There are four categories of kabobs;

Shish kabob or souvlaki or satay or sekuwa: marinated chunk of usually cubed boneless meat grilled over open charcoal. Shish kabobs are usually grilled with skewers. Shish kabobs need the highest quality meat because there is no processing of meat before cooking except marination. Since shish kabobs are cooked with just radiant heat, it can be most succulent and juicy kabob if cooked right.

Tandoor kabob or kathi kabob or bhatti Kabob: marinated chunk of (usually with bones) meat grilled in a high heat clay oven known as tandoor. Temperature in tandoor can go as high as 900°F. Tandoor Kabob is generally a bit dry than shish kabobs because both radiant heat (from fire) and convection heat (hot air) is cooking the kabobs. A famous example of tandoor kabob is the tandoori chicken served in virtually any non-vegetarian Indian restaurants.

Chapli kabob or kakori kabob or Kubideh kabob:  spiced ground meat usually cooked over charcoal grill. Since it’s made of ground meat, many inferior meats can be served as this kabob. Basically it’s like grilled burger (with more spice). A burger can be McDry burger or a heavenly delight (see best burgers in DC).

Doner kebab (Turkish) or Turkish kabob (Indian subcontinent and Iran) or shawarma (Arabic) or gyro (Greek) : vertical cone shaped kabob that are sliced to order. The traditional way to make doner kabob is to stack marinated slices of lamb meat on a rotating vertical skewer in the shape of an inverted cone topped with fat, tomatoes, and onion flavoring the meat in bottom with its drippings when heated. However, in west doner kebab is often industrially manufactured with ground meat. The traditional doner kabob is cooked in rotating charcoal or wood cooker. It is sort of old fashioned rotisserie meat.

Spices, marination, sauce, side ingredients and type of meat may change but the above four categories encompass essence of all kabobs. For example, in countries with large Muslim population, kabobs are made from lamb and sometimes with beef, in Indian subcontinent it has curry based spices, in Thailand it may be served with peanut sauce, Greeks make gyro from pork, which is taboo meat in Muslim countries, and serve with yogurt sauce.

For me Kabob is street food or at most a fast food such as oldstyle delis. So, I don’t like the idea of kabobs in a fancy restaurant. A kabob joint should be an unassuming place that serves the quality Kabob with possibly flatbread and should not be heavy on your wallet. My search for perfect kabob took me to these places in and around DC.

Moby Dick
Moby Dick is a DC based local kabob chain, with notably Georgetown and Dupont location. Kabobs in Moby Dick have Persian (Iranian) influence. One of my favorite kabob is Joojeh Kabob, which is grilled boneless piece of chicken marinated with seasoning such as saffron, black pepper and lemon juice. Another classic favorite is Kubideh kabob. Kubideh kabob generally means kabob made from ground meat such as lamb or beef.

In Moby Dick, it is sirloin. Many of Moby Dick’s entrees are very similar to the Persian national dish, Chelow kabob. Chelow kabob consist of steamed saffron basmati rice (Chelow) and kabob. Traditionally, Chelow kabob is served with grilled tomatoes on the side and butter on top of the steamed rice like the way it’s served in Moby Dick. Moby Dick also provides a classic condiments, ground sumac (Somagh), on their tables. You can sprinkle this reddish looking powder on rice to give somewhat of aromatic tart flavor. If you are adventurous enough, Moby Dick also serves the traditional yogurt drink, Doogh, which are often carbonated and flavored with salt and mint. Moby Dick has two varieties; the homemade and the commercial. The homemade is more flavorful while commercial is more carbonated. It reminds me of salty lassi drink people in northern India drink to cool off during hot summer days. Definitely try, if you are a foodie!

Kabob Palace
First, a word of caution. I had been to Kabob Palace couple of times few years ago. It is walkable from crystal city metro. So, this time when we went, we accidently went to another sit down type restaurant in same block called Kabob Palace Restaurant. We got table and immediately realized it is not the Kabob Palace that I remembered. The obvious thing to do was shamelessly get up and go to the real Kabob Palace. There are two other Kabob joints right next to the famous Kabob Palace. The other one is Shisha Palace Café, which is more of shisha joint (Hookah). I have eaten there once and the food is okay. Indeed, my recommendation is go to the Kabob Palace, which is setup like a fast food deli; you order, pay, get a number and wait.

