I posted on facebook the other day how much I was craving Fall Foods such as chili, stews, casseroles and so on because the weather here is already "I can see my breath" cold. I love it and Autumn is my favorite time of year. I absolutely love Sweater Weather and Football Weather!! Something we never had in Malaysia!! So I am quite comfortable temperatures in the 40's - 60's. Unlike my previous pasta sauce in the hotel room that I made to welcome my husband back from England and just to give him a nice little surprise, this recipe was all about me! (He doesn't like chili anyway). I was craving chili in some form and the only things keeping me from it was the beans and the weather. It's raining outside which inhibits my bike riding. And although I'm a fan of cold weather, I am not a fan of purposefully putting myself in the cold rain. There are a lot of things I'll do in the name of food but that is not one of them!!
Here is what I had on hand (I actually bought it the day before when the chili bug bit me)
This tiny chili pepper was flown in all the way from Ohio! It came from Pop's garden where Scott and his dad planted it this past spring. Pop sent the pepper to me here in Germany and my fingers have been itching to use it. So I dried them first and then minced it up for the chili. I added my pinky to give you some perspective.
Here are the vegetables... 1 Roma Tomato, chopped; 6 Baby Bellas, chopped; 2 Green Onions and the little, tiny, Thai Chili Pepper.
I placed the hamburger into my only cooking bowl/cereal bowl/pasta bowl. Then sprinkled it with Sea Salt and Black Pepper. Cooked it for 1 minute.
Added the chopped mushrooms, mix and cook for another 1 minute.
Added the green onion, mix and cook for another 1 minute.
The secret ingredient...Beer. Hey, I'm in Germany. They drink this stuff for water. Anyway, if you don't cook with beer, don't fret. Just use a beef or pork broth instead. About 1/2 cup. Usually, when I cook with beer, I use a dark beer because it makes the most amazing sauce and it tastes nothing like beer! This is good because I find beer to be repulsive. The taste of it makes me want to hurl. But somehow, it's just amazing to cook with!
Final addition of chopped tomato, the little Thai Chili and about 1/2 C water. Then I cooked the daylights out of it!! 3 minutes, then set, 3 minutes then set again. Repeated this for a couple of hours until the flavors got to know one another.
It's really amazing how many seeds came out of that little pepper! Again, the finger is there for perspective. And yes, all the seeds went in!
The finished product! Ta-daa! I also had this great cheese in the fridge. A mild white cheese with cumin seed in it. It had a delicious smoky flavor to it so I diced it up and chucked it in. Mmmm!
The only thing I didn't take a picture of was the spices. Because I don't have my spices here with me, I had to use a blend from the store from the Knorr company. It was Knorr Chili Con Carne. I used half an envelope for this but you could add whatever blend you prefer. If I was making this at home, I'd use a home made blend of chili powder, cumin, paprika, S&P and cayenne.
As I was waiting for the pictures up upload, I ate this beautiful concoction. My belly is very happy at the moment! The spice of that Thai chili was perfect. Not too hot but just a little tingle on my tongue. Give it a try! Cheers!!
Shannon
BTW - If you have a microwave recipe that you love...send it to me and I'll be sure to include it on this post!!
