the best chili ever?...

Hi everyone,

well Im off to Berlin on tuesday for an interview, giving a tutorial tomorrow, Vivi is visiting on Wednesday till sunday, so not sure how much time I will have to blog this week (not that I do it that often anyway). And Jenny is pretty busy with thestylecrusader, has an essay due in on wednesday, and an interview for a work experience thing on thursday, so its turning into quite a hectic week.

But before all that thought I would do a chili recipe. So Im not sure this is actually the best chili ever. I think a truly excellent recipe is one that can never be replicated again and just lives on in memory constantly changing every time you make it. At least that is how my dad's curry (which IS truly excellent) is made. I think it must be the same for chili. It was made during the frontier days by cowboys smoking marlborough reds and wearing checked shirts (at least in my mind). I reckon they never had the same ingredients and just had to make do with what they could find and that is the same attitude I take when making mine. I think I also have really strong associations with chili and disney, as it was a dish you would get while watching buffalo bills wild west show. Also one final note, Stephanie, makes a really good chili where the tomatoes always taste really juicy, not sure how she does it but it is tasty.

Ingredients:

1/2 a bolognese recipe (as previously described)

1 (extra) tin of tomatoes chopped tomatoes

1 400g tin of kidney beans

1 400g tin of butter beans

ok so those tins of beans can be whatever you want, I like mixing it up and buying whatever I can find, but kidney beans are usually a safe bet.

salt and pepper

so that is the basic stuff, as for the spices have fun. Here is what I have been known to use:

dark chocolate (30g or so)

1tsp tumeric

1 tbsp cumin

1 fresh red chili (chopped and I like to leave the seeds bc they are spicy)

t tsp chili flakes (I have been known to make my chilis way too hot, but feel free to add cayenne pepper, chili powder... whatever you can get your hands on and your taste buds can handle)

1 tbsp honey

the more esoteric ingredients:

soy sauce (i put this in most things)

some ground coffee (just like the frontier days)

coriander, cinnamon, nutmeg, garamasala... literally if there are spices you are trying to get rid of in the cupboard I would recommend using them.

Directions:

Just follow the directions for the spag bol post I have hyperlinked above and at the stage where you add the tins of tomatoes just add another tin and the beans. Also all the spices that go into the spag bol go great in the chili as well. Or alternatively what I do, is to defrost the left over bolognese and add the ingredients for the chili. Then just stew the socks off it (minimum of 30 mins... there is no maximum time... perhaps a couple of days?). Tastes great with cornbread (which I love). And tastes even better if eaten out of a pewter bowl. Enjoy!

xy