Garden chili

Barb and I made some *amazing* chili tonight. We didn’t take notes while whipping this up, but I’m pretty sure we remembered all the ingredients. We haven’t got many ripe tomatoes yet, so we just grabbed a bunch of cherry tomatoes and one or two of each of the hot peppers we’re growing.

Р2 jalape̱o peppers, roasted and peeled
– 1 “Big Jim” pepper, roasted and peeled
– 1 chile relleno pepper, roasted and peeled
– 2 lbs ground chuck
– 2 cloves garlic, minced or pressed
– ½ onion, minced
– about 1 dozen cherry tomatoes, halved
– 1 can (15 oz) tomato sauce (we used Fire Roasted Chipotle)
– 1 cayenne pepper, minced
– 1 pepperoncini, minced
– 2 Tbsp homemade chili powder
– ½ Tbsp cumin
– 1 tsp paprika
– ¾ tsp oregano
– ¾ tsp salt, to taste
– 1 can (12 oz) beer

Fire up your grill and roast the peppers. You want the skin to char, so get the fire pretty hot. Be sure to pierce the peppers! Otherwise they tend to burst. Once the peppers are nicely charred all around, place them in a paper bag, fold it closed and let them sit on the counter for 20 minutes. Meanwhile…

Over medium-high heat, brown the beef in a large casserole. Drain the excess fat and lower the heat to medium-low. Add the garlic, onion, tomatoes and sauce. The roasted peppers are probably ready by now, so scrape the char off and removed the stems and seeds. Mince all the peppers (roasted and fresh), and add to the beef. Add chili powder, cumin, paprika, and oregano and mix well. Pour in the can of beer and adjust heat to fast simmer. Add salt to taste. Let simmer for at least 30 minutes.