Chili Con Carne

I'm personally not a big fan of chili but my tombee loves it and I always aim to please. Plus, it's always nice in winter to have a steamy bowl of chili to warm you up. I made this in my slow cooker but if you don't have one, just simmer it for 2 hours until it thickens. I made this the night before, then let it sit in order to fully develop the flavours. Tombee loved the chili and I think the chocolate addded a sweet taste and silky mouthfeel to the chili. I made southern buttermilk cornbread from Andrea's blog to go with the chili and I loved the corny taste of the cornbread. However, I found it a little dry and crumbly but since I haven't had much cornbread, I can't compare to other types. When I was searching for a cornbread recipe, most of them included sugar as an ingredient but I thought a savoury, rather than a sweet, cornbread would taste better. I'll definitely have to try a sweet cornbread in the future to compare and see which I like better. Andrea's southern cornbread did go really well with the chili and I ate more cornbread than chili while tombee ate a bite of cornbread and two bowls of chili, and then ate my bowl too!


Chili con Carne

Ingredients
4 tablespoon oil
1lb ground beef
4 garlic cloves, minced
1 large yellow onion, diced
1 green pepper, diced
1 red pepper, diced
2 carrots, diced
1 can whole tomatoes
3 tablespoon tomato paste
1 tablespoon sauce from chipotle peppers
1 chipotle pepper, minced (optional if you like your chili really spicy)
3 tablespoon sugar
1 1/2 cups beef stock
1 can red kidney beans, rinsed and drained
1 can kernel corn, rinsed and drained
2 tablespoon chili flakes (reduce or leave out if you don't want it spicy)
2 tablespoon chili powder (reduce to 1 tablespoon if you don't want it spicy)
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper
2 tablespoon paprika
1 tablesoon oregano
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 square bakers chocolate
salt and pepper, to taste

Directions
1. Heat 2 tablespoon oil in a pan and add onions, green pepper, red pepper and carrots and cook until vegetables are soft. Transfer to a bowl and set aside.
2. Add remaining 2 tablespoon in a pan and add garlic. Fry until fragrant, then add ground beef. Break up large pieces of ground beef, then add spices. Mix with meat and fry until mixture is fragrant.
3. Add vegetable mixture back into meat, then add tomatoes, beef stock, chipotle and chipotle sauce, tomato paste, and sugar. Mix until well combined. Taste mixture and add salt and pepper to taste.
4. Add the drained kidney beans and corn and bring everything to a boil. Transfer mixture to a slow cooker and cook on high for 4 hours. Alternatively, you can simmer chili for 2-2 1/2 hours until liquid dries and mixture becomes thick.
5. Add chocolate and stir to completely melt and mix the chocolate in. Taste and add salt and pepper if you'd like.
6. Let sit overnight to allow flavours to develop and reheat when ready or serve right away with cornbread.