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Ingredients:
 - 1/2 onion, chopped.
- garlic (to taste; I used 3-4 average sized cloves here)
- ginger root (1/2 inch)
- chili peppers.
- 1/2 red bell pepper (capsicum), chopped.
- 1 15 oz. can crushed tomato.
- 2 15 oz. cans black beans (or the big double-sized can)
- olive or other vegetable oil (not shown)
- cumin seed
- chili powder
- cumin (powdered)
- paprika
- oregano
- salt
- beer (optional)
- juice of 1/4 lemon
- beer (optional)
optional: cilantro to garnish, tortillas or rice on the side
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Step 1:
 One of my guidelines for successful cooking is to do as much of the prep work as possible ahead of time. You'll be more relaxed, have more fun, and the end result will be that much tastier and more enjoyable. Here you can see I've employed the Henckels "S" series to chop the onion, garlic, chile peppers, and bell pepper. I left the lemon alone because we won't need that for a little while.
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Step 2:
 Okay, showtime. Heat your saucepan and pour in about 3 Tbsp. olive oil. Sprinkle in about 2 tsp. cumin seed (I just eyeballed it) and continue to heat until the cumin seeds start to crackle and sizzle.
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Step 3:
 Stir in the chopped onion over a medium flame for about 2 minutes, until the onion has soaked up a lot of the oil and started to turn translucent.
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Step 4:
 Now we add the garlic, chili peppers, red pepper, and whatever other vegetables you want to toss in. Stir over a medium flame for about 2 minutes.
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Step 5:
 Add the beans, crushed tomato, and spices. Again, I usually just eyeball the spices, but I'd say a tablespoon or so each of paprika, cumin, and chili powder, half that much oregano, and a teaspoon of salt, is a safe starting point. Let your taste be the guide; you can add more spice later, but you can't take spice away. Grate in about 1/2" ginger root, stir everything mixed together.
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Step 6:
 Here I stir in a bit of the beer, probably about 3 oz. The nice part about cooking with beer is it doesn't have to be anything fancy or expensive.
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Step 7:
 Now I'm ready to put a lid on the pot (if you have a fancy pot lid with a sliding air vent, I'd leave it open to cook off some of the water). Cook over a low-medium flame for about 15-17 minutes, enough that the beans are soft but not soggy.
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Step 8:
 Taste-test and add more spices if you think it needs them. Remove from flame, squeeze and stir in the lemon juice. Add some chopped cilantro to garnish if that's your thing. Since what we've got here is still kind of soupy, I'm going to place it in the refrigerator for 5-10 minutes, or just let it cool on the countertop, to let the liquid thicken up a bit.
You can serve it with rice or a tortilla (or crumble some crackers in it) for a bit of texture or if it's too spicy.
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