Wednesday, October 17, 2007

Hoosier Chili

I posted a while ago about wanting to find a good chili recipe and I've found it! A friend let me borrow a really cool cookbook. It’s written by a woman who grew up on an Indiana farm in the 1950s, when horses still plowed the fields and soap and butter were homemade.

2 tbsp of butter
1 large white onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed
1 lb of ground beef
1 28-ounce can of tomatoes
1 46-ounce can of tomato juice
1 lb can of kidney beans, drained
¼ tsp of sugar
½ tsp of ground cumin
To taste:
Ground red pepper
Chili powder
Salt & pepper

Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a skillet and sauté’ onion and garlic until onion is soft, about 5 minutes. Add 1 pound of ground beef and cook over a high heat, breaking up the meat into bite-size chunks, for 7 to 8 minutes. (This is where I transferred everything to a stock pot then I ->) Add the canned tomatoes, tomato juice, and kidney beans. Season the chili with sugar, ground cumin, and other spices from above. Cover and simmer, stir from time to time, for about an hour.

It seemed like I was using a lot of chili powder but this makes a very nice portion of chili. The seasoning will really just depend on what you want. Daniel loves hot food so this had just enough bite to it, not to much though. I also cubed two potatoes to toss in the chili and everyone seemed to really like it.

Recipe from Memories of a Midwestern Farm by Nancy Hutchens. I'm also going to try her recipe "Get you a husband Apple Pie". Since my soon-to-be husband’s favorite desert is apple pie I thought this sounded perfect.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hey, I made your chili tonight. It wasn't exact, but it turned out really good. Instead of Tomato Juice, I picked up Tomato Paste and instead of the chili powder and cumin, I used a packet of chili seasoning, but it turned out great! Thanks!

Anonymous said...

Yum Oh.
I find if you add extra beans such as a can of pork and beans and a can of baby butter beans it is even better...Serve with cinnamon rolls to dunk..sounds strange but please try it !!!!!