Chili con carne

Everyone likes chili con carne – well except if you are vegetarian. In general it is a great dish if you have some capsicum, chili, stalks of celery or older tomatoes that need to be used. When cooked – it doesn’t matter if they were wrinkled. The following is a recipe where the spices are the most important ingredients. The rest you can alter as you wish. Here is the last one, I did.

Ingredients:

500 g ground beef

1/2 big red capsicum

1 green capsicum

a few smaller celery stalks – quite dry. It was the core stalks that tend to be a bit more bitter than the outer stalks but it doesn’t matter when cooking in a stew or like here, in a chili con carne. I added an extra fresh mainly as I did not have quite enough in the small ones. Usually, I would use 3 fresh ones.

A handful of old tomatoes – various kinds

3 diced small red hot chili peppers (If still not spicy enough, you might want to add some extra flakes on the individual servings)

3 cloves of minced or super finely chopped garlic

2 1/2 diced onion

1 can of tomatoes

2 tbsp tomato paste (if you open a can/block, keep the rest in the freezer for later use)

1 cube beef broth (corresponding to a cube to make 1/2 liter broth)

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

1 tbsp organo

3 bay leaves

1 can of drained kidney beans (but don’t discard the water until the dish has been prepared. You might want to add a bit of liquid if it is too dry. Use the water from the beans.)

2 tbsp oil

Salt to taste (approximately 1 1/2 tsp)

Method:

Heat 2 tbsp of oil in a large frying pan or wok. Add the finely chopped or minced garlic and finely chopped onion. Fry for a few minutes – until golden. Add the beef and fry until browned. Add the diced vegetables and fry for another few minutes. Add the spices, chopped tomatoes, can of tomatoes, tomato paste and the beef broth cube. Possibly add 1/4 cup of water – or the water from the beans. Depends on how dry the “stew” is. It needs liquid to cook. Stir well.

Let it all simmer for at least 30 minutes. Turn off the heat and let it all soak/rest for another 30 minutes. Could be for the day. Just before eating – heat up the chili con carne, add the beans and salt and let the chili simmer for 5 minutes.

Serve with rice and possibly grated cheese (a mix of emmenthaler and red cheddar is good) and perhaps a spoonful of sour cream to ease off the heat.