Ok so here it is:
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2 Lbs of medium ground beef
2 Green peppers
2 Yellow banana peppers
1 bag of dried black beans
2 large red onions
1 large box of crimini mushrooms.
2 large cloves of garlic
fresh oregano
1/2 fresh lime
Table sugar
Coarse sea salt
Cracked black pepper
Chili powder and chili flakes
Olive oil
Start by soaking the black beans in water over night to soften them. Add the water and beans to a pot and bring them to a weak boil, then place the top on the pot and take it off the heat.
Dice the onions up into 1cm x 1cm chunks, and sweat them in a pan using olive oil until they are soft and translucent.
Core the green and banana peppers saving some of the seeds from the banana peppers (that's where the heat is, discard them if you're not concerned about heat!).
Dice the green peppers up into 1cm x 1cm chunks, and the banana peppers very finely, with the seeds. Sweat them in a pan using olive oil until they are soft and translucent.
Chop the mushrooms finely, and sweat them in a pan using olive oil and a few tablespoons of water until they're soft and dark.
Peel, smash, and finely dice the garlic cloves.
In a frying pan, combine olive oil, garlic cloves, sea salt, cracked pepper and chili flakes, freshly squeezed lime juice and the ground beef and fry the ground beef until browned through, break it up very finely and evenly, ensuring that there are no chunks.
Combine the beef and vegetables in a bowl, cover with a tea towel to hold in moisture.
Place tomatoes in a large pot, cover them with water and place the top on. Stew the tomatoes until cracks start to form in the tomato skin, then remove the tomatoes from the pot and immediately shock them in ice-cold water in a clean sink. Leave the tomatoes there to sit for a while and cool (careful the insides are very hot!). Empty the stewing pot.
Peel the tomatoes and remove the stems and where the stem connects using a paring knife. Peels should for the most part come off easily due to shocking the tomatoes.
In a blender puree the tomatoes seeds and all producing a very fine paste. When complete, this paste can be transferred to the pot you shocked the tomatoes in.
In this pot, add sugar until the tomato paste has had it's acidity broken. This is to taste, but generally it takes a fair amount of sugar.
Bring the tomato paste to a boil, and boil until semi thickened.
Add in all the ingredients that were cooked earlier (beef, vegetables, mushrooms etc) to the stew pot, and stir thoroughly.
At this point strain the beans and add them to the stew pot. Save 2 1/2 cups of liquid from the beans to use in the chili. Add it to the chili.
Begin adding chili powder tasting along the way until you reach a heat level and taste that you are comfortable with.
Add more salt, pepper, oregano to taste.
Continue to boil until the desired consistency for thickness is reached. STIR OFTEN you don't want to burn anything to the bottom of your stew pot. Reduce heat and simmer until ready to serve.
Serving:
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Spoon chili out into a bowl, and grate some sharp (old!) orange cheddar on top of the chili. Let it melt
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I generally serve this with garlic cheese bread which is pretty simple too:
1 to 2 medium sized cloves of garlic, coarse sea salt, cracked black pepper, dried oregano, and a stick of butter.
Peel, smash and finely chop the garlic, combine it, salt, cracked black pepper, and dried oregano in a bowl and mash in the stick of butter. Whip the butter until the ingredients combine and the butter is light and airy. Split a loaf of french or italian bread and cover the loave halves with butter. Grate sharp (old!) orange cheddar on top of the loaves and place into the oven at 425F until the cheese melts and the edges are golden brown. Take it out, let it cool for a few minutes, cut and serve with the chili.
Enjoy guys
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