If you are preparing your dry kidney beans, start the day before serving. Rinse thoroughly in a colander, and then soak in a large bowl or your cooking pot overnight. We used a pressure cooker the next day and added plenty of water with a tablespoon of salt and cooked for several hours on low. This step is only necessary if you want to go the “from scratch” route. While cooking beans, be sure to check in every once in a while to make sure the beans still have enough water to cook in as they can dry and burn if you don’t have enough water.

Peel, slice and dice onions and fry in frying pan add some lard or butter (a tablespoon or two) to the pot and heat on low until slightly cooked.

Slice celery and mince or finely chop garlic and add to the pan, stirring in.

Quarter and scorch bell pepper on a burner. The scorching is not necessary but we like the flavour it imparts. Dice into smaller pieces and add to the frying pan. Cook with other veggies for several minutes.

Once veggies are cooked a bit, add your meat to the pot. Be sure to break up any large chunks and cook with the veggies until mean is slightly “browned” (pork doesn’t brown like other meats) but still moist.

Add your tomatoes, spices, and salt in at this point, stir thoroughly and top up with water if it is not wet enough. This might be only a cup or so. We didn’t have to add water as our stewed tomatoes had enough water in them

Cook on low and stir every once in a while, checking in to make sure chili is getting moved around and not burnt.

After 2-3 hours on low, chili flavours should be infused nicely and stewed to perfection. Make sure all along that the chili is moist and add water if necessary. Some like their chili with a lot of sauce, but we like ours wet but not too “watery.”