I finally cooked again, and it wasn’t disappointing. I made this chili 3 times before, and it’s the most delicious chili I’ve ever had. Granted, I don’t usually order chili at a restaurant, but out of the few I’ve tasted, nothing could beat this one. This is what I call “crunchy” chili as opposed to “soupy” one. The original recipe is inside the quote and my notes are at the end.
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 onion
pinch of chili flakes
2 garlic cloves, crushed
4 oz mushrooms (1/2 of a container)
1 red bell pepper (or green or any bell pepper available)
1 lb ground beef (lean)
1/2 tsp cumin
14 oz canned tomatoes, crushed and keep the juice
1/4 cup red wine (or beef broth)
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 can of Kidney Bean, rinced under cold water
2 tbsp cilantro, fresh, chopped
Tabasco sauce if desiredFirst I’ve got to tell you that I always buy either lean or extra lean ground beef, even though it’s a bit more expensive then the regular. Just think of all of the fat you pay for when you buy the regular one, in the end it costs the same.
As for the tomatoes, well, a can is usually 19 oz, so just take a little bit out of the can. I usually freeze what I have extra, and put it in a soup.
Always rince any kind of canned bean under cold water, it removes the stuff that makes you get gas. And did you know that the more you eat beans, the less you have problems with gas, you system learns to break it down more easily.
Chop red bell pepper and sliced mushrooms and set aside.
Chop the onion and set aside.
Pour the vegetable oil in a pan and brown, at medium-high heat, the onion with the chili flakes. Add the garlic near the end of the step, it usually takes a few minutes to brown the onion, so put the garlic when the onion starts to look translucent. Garlic tends to burn very easily, and it gets bitter then. Also, for onion (and anything else) to brown properly you can’t stir it all of the time, you have to let it cook a bit and then move it around and let it cook again.
Add mushrooms and bell pepper. Cook for about 3 minutes, until the veggies are tender.
Add ground beef and cumin, and cook, this time stir often, about 5 minutes, until the meat is all cooked.
Add tomatoes, tomato paste, wine (or beef broth), Tabasco sauce (if desired) and kidney beans.
Bring to a boil, reduce heat to low and simmer for about 1/2 hour to 3/4 hour, but the more you let it simmer the better it is.Add the cilantro.
A few things I did differently:
As always, I used shit load of garlic.
I added about 1/4 cup of sliced jalapeño peppers as well as lots Tabasco sauce.
I didn’t put cilantro and chili pepper flakes, but not intentionally. I just forgot to add them.
I used a can of diced tomato because I thought I had crushed tomato at home and didn’t buy one when I went shopping. I found I had a can of diced tomato, so I used it.
I put just a little bit of salt after it’s done.
Today is Saturday, which means that I cooked. This time I cooked something I did a few weeks ago because my virtual teacher hasn’t made any new stovetop dish – my oven is not working and I screwed it up trying to fix it too, so I can only make stovetop recipes until I get a new stove. The reason I chose this one to make again, of course, was because it’s the easiest recipe.
I also made mashed potato to eat with it. My first attempt at mashed potato was a few weeks ago, and I was so surprised that I’ve never had better tasting one than mine!!! Probably because most mashed potatoes I’ve had were instant kind. I could mash it the way I like, too – a little clumpy, not silky smooth.
I didn’t like the way the last recipe post looked with my blue comments all over, so I’m trying the blue on the actual recipe this time.
Ingredients
2 lbs of beef stew meat A package of beef stew meat contains beef cut in cube-like shape if you don’t know what it looks like – it’s a pain if you have to look at the description on every single package, you know.
1/2 cup ketchup I suspect most of you know what ketchup is.
1/2 cup chili sauce I didn’t know what chili sauce was but apparently Heinz makes this thing. I found it right next to Heinz ketchup. No, I don’t work for Heinz.
1/2 cup water Water was the only ingredient I didn’t buy when I made it the first time.
1/2 envelope of onion soup mix I didn’t know there was such thing
1/2 tsp regular yellow mustard I bought the mustard, but when I got home I found out I already had it… from 2 years ago. Is it still good after 2 years in the fridge?
1/4 cup vinegar Just normal vinegar without any color.
Instructions
In a bowl, mix all of the ingredients except the meat and set aside. The first time I made it, I mistakenly put the entire envelope instead of just half, so the teacher had me put more water while it’s cooking because it would have been too salty otherwise. She warned me that the sauce would be soupier because of added water, and it was.
Brown the meat at high heat, like a steak. Only a little bit, you don’t want to cook it all the way through.In other words, browning the meat means just cook the outside of the meat until it’s brown.
***Note: In all the crock pot recipes where you need to cook meat, except with ground meat, it is written in a lot of books that you need to brown the meat first. It helps keep the juice in, and also kind of caramelize the meat a little, like when you cook a steak.
Put the meat in the crock pot, pour the sauce on top and mix well. Cook for 4-1/2 to 5 hours at HIGH. Don’t remove the cover until the end. Whenever I cook something with a cover like this, I’m sooooo tempted to open the cover. I don’t know why but I’m always itching to open the cover and take a peek inside. Does anybody else have the same problem?
Hmmm… I’m not sure if this one looks any better than the last one. Any suggestions?
Serious Stuff. Seriously
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
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