The kabobs here have more of Indian subcontinental influence (read; Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and India) because spice marination of kabob has more curry flavors. However, it also serves kubideh, which is more of Persian style kabob. They also serves chapli kebab or chappal kabob, a spicy beef patty made in Peshawari style, a northwestern part of Pakistan. Lamb kabobs are served with bones as well as without bones. All the kabobs are served with rice, salad and Indian subcontinental style curried vegetables such as spinach potato (palak aloo), chickpeas etc. Beside kabob, Kabob Palace also serves other dishes such as Karahi chicken. One of the best part of Kabob Palace is that you get a free black masala chai (see previous post on chai) while you wait for your kabobs. Both time I went to Kabob Palace, it was snowing and their hot tea made me feel at home.

Ravi Kabob, Kabob Bazaar and others
Ravi Kabob is another Indian subcontinental kabob joint. You will get regular curry flavored chicken and lamb kabob and also find Lahori style karahi, kofta, Punjabi curry with pakora, aloo mutter. They also serve Haleem, which is sort of like chili type dish (without beans) with pulled meat. Ravi Kabob also serves dessert such as ras malai. However, Ravi Kabob is not metro accessible.

Kabob Bazar is a kabob between courthouse and clarendon metro. It serves Middle Eastern type kabob, i.e., light on curry spices. It also has other Middle Eastern fare such as falafel, hummus, as well as decent selection of vegetarian and fish kabobs.

There are many other wonderful kabob joints around DC area that I have yet to explore. My suggestion is go and try them out. You may find a hidden jewel hiding in your neighborhood.

In search of Doner Kabob
I found virtually all of the restaurants in DC serve industrially manufactured doner kabob, shawarma or gyro with ground meat. Some of DC based blog tipped me to this place called DC Café (P Street- near DuPont circle) that serves homemade gyro kabob. I called and DC Café confirmed that they make homemade chicken gyros meat. When I went there, I didn’t see any inverted vertical rotating grill but somewhat of dinky and dirty establishment. Hoping it must be one of those hole-in-wall jewels; I confirmed the homemade gyro and paid for my dinner. After a while, I realized they just cook a piece meat that is sitting outside on flattop surface like a chicken cheese steak (without cheese). The cook added onions and served with very sour (stale?) yogurt sauce on a stale pita. It was one of the most disheartening meals that I ever had with questionable hygiene. In fact, even I didn’t eat lunch that day, I couldn’t bring me finish my fake kabob and I eat everything. My search for authentic doner kebab, shawarma or gyro is still on.  Any suggestions will be appreciated.

The nice thing about this recipe is that it’s very flexible.  Don’t like cilantro?  Leave it out.  Don’t have any tamarind?  Just add extra lime juice.  You can make substitutions for most of the ingredients, and the final product will still be delicious.

Ingredients:
½ pound dry chick peas
2 Tbsp vegetable oil
¼ cup onions, diced
3 tsp dried cumin
1 tsp dried coriander
bay leaf
2 Tbsp tamarind paste
fresh chilis to taste, diced
1 Russet potato, peeled and diced
1 medium tomato, diced
½ tsp salt
cayenne powder to taste
¼ tsp ground black pepper
sugar to taste (1-2 Tbsp)
fresh lime juice to taste
salt to taste
fresh cilantro, chopped, for garnish
1 small cucumber, diced
3 eggs

Soak the dry chickpeas overnight.  Drain, rinse, and return to pot.  Cover with hot water and bring to boil.  Simmer until tender enough to eat, but don’t allow them to split.  Drain them until ready to use.  If you want to skip this step altogether, you can use canned chickpeas, but the flavor will be a bit different.

In a large pan, heat the oil.  Add the onions, and sauté over low heat until soft.  Do not brown them.

Add half a cup of water, cumin, coriander, bay leaf and tamarind puree.  Bring to boil, then simmer until all the water has evaporated.

Add the fresh chilis and cook for a few minutes over low heat.  The amount and type of chilis just depend on your taste.  I like to use two serrano chilis and three habaneros.  If you want it less spicy, you can cut a slice into each chili, leaving them whole, then remove them before serving.  While the chilis are cooking, peel the potato and dice it into large chunks.  You want the chunks to be larger than the chickpeas.

Add about three cups of water to your spices, and add the diced potato, tomato and ½ tsp salt.  Make sure the water covers the potatoes and tomatoes completely.  Bring to a boil, and then lower to a simmer.

Allow the mixture to simmer for about 30 minutes, then add the chickpeas and enough water to make sure everything is covered.  Allow this to simmer for at least an hour and a half, but preferably 2-3 hours, stirring occasionally.  The water will evaporate to create a thick sauce.  You can cook it longer or add water to adjust the consistency.

