How to Make Chili in Spain (Without Tomate Frito)

The Ayuntamiento, City Hall, of Bilbao

The other evening, Matt and I were feeling a bit homesick. That, combined with the drop in temperature, prompted us to attempt to make chili. After going to 3 different grocery stores, we cooked it up and it turned out AWESOME. I thought some of my other expat friends might want the recipe, so I have decided to share.

"Brown" 1 kg of "ground beef" with a chopped medium sized onion. I say "brown" because the meat doesn't really get brown, more of a gray color. I say "ground beef" because all we found was a mixture of lamb, pork, and beef, shaped into hamburger patties.

Stir in...

-2 cans of chopped tomatoes. We found them pretty easily.

-A can of red beans

-A can or half a package of black beans...feel free to experiment with the beans, since there's so much variety here. You can never have too many beans in chili!

-A squirt of beef bouillon ("caldo de carne")

-Tabasco sauce to taste

-Dash of salt and pepper

-Dash of cumin ("cominos")

-Dash of cayanne pepper...both spices were easy to find. I added a lot more since the recipe I had called for chili powder, and I couldn't find that anywhere.

Bring to a boil stirring occasionally. Reduce heat, cover and simmer 20-30 minutes.

This makes quite a bit, so we froze some of it for later.

We also found that "Boca Bites" were a great substitution for Fritos, which I love in my chili.

Obviously, since it's chili, you can add really whatever you want. Just thought that this would be a good start to anyone in Spain who wants a little taste of home!

Originally published 10.24.10