Chili is one of the most fun things to cook, because every person, and every "ethnic" area has its own versions of what is "chili", and what is it supposed to look and taste like.
Okay, I'm from Canada, and we probably to it a lot different from the American Southwest, and seldom get involved in the famous chili cookoffs, let alone win any, but lets be real, and think about coming home from work, and making dinner thats good, and go from there (and in so doing, forgive me the "heresies" I am about to record!)
Start with a cast frying pan and about 1.5 lbs of regular ground beef, and cook, slowly, shaking the meat apart
(Variations: a pound of Stewing beef; cubed sirloin, a quarter pound of ground lamb, or moose, or deer, more if you like it stronger tasting for meat)(added to the basic ground meat)
Drain the meat when cooked, and evacuate it to a large stewing pot...add Chili Powder to taste, and Tex Mex seasoning from ClubHouse...
Reducing heat to a simmer+, add 16 oz of Classico Sicilia Roasted Red Pepper Spaghetti Sauce, and at least one can of tomato paste, mixing well...
One large yellow onion, diced
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
one twelve ounce can of drained red kidney beans
2 stalks of celery, sliced very finely
(keep stirring as you go!)
A green pepper (sweet) or red pepper (also sweet) hulled, cored, seeded, and diced...
(Variations: I like the texture of the sweet pepper in the chili, but will typically add 2 jalopeno's, VERY finely chopped, with the seeds and ribs removed, and, well, we call them "Hot Cherry Peppers" here, but 6-8 of them, again hulled deveined and seeded, cut in halves or thirds...if I was going to make it "hot" I'd take two haleberno's, and core, devein and de-seed, place in a mesh bag and fish it through, stirring it around for ten minutes then pull them out and discard them)...
I don't have a crock pot, which is a pity, as the longer this stews together, the better it seems to get, but I'd serve this after cooking about an hour on the low heat, covered...
To accompany it, some fresh sourdough buns with margerine and kosher dill pickles...
Obviously, this is a "rough guide" and you have to keep tasting as you go to keep a balance to it; I like the sweet pepper to be a bit crisper than this recounting would seem to suggest, but the onions fully cooked out and the celery somewhere in between...
I must reflect that this is one of the "healthier" recipes when you think about protein, dietary fibre and "traces"...but I would certainly be interested in the comments that might come back...
Lifter
Okay, I'm from Canada, and we probably to it a lot different from the American Southwest, and seldom get involved in the famous chili cookoffs, let alone win any, but lets be real, and think about coming home from work, and making dinner thats good, and go from there (and in so doing, forgive me the "heresies" I am about to record!)
Start with a cast frying pan and about 1.5 lbs of regular ground beef, and cook, slowly, shaking the meat apart
(Variations: a pound of Stewing beef; cubed sirloin, a quarter pound of ground lamb, or moose, or deer, more if you like it stronger tasting for meat)(added to the basic ground meat)
Drain the meat when cooked, and evacuate it to a large stewing pot...add Chili Powder to taste, and Tex Mex seasoning from ClubHouse...
Reducing heat to a simmer+, add 16 oz of Classico Sicilia Roasted Red Pepper Spaghetti Sauce, and at least one can of tomato paste, mixing well...
One large yellow onion, diced
3 tablespoons chopped garlic
one twelve ounce can of drained red kidney beans
2 stalks of celery, sliced very finely
(keep stirring as you go!)
A green pepper (sweet) or red pepper (also sweet) hulled, cored, seeded, and diced...
(Variations: I like the texture of the sweet pepper in the chili, but will typically add 2 jalopeno's, VERY finely chopped, with the seeds and ribs removed, and, well, we call them "Hot Cherry Peppers" here, but 6-8 of them, again hulled deveined and seeded, cut in halves or thirds...if I was going to make it "hot" I'd take two haleberno's, and core, devein and de-seed, place in a mesh bag and fish it through, stirring it around for ten minutes then pull them out and discard them)...
I don't have a crock pot, which is a pity, as the longer this stews together, the better it seems to get, but I'd serve this after cooking about an hour on the low heat, covered...
To accompany it, some fresh sourdough buns with margerine and kosher dill pickles...
Obviously, this is a "rough guide" and you have to keep tasting as you go to keep a balance to it; I like the sweet pepper to be a bit crisper than this recounting would seem to suggest, but the onions fully cooked out and the celery somewhere in between...
I must reflect that this is one of the "healthier" recipes when you think about protein, dietary fibre and "traces"...but I would certainly be interested in the comments that might come back...
Lifter