Once you achieve the desired consistency, add the cayenne pepper, black pepper, sugar, lime juice, additional salt, and chopped cilantro.

Serve warm and garnish each serving with diced egg and cucumber.

A few years into my graduate school, I bought a small Crockpot from Wal-Mart (couldn’t resist $9.99 price). I used it quite often because I lived in a dorm with a shared kitchen. Lentil soup was my default meal to cook in this new culinary toy. I would leave some lentils, usually from Safeway from across the street, water, knick knacks (hint — leftovers) in morning. When I came back in evening, I had hot lentil soup ready. I experimented with different type of “lentils”, different knick knacks and spices. My lentil soup was, in essence, adaptation of Indian subcontinental dal. My favorite is chana dal because it produces creamier, thicker and most flavorful soup. However, chana dal was not available in Safeway and needed a special trip down to an Indian grocery store in Virginia. This ritual went on couple of times a week for more than a semester until the dorm management confiscated my Crockpot. The official reason was that it was a fire hazard but I believe that they really wanted my lentil soup.

I miss my Crockpot. But now I have learned to make lentil soup without it. Here are my recommendations for making the best lentil soup with or without a Crockpot.

Rinse and soak lentil of choice (or mixture) overnight (at least put 3 times more water)

Throw out the extra water. Add same volume of filtered water as the soaked bean. Start boiling on medium-high heat. You can substitute some water with chicken stock for more flavorful soup.

Do not add anything until lentil soup starts to boil. Depending on type of lentils and presoaking, cooking may take anywhere from half hour to an hour and change. It’s nearly impossible to overcook lentils. However, it is easy to burn them. So after boiling reduce heat to medium or medium low.

For yellow lentils, I recommend only one spice; whole cumin seeds. The whole cumin seed (not the powder) blends with yellow lentil in naturally aromatic and tasteful way that I have not seen with any other spice. Fry whole cumin in ghee (or butter) until you get dark brown color. Add a pinch of cumin seeds per cup of lentil soup. Beside whole cumin, I would recommend chopped sautéed shallots or onions (even dried onion powder works), tomatoes, and butter as flavors. Cilantro is an excellent garnish after lentil is cooked. A very few drops of lime juice also enhances the flavor but don’t add it if you are already adding acidic ingredients such as tomatoes. Other flavors you may add or substitute are roasted garlic, green chilies, asafetida (if adventurous).

Traditional north Indian dals don’t have any other ingredients except few seasoning but south Indian dal often has lots of vegetables. If you are making a lentil soup, I wholeheartedly recommend you to add other ingredients. For each cup of cooked lentil soup, do not add more than ⅓ cup of other ingredients. My favorites are commercial frozen meatballs (both Costco’s and Ikea’s), cooked pieces of meats, any veggies, rice, broken pieces of pasta, etc. My favorite veggies to add are; cut pieces of broccoli, green peas, mushroom, and zucchini. The idea is to add anything you want to eat or anything you have on hand. Be a lentil artist here! My suggestion is not to add too many ingredients at once because it’s going to confuse your palates. Don’t add more than one ingredient from each category of meat, vegetable and starch.

Once a friend of mine hated the flavor of his lentil soup recipe I gave him. Finally, I discovered that he didn’t put enough salt. Salt is probably the most important flavor in your lentil soup. Alright, technically it brings out the flavor of lentil soup. Don’t forget to add tasteful (and healthy) amount of salt. Just changing the amount of salt can drastically change lentil soup’s flavor. My recommendation is not more than ½ teaspoon of salt per cup of cooked lentil. Gradually add salt, taste the lentil soup, and calibrate amount of salt you want. Lentils maybe a healthy food but you will notice that like any other soup it’s high on sodium.

Ingredient Suggestions (Serves 2)
four 8″ tortillas
3-4 oz. mexican or taco blend shredded cheese
3-4 oz. chicken or beef (omit for vegetarian quesadilla)
jalapeno peppers (with or without seeds)
onion, lettuce, black olives, tomatoes, green or red pepper
salsa, sour cream

Grill thin slices of chicken or beef, if using. I sprinkled the chicken with a bit of leftover taco seasoning to spice it up a little (a great seasoning recipe can be found here). Chop all vegetables into ¼” pieces.

