Categories
Musings Writing

Me, and the World

You are who you are

No imitations found thus far

To social norms although you fold

Your true self you forever must hold

 

I am probably the last person to talk about individualism vs conformity, especially since I can’t seem to make up my mind. On one hand, I can be individualistic to the border of selfishness, yet at the next turn you find me the most rule obeying person ever to live on this earth. For that I blame my zodiac sign for a Gemini duality. #BornThisWay

Friends often admit that they find me confusing in the initial stages of our friendship, simply because they can’t seem to get a consistent read on me. How I react to similar situations could vary, and things they thought I would go crazy over would just get a derisive snort in return. That meant they felt I was intimidating, not because I’m fierce, but they couldn’t predict with 100% certainty how I would react. However, being around me is usually fun and entertaining, simply because I’m unpredictable, so they never know what I would say next. And I make links and comments to topics that are so off the charts that it’s hilarious, especially delivered most nonchalantly. That, and my constant resting bitch face.

It used to bother me, hearing my friends admit that they found me scary. For a while I used to go out of my way to be chirpy and always upbeat, finding things to talk about whenever there is a silence in the conversation. It was tiring, and unsustainable. I would go home from catching up with friends mentally exhausted and just wanting to avoid human interaction for a couple of days. I got more irritable at work and at home, and struggled even more to suppress that rising annoyance at every little thing. During the time, I was playing a Massive Multi-player Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG) and I started being mean to the players from opposing teams, saying nasty things to them, and generally being an online troll.

Then a couple of years ago I changed company and met a bunch of co-workers with whom I felt a great connection with. I realised that you can be yourself, and be loved for your individuality. They celebrated that I’m a little out-of-this-world and quirky. We can discuss a wide variety of topics from socio-politics, to the latest fashion trends. The variation of characters and personalities in the company is wide enough for me to find someone with common interests in almost every aspect, be in health and fitness, to weekend partying, and serious business discussions. They don’t just tolerate the weird part of me, but embrace it with a greater fervour than I’ve ever experienced. A couple of times I was taken aback, because sometimes they seem to understand me better than I do myself. Rarely do I find folks who can catch the random comments I make, and field them back, much less continue the same random conversation thread that keeps everyone else in stitches.

We all still play by the rules, and conform to conventional social norms, and behave. We are not radicals, forever out there fighting against the institution or against the rules. We might scoot awfully close to the edge, but always within, never crossing the border.

Despite that, we are our own person, in this current time and space. That, in my recent epiphany, is the only thing that we need to truly hold on to. Never should we give up our own true self to bend to any social norms or rules.

Be yourself, and the Universe will find you a place you belong.

Categories
Food Recipes

Pan-fried Salmon with Zucchini Noodles

Salmon is my favourite fish. It’s full of good fats and a great source of protein. It is also one of those ingredients that can be prepared in a million different ways, be it raw, steamed, baked, pan-fried etc. No matter the preparation, it’s pretty much going to be a great dish.

Today I decided to pan-fry a fillet and while figuring out what base to put it on, I came by some zucchinis and had a flash of inspiration. What could be better than a bed of zucchini noodles?

Ingredients

  • Salmon fillet
  • Zucchini
  • Salt
  • Pepper
  • Flour

Sauce

  • Creamy peanut butter x 1 tbsp
  • Tabasco Sauce x 1 tsp
  • Salt

 

PREPARATION:

Salmon

1) Pat dry the salmon on both sides. The dryer the better.

2) Season salmon with salt and pepper

3) Sprinkle a pinch of flour on the skin. This allows the salmon skin to dry up even more. After all, the dryer the better. 🙂

4) Heat some olive oil in a skillet on high heat

5) Place salmon in skillet skin side down, and bring down to medium heat. Pan-frying salmon needs to be a gradual rise in temperature so that the fillet is nicely cooked throughout, yet the skin is just nice and crispy. If the heat is too strong the skin burns up very quickly and will be flaky.

6) Lightly press it to the pan for 30 – 60s, paying extra attention to the centre. Salmon very lightly curls up in the heat so you need to ensure that you get even crisping of the skin.

7) Skin side of salmon should pan fry for about 4-5 mins, depending on thickness.

An indicator that the skin side is done is that the fish will lift off the pan extremely easily without any force. I also usually take an estimate by looking at the sides of the salmon. As long as both the sides are fully cooked, it is about time to flip it.

8) Flip salmon over and continue to cook the flesh side for another 2-3 mins.

