Since Nenjin was talking about chili, I'll tell you all about the way I do it.
I start with a thick (not cut very small) sofrito in the bottom of the sauce pan involving first the onion (normally one vidalia, but three shallots are great work the same with a more nuanced flavor if you want to pay the extra few dollars), then mushrooms (unconventional, but I like the heterogeneity they contribute to the texture). Then I follow that with sweet and medium peppers like bell, hatch, and poblano, and finally the garlic. The order here matters because of how thoroughly I want the ingredients cooked, and depending on how visibly cooked things are I might wait a bit longer between steps than it takes to chop the next ingredient. Onion should caramalize a bit, mushroom shouldn't have the consistency of a fresh one, peppers should just barely start to cook, and garlic goes last because if you fry it too long/hot it can get acrid.
After that I dump in the meat, I normally go for picada, which is similar to ground beef/hamburger in that it's sort of any bit of the cow all scraped together, but it's in bigger pieces that retain more of the original structure of the meet. I do sometimes use hamburger if I've got it around for meatballs or something, though, so I'll see about trying the lumps and chunks described earlier next time I do. After that is mostly (but not entirely) browned, I add the beans. I don't think the exact cultivar matters much, but the type does. I use half frijol and half habichuela. I don't think there's a linguistic distinction for these in English, but but frijoles are the small flavorful ones (I use normally black beans, but I've heard some people use black eyed peas or even pinto) and habichuelas are the slightly bigger and much more starchy ones (great northern beans and small red kidney beans are conventional). Some people even use alubías (the big white ones that make you fart) but I don't recommend that. For one pot full, I use two cups (measured dry) of black beans and and one each of those two habichuelas. They should be soaked for more than 24 hours, generally, and some people recommend to also freeze and then thaw them to make a softer consistency, but I find that this is done way better by just giving them a big longer on full heat before cutting to simmer.
Anyway, after beans depending on the canned tomato I'm using, I might let them cook a bit first - that's if you use diced tomato. For puree or paste, it doesn't matter much if you put it sooner or later. While that's cooking, I add spices - salt, black pepper, and sometimes a bit of powdered cayenne depending on the spice level of the other peppers I have at this time. If you have chili powder, in north America it's probably cayenne but Europe it might be paprika, which I wouldn't normally recommend for chili but to each his own. But the most important spice is cumin. Normally I put like a bit more than a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of black pepper, and at most half a dozen cayenne peppers (I take them dried and powder them straight into the pot) but the cumin should always be upwards of a tablespoon. (All amounts are approximate, I don't measure since I already know the recipe). The reason these go in last, by the way, is because if you add them before the tomato, it's too dry and the cumin will make you cough. And after those are mixed in, I shop and add the spicy peppers, which might be jalapeño or potentially also habanero if you like that. I've been trying some anaheims since they grow nicely here but the spice level seems a bit low for this.
Anyways after that's all done, taste a bean. If I can taste the poison, let it keep cooking another ten minutes and then taste again until the beans taste good. When the beans are ready, I give it the last mix (prior to this is should be mixed often, each time you check it pretty much, as well as whenever you add a new ingredient or if you reckon it needs it) and add the fresh tomatoes. These are picked to be a flavorful cultivar, but anything you get fresh is usually nice for this. I cut them up into pieces, the small ones I get here are normally 24 pieces so kind of small, and I lay them on top without mixing, so that they roast instead of boil and retain a good flavor. Then I cut the heat to a simmer, put a lid on, and wait two hours. More and it gets watery, less and the flavors might not be properly blended, but that's only for big differences, really it depends on when I'm ready to eat.
I serve it on rice (three cups white, half a cup black, plus seven cups water and salt, butter, celery seed, black pepper, and turmeric in small amounts, brought to boil then simmered for 20-30 minutes) and add cheese (monterrey jack, medium to sharp cheddar, quesadilla sinaloa, and asadero or oaxaca, shredded and mixed). It's a really warm-flavored comfort food to enjoy while having a peaceful night in.
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Topic: Food Thread: Kitchen Chemistry (Read 578643 times)