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Chili — One Litre

Slow-simmered, better the next day, freezes like a dream.

Makes

About 4 litres — four containers

Hands on

30 min

All in

3 h 30

What you need

• 2 lb (900 g)ground beef
• 2 largeonions, diced
• 2green peppers, diced
• 4 clovesgarlic, minced
• 2 × 796 mlcrushed tomatoes
• 2 × 540 mlkidney beans, drained and rinsed
• 3 tbsp (45 ml)chili powder
• 1 tbsp (15 ml)ground cumin
• 2 tsp (10 ml)salt, and more at the end

How it goes

1. 1

   Brown the beef hard in a big heavy pot, in two batches so it sears instead of steams. Take it out and leave the fat.

2. 2

   Cook the onion and pepper in that fat over medium for 8 minutes, until soft. Add the garlic for the last minute.

3. 3

   Add the chili powder and cumin straight into the hot pot and stir for 30 seconds until it smells like something. Dry spices in hot fat is where the flavour comes from — not from more spice later.

4. 4

   Return the beef, add the tomatoes, bring it to a bare simmer and put the lid on askew.

5. 5

   Leave it alone for 2½ to 3 hours. Stir it when you walk past. Add the beans for the last 30 minutes.

6. 6

   Salt it properly at the end, when the liquid has gone. Salting at the start and again at the end are different jobs.

A couple of things

• It is better the next day and better again frozen and thawed. There is no version of this worth rushing.
• Cool it fast before it goes in the fridge — a shallow pan, not the deep pot. A big pot of hot chili takes hours to come down in the middle.