9) Take off pan and leave to rest

Zucchini Noodles (Zoodles)

1) Making the zoodles depends on personal preference. You can use a julienne peeler, or if you like thicker cut noodles, you can use a potato peeler and then slide them up. Just remember to remove both tips first.

2) In the same skillet that you were pan-frying the salmon, turn the heat back up and add the zoodles to the pan. There is no need to add anymore oil, as using the residual oil in the pan after the salmon will add more taste to the zoodles.

3) Stir fry for 3-5 mins, until tender.

4) If you are doing a serving of one, you can do this in the same skillet while the salmon is pan-frying.

To serve

1) To make the sauce for the zoodles, whisk all the sauce ingredients in a bowl together with some oil from the skillet.

2) Add the zoodles into the sauce and mix well

3) Serve salmon on top of the zoodles

 

Enjoy!

 

Categories
Recipes

Spicy Korean Chicken Stew

 

In my opinion, this is a simple meal that is sure to impress. The cooking time is relatively short and there is quite a lot of flexibility in the dish and you can safely change ingredients around or use different chicken parts. The gochujang provides most of the flavour in the dish so there is less messing around with the flavouring.

I’ve cooked this dish with full chicken wings (chopped into 3 parts), thighs, drumlets, mid-wings etc and they’ve all turned out great. The only thing you’d need to pay attention to is time, as mid-wings cook very quickly and will dis-integrate if they are cooked for too long. If you are using a mix of mid-wings & drumlets, they’ve got to go into the pot at slightly different times. This ensures you don’t get a pile of bones with no meat on it when those mid-wings break apart. Alternatively, you can use the whole chicken, chopped into medium sized pieces or thigh meat.

Ingredients:

  • 1 kg chicken (chopped into mid-sized pieces)
  • 5 mid sized carrots
  • 5 mid sized potatoes
  • 2 large yellow onions
  • 6 Fresh garlic cloves (peeled)
  • 1.5L Water

Marinate:

  • Korean spicy paste (gochujang)
  • Chili powder
  • Light soy sauce
  • 3-4 garlic cloves, sliced

Method:

  1. Marinate the chicken in 3 tbps of light soy sauce, 3 tbps of gochujang and chili powder. Leave to rest for at least one hour.
  2. Cut potatoes, carrots & onions into roughly the same size as the chicken pieces.
  3. Heat up a little oil in a pot and stir fry all the potatoes, carrots, onions & garlic for a few minutes. This releases the flavours before stewing and it enhances the intensity of the stew. Remove.
  4. Pan fry the chicken in the same pot. Ensure to let the chicken brown for a while.
  5. Add potatoes, carrots & onions back into the pot and mix it with the chicken.
  6. Add water and bring to boil.
  7. Bring to a simmer let it simmer for 60 mins, or until chicken is soft.
  8. Taste along the way and add more gochujang as necessary.
  9. Garnish with scallions.

 

 

Categories
Music Singapore Writing

5 reasons to watch Muse live

 

There are certain acts that you have to watch at least once in a lifetime, and Muse is most definitely one of them. They are not one of those typical bands who sound pretty much the same as the CDs, with very little imagination and showmanship. They are also not the band that comes on stage and takes your breath away by just playing. Muse comes on, and puts on a show. And a god damned good one at that. You’re not going to, at any point, be closing your eyes to let the music wash over you. To go to a Muse concert means you are ready to get your groove on and work those calves and vocal cords like you have never worked them before.

5 reasons why Muse performances are awesometastic:

1. Superior technical skills

It is a given that, for all great bands, there is at least one member who is extremely skilled in their instrument. The gem here is that all 3 Muse members are crazily talented in their own area of expertise.

Matthew Bellamy. He is a man entirely in his own world. And I think he enjoys it way too much. Multi-talented with a ridiculous vocal range and crazy guitar skills, the only thing that could go wrong with him would probably be his fashion sense. Or lack of one. Thank heavens that he was only in a simple black shirt and pants, and not one of his crazy get-ups. I didn’t get to hear Supremacy which would have totally made my night, but though you don’t hear every single word, his voice carries the emotion through perfectly.

Bassist Chris Wolstenholme picked up the instrument only in the early 90s to be able to join Muse, and for a guy who used to play drums, he gone on to be voted top bassist of all time in 2011, a mere 14 years since he first started learning. Watching him play, you would have thought he was born with a bass in his tiny baby hands. His ability is sound, and his groove is always spot on. Just listen to Hysteria. I don’t think I need to say any more than that.

