craig's recipes

Chili Con Carne

This is a pretty simple classic Chili recipe, but it's one of my favorites. It's originally from Jeff Smith's first cook book, The Frugal Gourmet [amazon.com].

By the way, don't substitute canned beans for the dry ones. The flavor and texture of cooked dried beans is just so much better than those mushy almost flavorless little legume lumps from a can.

If you are interested, I also have a recipe for Vegetarian Cashew Chili.

Recipe by: Jeff Smith, The Frugal Gourmet with some changes and additions by craig Servings: Preparation Time: Categories: Main Dishes, Beans, Ground Beef (hamburger)

Ingredients

1 pound dry beans

 The beans can be red beans, kidney beans,

 black beans (interesting color), pinto, navy,

 lima. I prefer the traditional kidney though.

2 small chopped onions

2 cloves crushed garlic

2 Tablespoons olive oil

1 pound lean ground beef (hamburger)

2 16 ounce cans peeled tomatoes

2 Tablespoons chili powder

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cumin

Preparing the Dish

Cover the beans with plenty of water. Boil for three minutes, then soak overnight. Drain.

Cook the beans in 8 cups of water (or more if necessary) until tender. Most beans take about 1 to 1½ hours. You may need to add water as they cook. Keep enough water on them to keep them covered. After cooking, reserve the liquid, draining the beans.

Sauté onion and garlic in the oil in a Dutch oven. Add the ground beef browning slightly, and breaking up into pieces the size you'd like in your chili.

Add beans and remaining ingredients, simmer 15 minutes. Add some bean liquid and salt if necessary (I always add all of the bean liquid, but you may like your chili to be thicker than I like it).

Garnish with chopped green onions, jalapenos, or shredded cheese, or sour cream.

Serve with Cornbread Muffins.