Slartibartfas

I thought I try today something American, so i went into the supermarket for buying all the stuff needed for a Chili con Carne according to a recipe from an Austrian cooking homepage.

But as I have you, I thought I dig a bit deeper into American cooking culture and ask if anyone you has a real traditional Chili recipe. Or just post your favorite one.

Come in, prove me that you have some cooking culture in the US (jk)

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Ygorl

Aww jeez.

I'm a food NUT.

That's why I'm ALSO a fitness nut

I'll throw together some of the ingredients I usually put in. I tend to go in the kitchen and add stuff rather than measure (when you've been cooking long enough you know how much of what).

I usually use three different kinds of beans. Black beans, pinto beans and kidney beans.

Fried up hamburger.

onions. Red, orange or green peppers. Tomatoes and tomato paste.

Cayenne pepper, salt.

You can add a little molasses and smoke flavor if you have it.

I'm sure I'm forgetting about 6 or 7 things but ... I'm not in my kitchen LOL

Someone else that likes to cook get in here and help this guy out.

One tip. If you don't pre-cook (with the hamburger) or carmelize the fresh onions before adding, you'll need to cook for at least a half day, cool overnight and re-cook another half or full day to get the onion blended in and softened right.

Slartibartfas

How does that work with the "fried hamburger"? Do you fry beef ground meet in a pan seperately?

I threw it to the caramalized oninos and roasted quite some time, perhaps this first time I made chili a bit too long, as the ground meet fell totally apart, and remained as rice sized bits and pieces ...

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drgoodtrips

To make chili, I would (and do) use...

- Onions
- Ground Beef
- Red and/or black Beans
- Can(s) of Diced Tomatoes
- Can(s) of Tomato Sauce or Paste
- Fresh Tomatoes (optional)
- Worcestershire Sauce (optional)
- Salt, Pepper, to taste
- Chili Powder
- Red Pepper
- Oregano
- Brown Sugar
- Tabasco (Optional)

You can also throw in some elbow macaronis, if you like - I'm not such a fan, but some people like it.

For cooking, I'd fry up the beef and onions first. Then, dump them (with the oily runoff) into a crock-pot or large container, mix in all the ingredients, and cook for several hours - stirring occasionally.

I left the amounts of the ingredients off because I never cook according to recipes and just kind of wing it as I go. Personally, I think it's really a matter of taste - I like thick chili, so I tend to use a higher ratio of ground beef to tomatoes and tomato sauce, for instance.

Also, when all is said and done, it never hurts to have some shredded cheddar cheese around to let your guests sprinkle on top

Ygorl

There we are. I'd forgetten the worcestershire sauce. A little adds good flavor.

And if you don't have molasses a little brown sugar will do (molasses are what makes brown sugar brown).

Chili needs to cook a long time if you're using fresh ingredients. Just don't burn it

Slartibartfas

Yes, I am not much of an stick to recipe cook either.

Perhaps I list what I added:

lots of onion
ground meat
fresch but peeled and small cut/squashed tomatoes
fresh paprika cut into pieces
some maize
kidney beans
garlic
paprika powder (hot)
freshly milled chilli flakes
majoram
a few caraway seeds
salt


I might have cooked it for too short I guess, according to the recipy it was only about 40 minutes to cook it, but the meat would get softer if lets say you do for 2 hours or so. Probably. (I have a load of it freezed so I might cook it the next time I want to have some Chili for a certain time again, not just reheating it)

I will certainly also add tomato paste the next time to make the sauce thicker. Some flour could perhaps also make it nicely thick.

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Ygorl

Yeah, I pre-fry up the hamburger. That way the chunks it fries into generally stay together pretty well even with a long long cook in chili.

I carmelize my chopped up onions slowly in a fry pan too. I'll use a lid over it to hold the moisture in for a good long time and get them very soft and squishy and then, after about a half hour (with stirring every so often) take the lid off and up the heat and get them lightly browned.

These are good on plain old hamburgers this way :-)

Slartibartfas

Somehow I get the impression that Chilli is the American counterpart to our Gulash. Not quite the same but some similarities. You shall cook it for ages, its with paprika and red and its with beef. Ok that might be the end of the similarities though...

Whats Worcestershire sauce btw?

And does that brown sugar not make the Chilli too sweet?

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Ygorl

Alright, post that Gulash recipe

Paprika is a nice little spice to use at times.

Worcestershire sauce is somewhat like soy sauce except it uses tamarind as a flavor agent. 1 or 2 teaspoons is all you'd need.

The brown sugar you use very little of too. Maybe 1 or 2 tsp. of IT. Of course this depends on how much you're making. Not enough to make it sweet though.

Slartibartfas

You ask for it, you get it:
A real Austrian Goulash. Hungarians might think about Goulashes differently, but thats our way to make it and it has a huge tradition already back in the monarchy.

Goulash

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