"Home made Chili"

• • 2 pounds ground buffalo meat (its low fat and taste better)
• • 1 (15 ounce) cans black beans drained
• • 2 (28 ounce) cans diced tomatoes with juice (fire roasted, they are in the healthy section of the G-Store)
• • 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• • 1 Red bell pepper, seeded and chopped (roasted on open flame on your stove or grill to get the skill off and give charred flavor remove most of the black off before using)
• 4 green chile peppers, seeded and chopped (serrano pepper)
• 1 Dark beer (like Samuel Adams Oatmeal Stout)
• • 1 tablespoon minced garlic
• • 2 tablespoon dried oregano (fresh is better)
• • 2 tablespoon dried thyme (fresh is better)
• • 4 teaspoons fresh ground cumin seed (important)
• • 1 teaspoon ground black pepper (I use 5 blend pepper corns)
• • 1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
• • 1 teaspoon paprika (Hungarian sweet)
• • 1 tsp of Hungarian hot paprika

Directions:

Rule on fresh herbs vs dried, if your making a quick dish use fresh, if your going to cook it along time use dried.
1. Fine chop the following items: Onion, Red pepper, Chili Peppers,
2. Heat a Large pan to cook the onion and meat. 1st we will start cooking the onion, This is how I always cook my onions, get the pan very hot, right before you add the onion add about 1-2 tbs of oil, add in the onion and quickly stir them. After all the onions have oil on them turn down the heat to medium. If you have a puddle of oil in the pan you put to much in, remove any extra put it to the side. Don’t stir the onion to much or it will not brown. So stir about everyone 5 mins or so. Don’t like it burn. When the edges are brown and the center of the onions are translucent add in the Red and chili peppers. Cook them down for about 10 mins. At this point you will add in the meat, garlic and cumin. Turn up the heat a little, add meat and start chopping up the meat in the pan so you don’t have big chunks. Stir in the onion pepper mixture into the meat. Cook until its about ½ to ¾ done of the meat. Poor meat mixture into your large stock pot in the next step. Keep the flame on, put the pan over the flame for about 3 – 5 mins. Use about 1 cup of the beer to de-glaze the bottom of the pan. Use a wooden spoon to release all the goodies off the bottom poor into your stock pot.
3. Heat a large stock pot over medium-high heat. Pour in the black beans, diced tomatoes and tomato paste and the rest of the beer. Season with 2 tbs of cumin, oregano, black pepper, cayenne, paprika. Stir to blend, then cover and simmer over low heat for at least 1 hours, stirring occasionally. Secret of mine, I add in 2-3 tbs of balsamic vinegar* into the stock pot about 30 mins into cooking. The vinegar will help break down the food and gives it a richer flavor.
4. At the end of the 1 hour, taste, you will probably need to add in a little more cumin and oregano. Cook for 30 mins more on low. Stir now and then.
5. To serve, ladle into bowls, and top with 1 tbs of sour cream and shredded Cheddar cheese. Try to keep the crackers to a few. You should not need many.

Rule on Balsamic vinegar: Most balsamic vinegar is not real anymore, you really have to read the back. A lot of it is red wine vinegar with color in it. If its under 10$ its probably not real. If you can find it in the store use Balsamic vinegar glaze. It’s been reduced down and is really great for chili and Italian dishes.