Chilli Con Carne

Serves 4-6

I don’t care how out of ‘fashion’ this is – I love it. Mind you it’s probably so out of fashion, it’s cool. However, I do think it is better with cubed meat rather than minced meat.

Ingredients
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 700 g beef minced or cubed
• 2 onions chopped
• 5 garlic cloves crushed
• 2 tins tomatoes
• 2 green peppers seeded and sliced
• 3 chillies
• 1-2 tsp of freshly ground cumin
• 1 tin kidney bean
• salt
• 1 teaspoon brown sugar
• coriander leaves, grated cheese and sour cream for the end

Hot Chilli Sauce
• 5 chillies deseeded or leave for extra hot
• 1 large onion chopped
• 1 red pepper chopped and deseeded
• 2 garlic cloves crushed

Method

1. Heat the olive oil in a casserole, or saucepan.
2. Cook the meat until it changes colour, add the onion and garlic and stir around for a minute.
3. Add the tinned tomatoes, chopped chillies, peppers, and a good pinch of salt.
4. Cover with a lid, bring to the boil and simmer for about 1 hour or until the meat is cooked (it should be nice and tender).
5. By the end of cooking, the liquid should have reduced to a thick sauce; if it gets too dry though during cooking just add a little more water.
6. You can also put this into an oven at 150c(300f).
7. Finally, add the cumin, kidney beans (and a little of the bean liquid, if you like) and brown sugar.
8. Simmer for a further 10 mins.
9. Serve with rice a spoonful of sour cream, some grated cheddar, maybe a taco and some coriander leaves sprinkled on top!
10. Great too with tomato salsa and guacamole, and if some of your friends like a bit more heat , serve the Hot Chilli Sauce too !

Hot Chilli Sauce:

1. Whizz up all the ingredients in a food processor, add a good pinch of salt, and 1 tbsp of water.

Notes
* This like so many other stews, gets even better the next day. It also freezes.
* If you realize at the end of cooking that you have not put in enough chilli, just add a dash of Tabasco sauce.