Winter Chili

[pantryslut]

This is chili in the generic Midwestern (Illinois/Michigan) tradition.

Summer Chili (which is actually more like Autumn Chili) would have vegetables in it: corn, zucchini, bell peppers. Winter Chili *could* -- frozen corn, maybe, or winter squash, or even sweet potato, or any combination thereof. But this batch didn't, and didn't miss them.

You could add bacon, too, but we're out :(

Quantities are flexible. This is what I did last night, and wanted to preserve for posterity, because man, is this stuff good.

1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 pound ground beef
3 tablespoons chili powder
1 teaspoon Mexican oregano (eta: dried)
dashes of cumin, cinnamon, powdered chilies
1 cup beer
1 28-oz can whole tomatoes and their juice
1 tablespoon tomato paste
1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
2 cups cooked beans (I used fancy heirloom tepary beans b/c I had them, but just about anything in the pinto/red bean/black bean spectrum is fine here, including canned, as long as it holds its shape)
salt


Saute the onion and garlic until soft. Add the beef and cook until its no longer pink. Add the chili powder and other spices and cook for 30 seconds longer. Add the beer, tomatoes and tomato paste, and Worcestershire sauce. Break the tomatoes up with the back of a spoon and simmer until thickened, about 30 minutes to an hour. Stir in the beans, salt to taste, cook another ten minutes or so.

Serve topped with a lot of grated cheese, minced onion if you like it (I don't), and cornbread and/or saltine crackers or oyster crackers. Plus sour cream if the spicy heat is too much.

Comments

[kalmn.livejournal.com]

if a person lives in minnesota, which spices should be reduced in case of spiceosity?

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I would skip the dashes of powdered chilis, and choose a mild chili powder.

[tyrannio.livejournal.com]

Is the Mexican oregano fresh, or dried? (innerdoggie puts fresh Mediterranean oregano in the chili, and I'd measure that with some sort of linear measure, not volume.)

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

Dried, 'cuz it's winter (and b/c I don't have an oregano plant on my porch).

[elmocho.livejournal.com]

If I have bacon to cook with, I usually cook it until it's crisp, then pour off all but a spoonful of fat and then cook the veggies in the fat and cracklings. The bacon returns about before you add the tomatoes.

Any particular type of beer?

[elmocho.livejournal.com]

Comment fail. Whoops. Too hungry to type!

[pantryslut.livejournal.com]

I used Franziskaner this time, and I would tend to favor light brown ales just because of my own tastes, but I wouldn't hesitate to use just about any beer available.