And who cares if your drummer cannot carry a tune, if he can control the beats as well as Dom. His drumming is super creative, probably due to the lack of any formal training. No rules for Dom! Even though he was hidden from my view by Chris, you can feel his energy and his passion, holding the band together as one.

 

2. Insanely energetic performance

90 minutes through the roof energy and song after song, non-stop. Not a moment’s break at all for this trio. No chit-chat to catch their breath, no long breaks in between sections, no moving off-stage except once when Matthew went off-stage for the drum & bass interlude. I honestly have no idea where these guys get their energy from, the adrenalin must be coursing through them by the end of the night.

When you look at the set list, you have pretty much rocked through Psycho, Dead Inside, Hysteria, Citizen Erased, Supermassive Black Hole, Uprising. And ended the night with Knights of Cydonia.

How can you beat that?

 

3. Solid rock out audience

When the show starts with the MV opening for Psycho and fans start screaming, you instantly know that you are in for an incredible show. There simply cannot be a better way to open a show than 9,000 fans screaming ‘A Fucking Psycho’. And guess what? It didn’t stop at just one song. Fans knew the right lines to sing (or scream) for almost every song! Being part of the moshpit meant that I was at the core of the action, but a look around the stadium, there wasn’t a soul not head banging and rocking out to their songs.

One last thing, UPRISING SINGAPORE!!!!!!

 

4. They don’t kiss ass

Great bands don’t need to talk too much. Just deliver the goods, over and over again. Never once during the whole session did they introduce themselves, I mean, all of us were there for them, why should they bother to do self introductions? Not a word of how they love Singapore, or how they miss playing here and all that ass kissing shit. Just straight up rocking out all night. The entire duration, I suspect they uttered about 10 words in totality. Maybe even less.

The changeover from their supporting band took almost 45 mins, and they didn’t care that we were waiting. Nothing to apologise for! Some performers love to wait a lifetime before coming back for the encore, but Muse was just gone for less than 5 mins, not even enough time for a smoke. After the final song, it was a quick bow and then off they go, techs come up and stadium lights come on.

 

5. Balloons

Every. Single. Show. It’s as if they are in love with those damned balloons. Though I have to say, it injects an insane amount of joy and entertainment during the last song. Queuing up for 7 hours, and making it to first row in the standing pen was absolutely worth it. I’d do it again in a heart beat.

To the next Muse concert!!!

Categories
Music

Why I Do Not Believe In Categorising Music

There. I’ve said it. I do not subscribe to the grouping of music into genres, or categories, or type. I never understood why we need to compartmentalise music into such narrow categories? Music is just music and everyone should have the flexibility to listen to what they love without being judged by their music tastes.

Take myself for example, I fist pump to X & L’arc-en-ciel; sing along with Backstreet Boys or Spice Girls; groove to the tunes of Pharrell Williams and Jason Mraz; going crazy with LMF and Snoop Dogg (or Lion); enjoying the trips DJ Tiesto & Paul Van Dyk brings me on.. So what am I supposed to say when people ask what type of music I like? Rock? Hip-hop? Dance? Pop? How about just music in general?

Maybe I’m one of the exceptions. Maybe most people do actually like only one ‘type’ of music, and completely identify with the label that comes with it. Now, don’t get me wrong. It isn’t a problem, not at all. I sometimes admire them, singular in their passion and belief, to be able to go all out to embrace the one thing that fires them up.

I know I’m weird, and the circuits in my brain don’t exactly wire the same way as others. Most people run closed loop circuits, the head and tail of my circuit hardly ever meet. So don’t ask me to sing along to any songs, or ask if I remember lyrics to this song or that. It just doesn’t work that way. Music, to me, is a blend of all the elements of the song – the melody, rhythm, the riffs, the vocals. I don’t hear lyrics, the vocals is an instrument in the song. I don’t know many people who are like this, most people have lyrics that they really love, or say their story or calls to them. I don’t. I just enjoy the music for what it is, lyrics included.

Maybe that is why I don’t put music in boxes. I simply let it fill my heart, mind and soul.

Categories
Musings

A Monumental Victory – For Love & Equality

There is only one thing I truly believe in – Equality.

I believe that we are all made equal in the eyes of the lord, no matter your religion. We are put on this earth for a reason and we each serve our own purpose. We inspire someone and make a difference to their lives. I do not believe in being prejudiced against someone simply because they are different.