Start with one tortilla per person. Lay out meats and vegetables evenly within a half inch of the edges. Sprinkle cheese over top, and place second tortilla on top. Heat a panini press (or a nonstick pan or griddle) on medium heat, and heat quesadilla until cheese has melted and bottom tortilla has slightly browned. Carefully flip the quesadilla over to heat the other side, if necessary.

Use pizza cutter to cut into 6-8 slices.

Serve with salsa and sour cream.

So let me start with the menu and then I will explain how I arrived at that conclusion

1^st course – Camerones de ajillo, Spanish style
2^nd course – Home made wild mushroom and goat cheese stuffed ravioli with pistachio pesto
3^rd course – Sesame seed encrusted seared yellow tail with sun choke puree
4^th course – Chocolate mousse

How did I come up with this menu?  A combination of serendipity, available kitchen supplies, and available ingredients…

On Eat Delicious Food Day, I like to stick with what I know how to cook.  I typically save the experimentation for days like Tuesday.  And what I know best is Italian food.  So the initial plan was to cook a traditional Tuscan meal — ravioli en brodo (ravioli in broth), pollo arrosto (whole roasted chicken) con spinaccio al fiorentina al contorno (spinach sautéed with garlic and tomatoes on the side).

Problem one with that meal is that my oven is broken, so no go on the roasted chicken.  I could still make the ravioli, though, and stuff them with whatever good ingredients I find in the store.  But I needed another meat.  So I headed to whole foods in search of a protein and some bones — any bones — with which to make a stock.  Whole Foods would be the deciding factor on what to make.

The camerones de ajillo was an easy decision.  Jumbo shell-on shrimp were on sale and adding an appetizer would take about 10 minutes to prepare.  Slice the shrimp thin, toast sliced garlic in olive oil, turn the heat off and poach the shrimp in the garlic oil.  While in the fish section, I noticed that they had beautiful yellow fin tuna steaks.  Typically out of my price range, I figured what the hell, Eat Delicious Food Day only comes once a year — and seared tuna certainly is delicious.  I also remembered having some toasted sesame seeds at home, which makes the perfect crust for seared tuna.

Next on to the produce section to find something to stuff the ravioli with, and perhaps the base for a sauce for the tuna.  The mushroom section had these gigantic Portobello mushrooms, probably one foot across.  So I grabbed one of those, a handful of shitaki mushrooms, and later a plain goat cheese to mix with the mushrooms cooked down in red wine to serve as the stuffing for the ravioli.

Then serendipity brought the sun chokes.  I had eaten them in a restaurant before, but never cooked with them.  So I got on my iPhone Epicurious App, and saw that sun chokes are often pureed and used as a base for a protein.  So I grabbed a pound on them, boiled them in milk and blended the whole thing with some garlic and fresh ginger.  I also added a dash of sesame oil to match the sesame seed crust on the tuna.

Then on to find some bones to make a stock.  Not even on a normal day will I settle with store-bought broth for this dish.  Ravioli en brodo is a very simple dish relying entirely on well-made ravioli and a rich stock.  Store-bought broth simply doesn’t have the richness or depth needed for this dish.  Unfortunately, no bones were to be found.  So instead, I made the simple switch to a pesto and ravaged my basil plant that is somehow still growing like a champion in my apartment.  I then decided on pistachio nuts instead of the typical pine nuts.  Pistachios tend to stay chunkier in a pesto than do pine nuts, and adding a crunch seemed like a good contrast to the soft ravioli.

As for the chocolate mousse dessert, my girlfriend deserves all the credit.  Late in the afternoon, she just decided to make the dessert.  About an hour later, and thanks partially to the amazing-ness of KitchenAid standing mixers, the mousse was done and chilling in wine glasses.

Garganelli Pasta

Indeed, what better way to celebrate the valentine’s day dinner than using this wonderful gift from my loved ones. The pasta dish of choice for me was creamy and velvety chicken alfredo. Chicken alfredo is too fattening for everyday but is an excellent rich once-in-a-while meal. I don’t like alfredo sauce from a jar in grocery or prefer sweating too much for it. So I decided to make a very simple and easy, yet gourmet chicken alfredo from these simple ingredients;  1 cup pasta, ½ lb chicken breast, plain cream cheese, white wine, black pepper, salt and butter.

