Chile con Carne: A great fall & winter dish:

[mapol]

Hi, everybody. Here's hoping that you're willing to read and possibly take on another recipe. Since the fall is almost here, and winter is definitely the time for hot and hearty dishes, here's one that will hopefully satisfy all the carnivores and omnivores (the meat-eaters and the eat-everything crowd.)here on this forum.

Chile Con Carne:

1 Lb. of lean to moderately lean ground beef.
1 Onion
*2 cans of dark red kidney beans or garbanzo beans.
1 can of tomato sauce, cut up regular tomatoes, or a bunch of small grape or cherry tomatoes
1 can of tomato paste
1 Tbsp Chile powder
dash of ground cloves
1 can of mild green chiles
Cayenne pepper to taste

*Ideally, dark red kidney beans are best, but garbanzo beans are okay, too, if the store is out of the kidney beans.

In a good saucepan, chop up and caramelize the onion, and then put in the ground beef, little by little. Brown the ground beef, and then add the tomatoes or tomato sauce, the mild green chiles, and tomato paste. Add a little water, if needed. Add the chile powder, the ground cloves, and the cayenne pepper, according to your taste. Reduce the heat on the stove top, and allow the sauce to simmer for 1.5 hours.

Wash the kidney beans or garbanzo beans in a sieve with cold water. After 1.5 hours, gradually add the beans to the sauce, and allow to simmer/cook until the beans are cooked through, but not mushy. Please note: It's of utmost important to make sure that the beans are cooked through, because beans, especially kidney beans, are absolutely poisonous iif they're not cooked through!

When the Chile con Carne is ready, serve over rice, pasta, or quinoa. Rice or quinoa are best, however.

Hope I've been of some help in making everybody's palates water, and provided a good wintertime recipe! This saucepan full of Chile con Carne should last at least a few days, especially if one freezes the rest of it.

I never buy the canned chile con carne that is available in grocery stores. I prefer to make my own, and know what I'm putting in it. The garbanzo beans, if one needs to substitute them for the kidney beans (as I had to do once, due to the store's having run out of the kidney beans) are good, too. They provide a somewhat different but interesting flavor to the chile con carne. I have also taken to using regular tomatoes, or the smaller cherry or grape tomatoes instead of the regular tomato sauce, because the sauces available in the store have a great deal of sugar in them, as well.

[rsdsharp]

1. Beans are poisonous if not cooked through?

1. You're kidding, right?

2. Canned beans are precooked, anyway.

[Major Nikon]

5. Not exactly, but partially true

Red kidney beans need to reach boiling temperature for at least 10 mins to destroy a toxic lectin. It’s possible to cook them through at lower temperatures and they could still be toxic and it’s also possible to boil them long enough to destroy the toxin, but they would still not be “cooked through”. You can read about what the FDA has to say on the subject.

https://www.fda.gov/media/83271/download#page254

[Staph]

2. That's similar to the recipe that I was taught as a kid.

My grandfather owned a cafe called Pappy's Place, and he taught my mother (his daughter-in-law) and she taught me.

The differences:

• Only one can of beans, but definitely dark kidney beans
  
• In the winter, one big can of whole or diced tomatoes (when you can't get decent fresh ones)
  
• At least double the chili powder
  

I've never tried cloves in chili, but that sounds like an interesting addition!

[mapol]

11. Well,

I've never tried cloves in chili, but that sounds like an interesting addition!

Thank you, Staph. I just use a small amount of ground cloves, but it does help the flavor a great deal.

[beveeheart]

3. This recipe is almost exactly like the one

I ate as a kid (in Maryland) and made when I started cooking (in Virginia). Eventually moved to Colorado and my new husband asked me to make chile for him. When I set it on the table, he looked at it and asked what it was. I don't remember what he ate for dinner that night, but it wasn't that chile. A few days later we were invited to his friend's house for dinner and I was introduced to "real" chile. Not a kidney bean or garbanzo bean in sight! From then on if I had to put beans in the chile, had to be pinto beans. The recipe that I throw together now hardly has any resemblance to the one my Mom taught me.

