Continuing with the spicy theme we had chilli con carne for dinner and it was delicious. No piccies I'm afraid because I had to cook, eat and run before Adrienne (Rudi's mum) came to collect me for our Scrabble evening.
I wanted the chilli to stretch a bit further than usual so I added some mushrooms, so it was almost a spag bol/chilli combo. Here is my recipe which I have taken from the best bits of everybody elses chilli con carne and made my own.
Ingredients:
1 med-large onion
1-2 cloves of garlic (depending on your taste)
green pepper (Asda had run out of green so I used yellow)
1 can of red kidney beans
red or green chilli peppers (it was raining and i didn't fancy getting wet from picking chillies from the garden so I added extra chilli powder)
chilli flakes
1-2 tbls tomato puree
1 can chopped toms in tomato juice
1 beef stock cube
A good shake of gravy powder
black pepper (the stock cube and meat are quite salty so I don't add extra, however it is what suits your taste)
The most important ingredient is lots of love.
I believe the mood you are in comes out in your cooking, so the happier you are to cook something the more delicious it will taste. Honestly!
Fry over the onions and garlic on a medium heat until soft and translucent, if you find they are sticking to the bottom of the pan, your pan is probably too hot!
Add in green pepper and fry over for a few minutes (I also added my mushrooms at this point)
Brown over the meat, use your wooden spoon to break the meat up, or for fine mince use your potato masher!
You might need to turn the heat of the hob up as the meat can cool the pan if it has come straight from the fridge, but keep an eye on it, you don't want your beef to stick.
Add in the chillies (not the flakes and powder)
Add in the kidney beans and fold them into the meat, if you stir them they can break down and become mushy - yuk.
Add tom puree (I once heard you should add the tomato puree before the chopped toms, so the puree has time to cook off some of the acid and is a little sweeter, but I really don't think it matters, I've tried both ways and never noticed a difference.)
Stir in the chopped toms
Crumble in a stock cube, if you feel your meat needs extra sauce make the cube up with some water.
Sprinkle over the gravy powder and stir in quick so it doesn't go lumpy.
Add it chilli flakes and chilli powder and stir gently, remember you don't want to split your beans.
Put the lid on the pan and leave to simmer on a low light. You can tell the meat is cooked when the sauce comes to the top with a little bit of an oily sheen.
We had our chilli with pasta shells, these hold the sauce as it gets stuck inside and was a welcome change as we had rice the night before...mmmm.
If you have any other chilli tips I would love to hear them. I'm pretty happy with this recipe, but am always looking for ways of improving what I make.
Happy eating :)
P.S Tara you brought a massive smile to my face by being the first person to follow my blog. Thank you for all your support, my lovely cousin xxx
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