Chili con Carne

For this dish, I tend to make a huge batch of it and freeze it in portions for quick meals during the week. I like it spicy so if you are not so keen, then reduce the spicy parts. My wife does not like it too spicy so she adds soured cream to the dish to cool it all down a little.

Ingredients

• 3 Red onions
• Half a clove of garlic
• 3 sweet red peppers
• 5 Whole chilies (red)
• 3 heaped teaspoons of hot chili powder
• 3 heaped teaspoons of paprika
• 3 heaped teaspoons of cumin
• 2Kg of lean mince
• 3 beef stock cubes mixed with 1lt of boiling water
• 3 cans of chopped tomatoes
• 3 cans of red kidney beans
• Tinned Green lentils
• 1/3 of a tube of tomato puree
• a good glug of ruby port
• Tabasco sauce (I use about 10 shakes of the bottle)
• 5 or 6 chunks of dark chocolate (the darker the better)
• Fresh coriander to serve
• (optional) soured cream

The cook

For me it’s all about the preparation. I tend to get two pasta bowls and into them put the following:

1. Chop the onions and the garlic (I always cook these together)
2. Chop the red peppers and the chili; then on top of them add the chili powder, paprika and cumin
3. Brown off the mince and drain away all the fatty liquid (we want to keep the dish as lean as possible)
4. Start with a large pot with some oil in the bottom of it and heat it up.
5. Once hot, add in the onion/garlic bowl and cook until the onions have gone soft.
6. Now add in the pepper/chili/spice bowl and allow the spices to cook off for a little while.
7. If it starts to burn, add a little of the stock.
8. Now add in the cooked mince, the stock, the tomatoes, the tomato puree, the port and the Tabasco and let this simmer for between 30 mins and an hour with the lid off (we want this to reduce).
9. Now add in the kidney beans and lentils and cook for a further 30 mins.

Serve this with white and wild rice with the coriander spinkled over the top.