French food focus-About living and cooking in rural France,recipes,lifestyle,comments

FRENCH FOOD FOCUS Latest Post Other Posts Recent Older Truffles Cassoulet Index of Recipes L inks House Sitters FiFi About me About 'My' France Comments to: yankinparisot@gmail.com Archives		Life in rural France - Food - Friends - Wine - Cheese - Comments Welcome to French Food Focus. The name describes the intent of this blog. I'll focus on food and because I live in rural France the stress will be upon French food. There are numerous posts concerning life in France and, certainly, opinions about anything that strikes my fancy. If you have some good recipes or if you want to rave about any great French restaurants this is the place to do it. I hope you enjoy my ramblings about rural France! Click Here to send me a comment
		This is our village. Our house is the white one at the top right.
	Cold DAY Chili I made this for a lunch on a cold day recently. INGREDIENTS: a large tube of tomato puree or a can A large can of whole tomatoes 2 large cans of red kidney beans 1 pound of good quality minced beef 1 large carrot 1 large yellow onion 2 stalks of celery Spices as below plus salt & pepper a couple of cups of cheap red wine METHOD: Chop the carrots, onion & celery into a dice. Sweat them in a large saucepan with oil or butter until soft, but not browned. Remove the vegetable mix from the pan & set aside. Add the minced beef to the pan, turn up the heat and brown the beef. Turn the heat down. Put the vegetables back in the pan & add the beans (drained), tomatoes (drained) & tomato puree. Add the red wine & bring the mixture to a boil, then reduce the heat to a simmer. Here's the fun part. Start adding the spices. The mixture is up to you, but you want for sure to add the following: - a packet of 'Old El Paso' chili mix if available. - a good dose of ground cumin - Paprika - red chili flakes - dried cilantro (coriander) - salt & pepper Stir all of this in & keep tasting & adjusting until you get the flavor & degree of hotness you want. Now just let the chili simmer for as long as you like, up to 4-5 hours, stirring every so often. The chili will actually be good to eat after an hour, but more time won't hurt. If it seems to be setting too dry just add more wine. Linda likes her chili served over white rice, I don't. Strictly a matter of taste. Grating some strong cheddar cheese to put over the chili is nice as is a good dollop of sour cream. If I've made the chili fairly mild to please other I like to make & serve it with a strong salsa for those who like more oomph.