Emotions such as love is, and should be, universal. Two willing parties fall in love and make the huge decision to want to spend the rest of their lives together, being the name that is written in the spouse section when filling out forms.Or even just to introduce their partner as their husband or wife, without having to feel guilty or judged. Everyone deserves to be treated the same in the eyes of the law, and nothing should get in the way of that.

We all deserve the right to love whoever we want. Nobody should have the right to take that away from us. Not especially if you are the majority. And I move to say that it is the responsibility of the stronger and more powerful majority to ensure that equal rights is something that is at the forefront of our minds. The majority needs to make the additional effort to understand and embrace the minority, because the minority has no choice but to assimilate. The majority is no more superior than the minority, the win is only in numbers.

We are who we are. It’s time for the majority to stop trying to change the minority to fit their idea of what is right. There is no right or wrong.

June 27th, 2015 – A day to remember, as we see the United States of America tell the rest of the world that they are still living the American Dream. Where everyone is free.

Categories
Musings Singapore

Singaporeans vs Lee Kuan Yew

I’m shocked that there are so many people who lack empathy and basic decency, to actually wish that someone would ‘just die already’. You may not agree with his policies and actions, but it is impossible not to recognise that Lee Kuan Yew has dedicated his life to what he believes to be the best for Singapore.

At the most challenging of times, where we were in a state of flux, he made the hard decisions. We make many hard decisions in our life, and I guarantee that we have all questioned if we could not have done it better. However, we all made these decisions with the information we had, and to the best of our abilities. But the decisions that we make affect only us, and our immediate surroundings. The decisions that he has to make impacts the entire nation. The stress of that responsibility is not something that everyone has the strength to shoulder. And for that, I respect him deeply.

No government is perfect, and every government has idiots in power. We are no different. Housing is ridiculously expensive, standard of living continues to rise but not salaries, our police force is pretty much useless, among other things.

Where we have fared a million times better than other countries, is that our basic necessities in life has been well taken care of. And I’m not talking about the material stuff. Those are secondary. It is the intangibles that truly matter. Safety, health, family.

It is safe to walk on the streets at night, and we do not have to suffer the fear of being robbed at gunpoint, of being raped, murdered, or any of the horrible things that occur frequently in so many other countries. Air is fresh so I don’t worry about dying because I run or cycle outdoors often. We are small so I can work in the same city where my family is, instead of having to look for work in another state / country.

And we have all these things, because a certain someone made many decisions during his leadership. Because a certain someone took a dictatorial hand in national matters.

Do I think we need to change? Of course I do. We can have debates and discussions about the arts, about homosexual topics, and everything under the sun because we are at a stage where we have the basic foundations and can fight for topics that are not directly related to our survival. Our current administration should relax their hold a little and engage the people more. But that is because we, as a nation, is stable. Do you think we can have these discussions if our primal instinct for survival is engaged? Who cares about the arts and homosexuals, if the nation is in poverty and cannot even feed ourselves?

Even if you do not agree with his decisions or directions, he is critically ill, and may not make it. Can’t people just put the negativity aside and at least hope that he goes in peace and without pain? Don’t these people have even an ounce of empathy in them? Think of his family! How would you feel, if someone cursed your father and hope that he would just die? Seriously, people, seriously.

So many Singaporeans are like frogs in a well looking up and thinking that is all there is to the sky. We all need to stop looking inwards, and start actually seeing what we have already achieved, and how we can continue to move forward. The only way Singapore can advance, is if the entire nation is working towards their own personal betterment.

Categories
Food Recipes

Rice Cooker ‘Claypot’ Chicken Rice

I like my fancy rice cooker with the added functions that make my life we easier, such as soup or congee function. There’s even a cake function which I tried once but failed so badly due to my laziness to measure the amount of flour to use.

There’s a recent rise in the popularity of simple one pot dishes, which I find extremely clever, seeing how busy our lives are. A simple one-dish wonder where all the staples and the nutrients are. The best part? Only one pot to wash. Absolutely perfect! Terribly awesome, until you realise how incredible it is with the rice cooker.

Other than the usual soups, I’ve cooked a variety of dishes using the rice cooker, such as Hokkien Fried Rice (鹹飯), mac&cheese and steamed carrot cake. So since I was craving for some claypot chicken rice that day, I decided to put my rice cooker to good use again.

This makes enough for 4.

