A little chocolate in the chili con carne

DEAR SUN SPOTS: Great column — ¡olé!

Requesting recipe for chili con carne.

Also, an address for NESN announcers Jerry Remy and Dave O’Brien at Fenway Park, and an address for the Professional Tennis Association.

Thanks.

— No name, Jay

ANSWER: My, you have a lot of questions!

You’ll need about an hour to make con carne, but it’s a fairly easy dish to fix. Here’s a great recipe first published in Good Food magazine in 2002:

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon oil

• 1 large onion

• 1 red pepper

• 2 garlic cloves, peeled

• 1 heaped teaspoon hot chili powder (or 1 level tbsp if you only have mild)

• 1 teaspoon paprika

• 1 teaspoon ground cumin

• 1 pound lean minced beef (you can use chicken or turkey)

• 1 beef stock cube

• 14 ounce can chopped tomatoes

• ½ teaspoon dried marjoram

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 2 tablespoons tomato puree

• 14-ounce can red kidney beans

• plain boiled long-grain rice, to serve

• sour cream, to serve

To prepare the dish, dice the onion, chop the red pepper into small pieces and finely chop the garlic. Saute the onions over medium heat, with a little oil, for about 5 minutes (until onions are translucent). Add, garlic, red pepper, chili powder, paprika and cumin. Stir and cook another 5 minutes.

Add the beef to brown, turning up the heat and breaking up the mixture with a spatula. Cook at least 5 minutes until the size and temp of the meat is uniform (no more pink in the meat).

Crumble 1 beef stock cube into 1½ cups hot water. Pour into the pan with the meat. Add canned tomatoes, marjoram and sugar. Squirt in puree and stir well.

Simmer gently, and then bring to the boil. Cover and cook for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add a little water if the mixture gets dry.

Drain and rinse the beans, and stir. Bring to a boil and let cook another 10 minutes. At this point, you may want to test the chili and season to taste if you like a spicier dish.

Let stand 10 minutes before serving with rice and sour cream.

Here’s a fun tip: Substitute the sugar for a cube of chocolate, which is the tradition in Mexico, and is mighty tasty. Don’t overdo it, though. You want a hint of chocolate, not chocolate con carne.

As for your other questions, you can write to Remy and O’Brien at NESN, 480 Arsenal St., Building #1 Watertown, MA 02472. They may work at Fenway Park, but their mail goes to Watertown.

You didn’t ask about the other NESN announcers who work Fenway, but you can reach Joe Castiglione, Tim Neverett, Uri Berenguer and Oscar Baez at the same address.

And, you can write to the U.S. Professional Tennis Association at its “world” headquarters at 3535 Briarpark Drive, Houston, TX 77042. Or, by email to uspta@uspta.org

The USPTA has 13,500 members working in the United States and members in 80 other countries, most of whom are professionals working full-time in the tennis field, including tennis teachers.

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