Brian's Chili

Here it is, by demand, the "recipe" for chili that has developed over about 5 years since Andreas showed me how to make chili. It's different every time, and almost any step can be modified. This makes enough for about 7 Brian's or 10 Andreas's, and since it takes 3-4 hours to make, you may as well otherwise have enough for leftovers! Note that it is vegetarian and healthy. Nobody has an excuse not to like it!

This is really simple stuff. Nothing too fancy, as that would be too complicated for me!
The beauty of this recipe is that it turns out a little differently every time, and you can make up little stories of what you did to make it that way even if you have no idea.

INGREDIENTS
    Required:
  • 1.5-2 lbs - Assorted Dry Beans (pinto, red, black, kidney, lima, lentels)
  • 28 oz can of tomato sauce or 4 chopped tomatoes and 8oz sauce (better!)
  • 2-3 Onions, chopped.
  • 20-30 Mushrooms, chopped.
  • Chili Powder (about 1tbsp).
  • Ground Cummin (about 1tsp).
  • Salt and Pepper
    Less-Required:
  • 4-5 Cloves of Garlic chopped.
  • 1 tsp Oregano
  • 1 tsp Cilantro
  • 1 tsp Basil
  • 1 can of sweet corn (not cream corn!)
  • 2 Zucchini chopped.
  • 2 Red Peppers (not Green!) chopped.
  • 1 or 2 Chili Peppers, chopped.
First soak the beans in water, about 3 times as much water as the volume of beans. Usually soak them overnight, but about 3 hours is probably sufficient.

Discard the water. Put the beans in a stockpot with new water and bring to a boil, then simmer for about 1/2 hour. If you like, change the water at this stage. Then add Chili powder, cummin and tomatoes if using tomatoes. Simmer again for at least an hour.

Chop up onions and fry them in olive oil with garlic and some of the herbs until they are clear, or until they are caramelized. (You can skip the frying stage and just toss them into the stock pot if you don't have time, but frying makes them taste better.)

Keeping the beans boiling slowly, and stirring, add the onions. Add onions. Add raw chopped mushrooms, zuchinni, and peppers if desired. Also add the herbs at this point, and tomato sauce to get the desired consistency.

About 1/2 hour later, add pre-cooked stuff like sweet corn, canned garbonzo beans. Keep stirring. Add salt and pepper to taste, and possibly more cummin or chili powder.

Keep tasting it until it's done. It usually takes about 2-3 hours total boiling time for the beans.

I usually serve it with rice and grated cheddar cheese. Credit Hank's and Eileen's positive reactions to rice and cheese respectively, which helped make them standard.

Remember every step is completely flexible, and the only real way to screw it up is to burn the beans (not stirring enough) or to not cook them enough. Trust me, if it was possible to mess it up, I would have!!

Oh yeah, it's vegetarian too. If they don't like it, you can always tell 'em it's good for them! (Or you can add meat, but I didn't tell you to!)

Finally, I just acquired a crock-pot. If you are as lucky as I, use it! But you'll want to cook the beans for more like 5-6 hours, and everything else for about twice as long as it says here. It generally gets better with time, and since it never seems to burn in the crock pot, you can leave everything in the crock pot for 12 hours and it'll be good.

Please let me know if it worked!

Oh yeah, if anyone finds a nice picture of chili on the web, could you let me know? That way the student-types will be inspired to cook it too!!