Ingredients

  • 3 cups of rice, washed
  • 4 large chicken thighs (chopped into small pieces)
  • 4 Chinese sausages / lup cheong / 臘腸, cut into 1cm cubes (3/4) + thinly sliced (1/4)
  • 200g Shitake mushrooms, washed & thickly sliced
  • 4 Bok Choy

Sauces

  • Light soy sauce
  • Oyster sauce
  • Sesame oil
  • chilli powder

Aromatics

  • 10 cloves of garlic, unpeeled
  • 1 finger of ginger, sliced thinly (2/3) + julienne (1/3)
  • Shallots, chopped finely

Method

  1. Before I start, in this instance, I’ve bought de-boned thighs, removed the skin and fats, to make this a healthier dish. It is perfectly fine to leave the skin on and with bones too. The fats from the chicken will make the dish a bit more flavourful, but the oil from the sausages is good enough.
  2. Marinate the chicken with light soy sauce, oyster sauce and sesame oil, proportions 2:1:1
  3. Sprinkle some chilli powder for additional kick. Entirely optional.
  4. Wash 3 cups of rice in the rice cooker’s inner pot till the water runs clear.
  5. Tip on how much water to add to the rice: Place your last finger in the pot so it is just resting on top of the rice, and fill water till a little lower than the first line.
  6. Fire up a skillet, fry up the ginger julienne, shallots and garlic until the aroma is released. Add to rice cooker.
  7. Add sliced ginger to rice cooker & give the mixture a quick stir.
  8. Add sliced shitake mushrooms, ensuring it’s evenly spread out.
  9. Start rice cooker in standard rice cooking mode.
  10. Add all the chicken pieces & cubed sausages to the skillet on medium-low heat.
  11. After 2 mins, flip meat. The chicken should get a little bit of charring on each side.
  12. Now this is the part that gets a bit tricky, as it really depends on your rice cooker. Mine beeps about 15 mins before the end. Generally the meat should go into the pot when the rice is about 80% cooked..
  13. Add the chicken and cubed sausages to the rice cooker & ensure it is evenly spread out.
  14. To get a crusty rice base, I restart the cooking when it is entirely done and let it go for another 15 mins. Add the sliced sausage at this point.
  15. Switch the rice cooker to keep warm mode & add the bok choy.
  16. Add dark soy sauce into the pot and mix well. The rice should be quite dark in colour.
  17. Enjoy!

 

 

 

Categories
Fangirl Music Musings

L’arc-en-ciel: My 1.5 Decade Fandom

They say the music you listen to in your teens, will stay with you for life. When it comes to L’arc-en-ciel, I don’t think I can agree more.

  • 2000, first discovery when my classmates jammed to Driver’s High
  • 2004, SMILE was the first album I went searching around Singapore for
  • 2005 Asia Tour in Shanghai was the first time I flew to watch a concert
  • 2006, I shut myself in my room for almost 3 hours, spazzing over their 15 Anniversary concert
  • 2012, traveled again for their concert, this time to Taipei in 2012
  • 2012 in Singapore was a dream come true
  • 2014, live screening of documentary “Over the L’arc-en-ciel” in Singapore announced
  • 2015, I’m still waiting for the next World Tour

15 years later, my love for them still runs strong, and it doesn’t look like it’s going to ever stop. It may not run as deep and intense as that for X, laruku still counts as one of the bands that I truly truly love.

Seeing as how accomplished and well loved hyde is as a vocalist, it would probably surprise many people that he really didn’t want to be one when they first started the band. He didn’t think being the vocalist was cool, and wanted to be the lead guitarist. (REALLY? hyde. Really.) He is also one of those few that readily admit that he is a bit sick of playing and performing with the same band, at their first big concert in Madison Square Garden in NYC! I’ve always loved how brutally honest he was, very much unlike the celebrities now, all smiles and laughter, but full of scorn and arrogance the minute the cameras are turned off. I also really enjoy the fact that he doesn’t really care about what everyone thinks, because he went and got married in 2000, at the peak of their success. Not because of any baby in the wife’s tummy, but truly because he wanted to marry her, his idol. And the whole band went on hiatus almost immediately after that, in 2001! Imagine the shock of the fans! First their idol gets married, and then the band rests indefinitely!? I swear I could hear hearts breaking. And the intensity of his protectiveness towards his family is inspiring. He knows he gets crazy fans everywhere he goes, but his family has hardly (if ever) been photographed or harassed. Maybe because he got married at a time and age where the internet was only dial-up and there wasn’t the ease of information sharing available now, and the media was a lot more respectful.