Mapol, thanks for the memory of my Mom's cooking, which I loved!

[irisblue]

4. I am always willing to read another chili recipe. Thank you

And I prefer dark red kidney beans too.

[Major Nikon]

6. Here is mine which is quite different

I make my own chili powder and prefer to grind the meat myself in a food processor for a more rustic texture.

https://upload.democraticunderground.com/115736955

[mapol]

14. Hi, irisblue.

You're welcome! Thank you for your compliments.

[dem in texas]

7. Tex-Mex Chili, my home grown recipe

In Texas, beans are not supposed to be in the chili, but served on the side. if at all. I was raised in a large family with 6 hungry kids and my mother always added beans to her chili to make it go further and DAMN IT!; even though I am a Texas, I like beans in my chili. I test the "heat" in the chili and if it makes my tongue burn just a little, it is just right.

1-1 1/2 pounds lean ground beef
2 tablespoon oil
1 large onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small can tomato sauce
1 large can diced tomatoes in puree
1 can Chili Beans or Ranch Style Beans
3 to 4 tablespoons Gebhardt's Chili Powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon tabasco sauce
Salt and pepper to taste

Garnishes:
Chopped onion
Chopped pickled jalapeno
Grated longhorn Cheddar Cheese
Thin strips fried corn tortillas

Pour oil in heavy skillet or stock pot. Heat to high, add ground beef and brown. Stir and break up the meat, when the meat looses its red color, add garlic and chopped onion and continue cooking until the meat starts to brown. Add the chili powder and cumin and stir to coat all the meat. Add the tomato sauce, tomatoes, beans (without draining), and tabasco sauce. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add stock or water as needed. Bring to a boil, then lower heat to a simmer and cover. Check from time to time and add stock or water as needed. Cook about 1 hour. Taste, correct the seasoning. Let cook 15 minutes longer. Take off heat, let stand five minutes, then serve with garnishes.

[mapol]

12. Real true-blue chili con carne can burn one's mouth off, if one gets the drift.

That's how it's supposed to be.

[trof]

8. Faster, better:

2 lbs. diced (1/2&quot meat.
I like venison when I can get some from my hunter friends.
Beef when I can't, but pork works too.
1 pkg. Wick Fowler's 2 Alarm Chili Kit.
Follow directions.

[Retrograde]

9. Garbanzos???

I'll let the kidney beans pass, but not garbanzos, which are Old World beans.

My (sort of recipe) for chili:

2 days before: soak a bunch of pinto beans. For six people, a cup of dried beans is enough.

1 day before: drain and cook the beans. Remove seeds from and roast what dry chiles you find in the house: anchos, guajillos, New Mexicos - what ever. After they've cooled a bit let them soak for several hours.

The morning you want the chili: Chop and sautee an onion or two, and some garlic. Dice some Anaheim and/or pasilla chiles and sautee. Brown some ground beef (or turkey, or chicken, or pork, or a mix of what you have). If you thought about it beforehand, you can sautee the onions, garlic, and peppers in the fat from the meat. Add a can or two of diced tomatoes, the cooked beans, the green peppers, onions, garlic, the shredded reconstitued chiles with their liquid, and some cumin. My husband throws some bay leaves and oregano in as well. Let simmer for several hours, tasting occasionally and adding more peppers/hot sauce if needed. Serve with cornbread (not sweetened) on the side.

I'd add olives and cilantro, but we normally make this for a group that has some people who object to them, so I serve them on the side.

Arguing about the right way to make chili is like arguing about whether which was the best rock band of the 60s: you're never going to change anyone's mind. But NO to garbanzos!

[Freddie]

10. If you don't mind "artificial" stuff

A packet of Lipton Beefy Onion soup mix is great in chili.

[spinbaby]

15. It's good in a lot of things

Packets of onion soup mix add umami like nothing else.

[mapol]

13. Wow!!

There are some really interesting recipes for Chili con Carne here on this thread! A big heart-felt thanks to everybody who posted their recipes on here!