Cook 1 cup pasta in at least 3 cups of drinking water seasoned with ½ teaspoon of salt. Adding fat (oil, butter) while cooking pasta does not stop it from sticking together. The key is to use enough water to prevent pasta from sticking together. The recommended ratio for pasta and water is at least 1:3. It is always better to boil more water than to get stuck with sticky undercooked pasta. If there is enough water, you also don’t need to stir pasta too much. Add pasta after salt water starts boiling. Cook for about 15 minutes or so until al dente.  Cooking al dente means that pasta (rice or bean) is cooked throughout but still retains its firm texture, i.e., is not mushy due to overcooking.  Do not rinse pasta after cooking.  Good quality durum wheat (semolina) pasta should not release too much starch and whatever remaining starch there is will help stick sauce to the pasta.

Cut chicken into bite size pieces. My preference is ½ inch x 1 inch size. Sprinkle coat with black pepper.

Organic Chicken Breast from Wholefoods

Heat ½ tablespoon butter in a large pan over high heat.

Half Cooked Chicken

Lower heat to medium. Add 4-5 tablespoons of cream cheese.

Cream Cheese and Chicken

Add ¼ cup white wine. Here I used cooking white wine.

Alfredo Sauce

I tasted the cooked flavored garganelli pasta by itself before mixing with the sauce. I could taste strong turmeric flavor and delicate spinach flavor in yellow (1) and green (5) pastas, respectively. I could not detect strong flavors in other pastas but could tell there was a subtle hint of hidden flavor. The image shows cooked pasta on top and raw pasta on bottom.

Cooked and Raw Garganelli Pasta

Add cooked pasta. Mix.

Simmering Chicken Alfredo

The chicken alfredo was creamy and rich and had a simple flavor with hint of wine and black pepper. You can substitute a tablespoon of cream cheese with other cheeses such as parmesan for flavor. Other things you can do for flavor is add caramelized shallots, add vegetables such as spinach. Instead of chicken (or along with it), you can also add mushrooms. There are lots of ways to flavor this dish, play with it and you may stumble into deliciousness. Eat!

Chicken Alfredo

While raiding my pantry, I found a remaining bag of atta, Indian whole wheat flour. Ma used to make parathas, a type of flatbread for my sister with it when she visited a few months back. Next to it, I found a jar of pasta sauce. I knew that I had cheese in my fridge. Luckily, I had a pouch of instant dry yeast in the pantry. This obviously lead to – pizza.

Atta, active dry yeast, pinch of sugar and salt. Mix.

Adding active yeast to Atta

Add lukewarm water heated in a microwave. Keep 1:2 ratio of water to flour. Add a few teaspoons to olive oil. Knead. Here, I accidently splashed more olive oil. Too much of fat weaken the gluten network , tenderize and moisten the bread. It will result in a crumbly and flaky crust similar to traditional southern biscuit breads and scones.

Pizza dough

Let the dough rest.

Roll it flat with hand on a baking sheet. Pile up sauce and top with cheese.

Pizza just before the oven

Bake in 400F for 12-15 mins until crust gets golden brown.

Cooked Pizza!!

Honestly, it wasn’t either the best or among the worst pizza that I ever had. It was the best pizza I ever ate in a snowstorm and indeed it had sweet taste of victory for an indignant like myself.

While washing all the dishes, I realized that I was running out of dish washing soap. Maybe, I should have gone grocery shopping. However, when I dug deep in my storage, I found a box of barely used dishwasher detergent. I was saved.

The one thing I wanted my cousin M’sha to get me from Nepal was Jimbu (or jhiku-cha). According to a thesis on Jimbu, it is actually two species of perennial Allium herbs (from family of onions), Allium hypsistum and Allium przewalskianum. They grow in harsh dry and arid climates like that of Mustang, where the use of Jimbu as a spice may have started. The stalks of Jimbu plants are sundried and stored for use as a spice. While cooking, stalks of dried Jimbu are fried in ghee, to bring out their flavors, and then added to a dish. In Mustang, it is used to spice vegetables, lentils, pickles, and even meat. In rest of Nepal, it is commonly used to flavor  a type of lentil, split urad dal. Interestingly, urad dal’s scientific name is Vigna mungo (no kidding!) and it is more commonly known as Kalo or Kali (black) dal.

Like any herb of Allium species, it has perhaps high glutamate content (or glutamic acid – one of the amino acids).  Glutamate is responsible for the umami or meaty flavor and also enhances flavors of other foods by stimulating certain receptors in the taste buds.

When cooking urad dal, I fried a big pinch of Jimbu that my cousin M brought nearly a year ago. It was sealed in air tight zipped lock bag and seemed fine. After frying a few strands of Jimbu, it smelled of umami. I tasted few strands of fried Jimbu and it tasted similar to monosodium glutamate or MSG (yes I have tasted it!).