And then, how can you not talk about a rock band without mentioning their mad skills. Rather, the mad skills of tetsuya, the bassist. Generally, for most rock band, the guitar is the shining star of the instruments. But no. Not for laruku. tetsuya’s bass lines are just pure magic. The bass line he creates, takes on a life of its own, with the additional ommph it brings to the song. Just listen to “Blurry Eyes”, “Honey”, “Stay Away” and you will hear what I mean. Bass guitars often take a back seat, playing the supporting role in the band, but laruku’s bass plays an equally (if not more) important role in the songs. And check out “Neo Universe”. He plays a 6-string.

Plus, they are in their mid-40s, yet are just as sexy as they were in their 30s. Japanese rockers. How the hell do they do it?

Oh, and did I mention that the Stay Away MV has the 4 members dancing in synchronicity, like boy bands? :p

L’arc-en-ciel – Stay Away

Therefore, in February, the month they started to get together, I remember why I love them so much!

Categories
Recipes

Chili Con Carne

I love Chili con Carne. It’s my kind of comfort food, especially with some sour cream, shredded cheese and a hint of tabasco.

When I do make Chili, I usually make a large pot, and usually for parties. This is the reason the recipe below is for a large portion. What I have done is to write the recipe in a way that should be easy to break down into smaller portions, or expanded. The general portioning is 500g of meat to 1 cans / cups of diced tomatoes, kidney beans, sweet onions, bell peppers.

The one thing to note though, is don’t go for lean meat. The fats in the ground beef will drain off as you cook so you need the extra fat in the ground beef to keep the meat moist and juicy. Reduce the amount of oil that you use during the sweating of the onions to tone the fat content down. This dish needs to stew for many hours to really let all the flavours mesh.

Ingredients:

  • 1kg ground beef
  • 500g ground pork
  • 3 cans of diced tomatoes
  • Fresh tomatoes, diced (optional)
  • 3 cans of kidney beans
  • Chopped garlic
  • Chopped shallots
  • 3 cups of diced sweet onions
  • 3 cups of diced green red peppers
  • Small can of tomato paste
  • Ground thyme
  • Ground cumin / cumin seeds
  • Chili powder / paprika
  • Salt
  • Shredded cheddar cheese (optional)
  • Sour cream (optional)

 

Cooking Method:

  1. Ensure all your ingredients are at room temperature. Ingredients that are cold will not release their full flavour.
  2. Marinate pork with some thyme; and beef with cumin. Refrain from putting too much dry herbs during the marinate process. Probably about 1 round teaspoon per 500g. You can add more later as well.
  3. Pour a teaspoon of olive oil in a hot cast iron pot. Do not let the oil start to smoke as that means it is too hot.
  4. Add the shallots and onions and turn the heat down to medium. Stir the onions slightly and ensure they are spread out in the pot. Let it sweat for a few minutes, stirring it occasionally.
  5. Add the garlic now.
  6. When the onions begin to turn translucent, scoop everything on to a plate.
  7. Turn up the heat and add the beef and pork into the same pot. Break apart all chunks to uniformed, mince-sized bits. I like my chili with a bit of a roasted taste so I like to leave the meat to brown in the pot without stirring too often. However, if you are a bit worried about possibly burning the meat, stir it often.
  8. While the meat is still browning, around the halfway mark, tip the  bell peppers into the pot.
  9. When the meat is no longer pinkish, add the onions back into the pot. At this time, every time you add something into the pot, you need to stir it to ensure even mixture.
  10. Add diced fresh tomatoes. (optional)
  11. Add canned diced tomatoes.
  12. Add half a can of tomato paste into a little hot water and mix it up well. Then pour it into the pot.
  13. Add 3 tablespoons of chili powder / paprika. (Adjust to own taste)
  14. Stir the mixture well and bring it to a boil.
  15. Once the chili is boiling, turn the heat down to medium-low. Leave the pot uncovered.
  16. Let it simmer for ~3 hours, stirring occasionally.
  17. Every 30 – 45 mins, try the chili for taste. Only start adjusting for taste in the last hour.
  18. At the last 45 mins, drain the kidney beans and add it to the pot. Mix well.
  19. 30 – 45 mins after adding the kidney beans, turn off the heat and cover pot.

For serving options, I sometimes eat it plain with some tabasco sauce, or with white rice. It goes really well at parties too, just scoop it up with nachos / tortilla chips. Eat it with sour cream (or greek yogurt for the health conscious) and shredded cheddar cheese. Or you can add it on fries, tacos, pita bread…… The possibilities of chili is endless, which is why I love it!

You can just portion it out in ziploc bags or containers and freeze them. It can last a few days and all you need to do is to warm it up! It actually tastes better the next day!