White Chilli

I love chilli, really love it...I love the heat, I love the beans and I love the sour cream and shredded cheese topping. Oh! and the tortillas of course.  My problem is that of the few meat chillis I have attempted in the past I have never really been impressed.  It is most likely because I have gone for speedy versions and a really good chilli takes hours for the meat to really break down.  For this reason I usually stick to making a vegetarian chilli that calls for Bulgar Wheat to thicken it. 

Last night I tried something different...

White Chilli.  I am not exactly sure why it is called white chilli, since it is more of a greeny colour.  I can only assume the name comes from the fact that white beans provide the bulk of the meal.  

If pressed I wouldn't actually call this a chilli.  It does have all the heat and punch of a good chilli but...as a description I would say that this is more of a Mexican spiced bean stew...but hey, that's my opinion. Regardless of what it is called this is a good recipe.  You use a bottle of Corona (the recipe says Mexican Beer but I think that Corona, or Sol, has a very distinct flavour) to boil chopped peppers, jalapenos and onion with some chilli flakes and ground cumin to make a stock...that is gorgeous on its own (I'm trying to think of ways I could use it...shredded chicken soup maybe?).  

This chilli recipe calls for a lot of liquid...the bottle of beer and 400ml of stock.  It looked far too wet when I added the beans in so at the same time I sprinkled in 4 Tbsp of Bulgar Wheat.  I think that the addition of the bulgar really made a difference, with out it the chilli would have been far too liquidy.  The next time I make this I'll make up the whole 400ml of stock but only add half at the beginning and then I can add more if it seems to dry.  Or, more beans. 

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