Napalm Chili Con Carne

Chili Con Carne

I really need to get my camera out and have it handy for taking photos of this stuff. I was just about to tuck in when it dawned on me so I’m afraid it is yet another phone photo for now.

We will be having this chili con carne again tonight with homemade lentil nachos but I’ve yet to make those so no photos of those yet either. They are really astonishingly simple to make though so I’ll share that recipe later.

This is quite a hot version, which is how we both like it but you could easily cut back on the chilis. If you inadvertently make it too hot, don’t be tempted to glue back water to cool yourself down – it won’t work and some people say it actually makes it worse. The thing to do with chili heat is to drink milk. Even if you tone down the heat of this, don’t be tempted not to add the cumin – it really gives the chili flavour a roundness. One way of making it milder is to discard the seeds.

I wanted this to go as far as possible so that I could freeze a load for the next few weeks so I first made a mirepoix using lots of finely chopped carrot for bulk and to cut down on our meat consumption. And when I say finely chopped, I really do mean finely – about 2mm cubes. I do that by chopping the carrot in two or three so I have manageable sized chunks. Then I stand them on end and cut down into four slices, then slice each of those slices into four lengths and then chop into the fine dice.

As I said, I was batch cooking so this makes a lot of chili but you could very easily cut down the quantities. I have also included passata here as that is what I used last night however, I would normally have used three tins of tomatoes not two. The passata turned up as a substitute in my Tesco delivery!

I use the really cheap basic olive oil for this kind of thing just because it seems a waste to use the expensive extra virgin stuff for frying. Any vegetable oil would do though. I also used homemade beef stock as I had a load in the freezer but a couple of Oxo cubes in hot water would do fine!

I had it with grated cheddar over the top and a large dollop of sour cream, because that’s what I had that needed using but in normal times, I actually prefer Greek yoghurt for that slight tang.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 large carrots, finely diced

2 sticks of celery, finely diced

2 large onions, finely chopped

4 fat cloves of garlic, crushed and minced

2 tablespoons dried oregano

1 tablespoon cumin

8 birds eye red chilis, finely chopped

750g lean steak mince

750ml beef stock

2 x 400g tins of red kidney beans, drained and rinsed

2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes

400g tub of passata

3 tablespoons tomato puree

250ml red wine

2 tablespoons gravy granules

Method

  • In a large pot, fry the onion, carrots, celery and garlic in the oil until the onion is soft and translucent (aprox 8 minutes)
  • Add in the oregano, cumin and chili and fry through for a further minute or so
  • Stir in the mince, ensuring that it breaks up fully and continue to fry until it is completely browned
  • Add in the rest of the ingredients, except for the gravy granules and bring to a simmer
  • Continue to simmer (without a lid) for half an hour or so until the liquid has reduced and thickened
  • Stir through the gravy granules to finish off the thickening and continue to cook through for a couple of minutes
  • Serve with boiled rice, grated cheddar and a dollop of sour cream

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