OK, I've been cooking this chili since 9 am. I was worried that the dried beans I used wouldn't cook right; it seems you really need to use water to cook them, not chicken broth or other liquids.
I decided to taste some now to see, although it's got 2 more hours to go. The black beans are ok; I got them from the freezer, and it's possible I partially cooked them before freezing them. (Can't remember.) But the red kidney beans are still quite hard!
I looked at the bag and it said cook a half pound in 4 cups of water. That's a lot of liquid. All the liquid I had in the chili was about 2 cups of watery tomatoes I'd frozen from last summer's veggie garden. Plus I added a few tablespoons of a jarred pasta sauce. And I used half a pound of the kidney beans, or about 1 cup.
So, I hope I didn't ruin it, but it seemed I needed to add more H20 to the chili. I hated doing it, but I added 2 cups of hot water, which has made it really watery. I'm hoping those beans will absorb all that water.
What do you think?
I also turned the temp to High; it was on Low all day.
Did I ruin my chili?
January 28th, 2012 at 11:21 pm