I love food and cooking has always fascinated me.  But cook I seldom do.  I can come up with a good number of reasons why but that would just be justifying.  Admittedly, it has been a while since I endeavored to cook something new and exciting, let alone raved about it.  I attempted to start several years ago and failed miserably.  The sorry number of posts listed on my “culinary endeavors” category is proof of that.  But that will hopefully change soon.  Yeah, I have resolved to cook one new dish a month.   Pretty doable, right?  Who says you can’t start a resolution mid-year?

So I flipped through my cookbooks that were collecting dust, wandered through some of my favorite blogs and stumbled on this.  I love Chili con Carne but A (I found out) is not too crazy about it.  Yikes!  He gave the thumbs up though, but maybe that was just to cheer me on.  Hee hee!   😛

I was enticed to try this because of the many versions that can be made depending on one’s preference.  It’s a recipe that I can own.  A good first attempt, don’t you think?  Here’s the recipe I ended up with.

Baked Chili Con Carne

• ½ kilo ground beef
• 1 cup diced onions
• 3 chopped garlic cloves
• 1 cup corn kernel
• 1 16 oz.  canned kidney beans
• 1 tbsp. dried oregano
• 1 tbsp. ground cumin
• ½ bottle of dark brown beer
• 2 14 oz. cans diced or crushed tomatoes with liquid
• salt
• pepper
• dash of cayenne pepper

For Garnish:

• shredded cheese (I used cheddar & mozzarella)
• 2 eggs

Here’s what you do:

• Brown the beef in a large pot.  Remove. Set aside, drain the fats.
• Add around 2tbsp. canola oil to the pot and cook the vegetables until soft.  Add the beef back and then the seasonings.
• Add the beans, tomatoes, and beer.  Then add salt & pepper to taste.  Adjust seasonings if needed.  Let simmer, partially covered, for an hour.  Stir every 20 minutes.
• Transfer to a baking dish, crack the eggs and top with cheese.
• Bake in 180˚ C until the egg white is set.

I would have loved to try it with chocolate, which goes well with chili, but A is not a big fan of spicy hot dishes so I decided against it.  This one turned out well.  With a little inspiration here, I added eggs and truth to tell, I think this was what won A’s  approval.