My Guinness Chilli

This is known amongst my friends as my signature dish – and not to be too much of an arrogant prick about it, but it is pretty damn good. It's wonderful as a winter warmer, and it's proven a popular potluck contribution. You may not expect Guinness to work here but it’s actually a really worthwhile addition. However, don’t just use any Guinness. I’ve experimented with all three major brands of the black stuff, and the best one to use is Guinness Extra Stout (Foreign Extra is also doable but don’t add more than half a bottle, as it’s just too strong and will totally undermine the flavour of the spices and Draught just doesn’t work for many reasons, namely that it’s just meant to be drunk as a tap beer). 

The reason why I decided to use Guinness is not particularly interesting: I’d been looking to add beer to chilli for some time and decided to consult some (very wanky and pretentious) craft-beer internet forums to help me decide what type of beer to use. Many people had posed this question before – so keen were they to alcoholicize their dinners – and the many of the beer suggestions I saw were bizarre to say the very least. I saw some people insist that only Belgian blonde beer works, and some were even advocating on behalf of Corona Extra, a beer laden with high fructose corn syrup, or Desperados, a tequila-flavoured beer packed with additives (excuse me while I bang my head on the table until it bleeds). Their suggestions were not only controversial or unhealthy, but they were also nonsensical. It made no sense to me that people wanted to add light, wheat beers or sugary, chemical beers to a chilli, a dish I see as warm, dark, and succulent in nature. Any beer added to chilli needs to complement these characteristics, and the only beer I could think of was a stout such as Guinness Extra Stout. I’m positive that other beers would work (such as a bitter ale or a black lager), but I’m too convinced by the power of the black stuff to venture away from it. It also allows me an excuse to put a North Atlantic twist on a Southern dish, a means for combatting homesickness perhaps!

Mind you, Guinness is not to everyone’s taste, so you can add equivalent amounts of water if you want a non-alcoholic version – the chilli will be just as good, honestly. Also, Guinness is filtered through fish bladder; so if you’re a strict vegetarian or vegan (or someone who prefers not to drink the remnants of an aquatic creature’s excretory system), try substituting it for another stout. It shouldn’t be anything too harsh-tasting, so if you’re curious about what may work, head to the liquor store and ask for a veggie-friendly beer that resembles Guinness Extra Stout, and the local beerhead should be able to help you out.

On another chilli-related note - there are many ways to serve your chilli. You could treat it as a soup and ladle it into a bowl, perhaps with a side of cornbread. My preferred serving method is over a bed of brown rice, but it is also delicious as a topping for a baked potato. Whatever way you serve your chilli, you can’t go wrong with a sprinkling of cheese on top (as with most things in life, it’s better with cheese).

Chilli simmering away in my college dorm kitchen.

Served on a bed of white rice mixed with spinach for a hearty dinner. 

Serves 8 people – depending on serving method and hunger level

Ingredients:

1 large white onion, finely chopped

2 large sticks of celery, diced

2 garlic gloves, finely chopped

6 button mushrooms, quartered

2/3-cup sweetcorn (can be frozen or canned)

1 large green bell pepper

1-2 jalapeño peppers (amount dependent upon desired level of spiciness)

1 teaspoon tomato purée

1 can black beans, drained and rinsed

1 can pinto beans, drained and rinsed

1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1 large or 2 regular-sized cans of chopped tomatoes

1 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds

1 tablespoon rapeseed oil

1 teaspoon chilli powder

1 teaspoon coriander

1/2 teaspoon ground ginger

1 tablespoon cumin

1 vegetable stock cube

1 12oz/330ml bottle of Guinness Extra Stout (optional, but a massive enhancement in my opinion!)

Method:

Dice the onion and celery into small pieces.

Warm the rapeseed oil for one minute in a large stockpot and add the mustard seeds. Cover tightly and leave until the mustard seeds have popped (you can hear them pop, and because they pop, and go everywhere, you have to cover them). Add the onion and celery immediately and cook, stirring frequently, for about 5-7 minutes, until the onions are just starting to brown.

Add the garlic bell pepper mushrooms and sweetcorn and cook for 7 more minutes, until softened. If using frozen sweetcorn, you don’t need to defrost it, just cook for a further 2 minutes.

Add the stock cube, the can of chopped tomatoes and the tomato puree and warm through. Add jalapeños and the beans after about 3 minutes.

Season with cumin, ginger, coriander, chilli powder. I don’t like to add salt, as most stock cubes tend to have a lot of it, but if you want some, pop it in.

Pour in the Guinness. If you’re not using Guinness, add 330ml of water. Stir in and bring to the boil. Reduce the heat to low and leave to cook for at least 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.

After 20-25 minutes, the chilli will be ready, but chilli’s one of those slow cook foods. The longer you leave it, the more flavourful it will be. If you’re short on time, perhaps make it the night before.