the clothesline."

To celebrate its status as Garlic Central, Gilroy initiated an outrageous food festival in August 1979 devoted to eating, cooking, and otherwise admiring the world's best-known vampire repellent. Among the recipes entered in the 1980 cooking contest was an intriguing one from Wesley L. Minor of Seal Beach, California, for Green Garlic Chili. We came across it in the locally published Garlic Lovers' Cookbook, an entire volume devoted to things you can make using the stinking rose: from garlic soup to garlic pudding for dessert.

What we like about Mr. Minor's chili is its use of whole garlic cloves, a technique reminiscent of James Beard's famous recipe for Chicken with 40 Cloves of Garlic. Cooked long and slow in olive oil, the garlic cloves lose their bite, soften, and become the chile peppers' amiable companions. The original recipe calls for fresh green chiles as well as green tomatoes. Over the years, we've modified the formula quite a bit. Because we can't always get fresh chiles, we use dried ones--fairly mild California chiles work best in this recipe--and we started using canned tomatillos when we couldn't find green tomatoes.

This chili has enough of a punch that you don't want to serve anything elaborate on the side. We like it best in a bowl with a few boiled potatoes or white rice, or with lengths of sturdy French bread for mopping sauce and using as a bed for the whole cloves of garlic retrieved from the bowl.

6 dried California chiles
1 (28-ounce) can tomatillos, drained
1/2 cup olive oil
3 large garlic bulbs, separated into cloves (40 to 50 cloves)
1/2 cup chopped onions
2 pounds chuck roast, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 large tomato, skinned and diced
1 cup chopped fresh basil

Place the chiles in a large heatproof bowl and cover with boiling water. Let stand 30 minutes, until soft; then seed and stem them.

In a food processor or blender, process or puree the chiles and tomatillos. Set aside.

Heat the oil in a heavy skillet. Peel the garlic cloves and saute them until they are soft and just barely begin to brown.

Add the onions and cook until soft.

Add the beef, salt, and pepper, stirring to brown the beef on all sides. Pour off the excess fat.

Add the chile puree and the tomato. Stir in the basil and simmer uncovered 30 minutes, stirring often.