Frying Jimbu

Urad dal also has a high amount of glutamate. Perhaps, it is not a coincidence that this combination of urad dal and Jimbu evolved to marry these two glutamate rich flavors giving us umami explosion in mouth, and vegans are included this time. Here is how I made my urad dal with Jimbu.

Split dry Urad dal (Kalo dal)

Wash and soak it overnight (use drinking water). My rule is 3 (water) to 1 (urad) ratio.

Overnight soaked urad dal

Cook in medium/low heat for 1-2 hour. My rule is 1 (water) to 1 (urad) ratio.

When dal is cooked mash few of the beans to get a thick consistency.

Fry Jimbu in ghee (or margarine for vegans). Add to urad dal. Traditionally, any fried spices or garnish (tadka) is added at the end, just before serving. However, I like adding my tadka, simmer the dal to let the flavor naturally mingle. For a novice, resulting dal may look dark mushy soup. My suggestion is to reserve your judgment until you taste it.

Urad dal with strands of fried Jimbu

Best served with basmati rice.

Since I never made crab cakes and too lazy to google recipes, I reverse engineered my $20+ crab cake brunch. My recipe translated into following;

Ingredients for my faux crab cakes

2 cans of 5-6 oz tuna
You can use and other canned fish. Here I used a can of tuna and chopped clams because that’s what I had in my pantry. Make sure not to throw out all the oily water from canned fish. You can use it for binding the fish cake.

3 tablespoon cream cheese
Adds creaminess!

⅓– ½ cup Italian style bread crumbs
Change quantity depending on the consistency of the cake batter and flavor.  Yes, you can taste your batter to check seasoning.

½ cup spinach
Just because my ma said I need greens in my diet.

Mix everything while cautiously adjusting amount of breadcrumbs. You need to get slightly more consistency than fresh cookie dough that can be shaped into a flat tuna cakes. Avoid grinding too much because it will remove flaky texture of the fish.

Heat 1 tablespoon of butter in pan over medium low heat.

Cooking tuna cakes. It's tempting but don't rush turning over.

Put cake and wait at least a few minutes before first turn (unless you suspect burning, then your heat is way high). Turn it once or twice more until you get a nice golden brown color.

My Faux Crab Cakes!

Enjoy. PS. my cakes are darker brown because I like crunchy coating.

Tastes good what if it's made from canned tuna!

One dish we both agree on is Chili con Carne.  It’s not Desi, it’s actually Spanish or Mexican but because its so spicy I love it.  I looked up a few recipes online and played around with the ingredients to my own taste.  My Chili con Carne is meat heavy and I have made it with both black beans and kidney beans, each version was delicious and you can choose whatever you prefer.  The great thing about Chili is that a lot of the ingredients can be stocked in your pantry for a later date, you can substitute things that are missing, add veggies as you like and still create a great tasting Chili.  I recently made this as a side for a dinner party.  I took some pictures of the ingredients but got too busy during the actual party to take pictures of the finished product.

For Kinza’s Chili con Carne you will need the following:

• 1lb Ground beef
• 1 Onion
• 1 Bell Pepper (Green, Red, Orange or Yellow, whatever you like or can find)
• 6 Mushrooms
• 2 cans Kidney beans (can substitute Black beans)
• 2 cans Corn
• 1 can Tomatoe Sauce (can substitute Tomatoe soup, paste, diced tomatoes, or 3 fresh tomatoes)
• 1 teaspoon Hot sauce
• 1 teaspoon Red chili powder
• Salt (to taste – generally I add 1 teaspoon of iodized table salt)
• Pepper (to taste – generally I add 1 teaspoon of freshly ground pepper)

Serves 10-12.

First, saute the onion in the pot for a few minutes, making sure it doesn’t burn.

Then add the ground beef.  Brown the beef, and then drain the excess liquid.  My mom doesn’t mind leaving the liquid in, I just feel healthier draining it.

Now add the rest of the ingredients, beans, corn, tomatoe sauce, bellpepper, mushrooms, and hot sauce.   Add the red chili powder (I recommend adding half a teaspoon at a time to gauge the spice level).    Add salt and pepper to taste.

Cover and let simmer for forty minutes.  Stir occasionally to ensure the Chili isn’t burning at the bottom.

You can taste the chili as it cooks to check if you’d like to add the rest of the red chili powder or if its already spicy enough for you.