Chilli Con Carne

Preparation: 15 minutes

Cooking Time: 3 hours

This classic is one of my favorites! The name literally translates to my favorite things: Chilli with Meat! This recipe is all about building layers of flavour and although it isn't quite a quick recipe, believe me when i say it is worth the effort. The best thing about a chilli is that the leftovers taste even better (if there's any left that is!!). This goes great over rice but i prefer it with chips!

Ingredients:

800g Lean Beef Mince

1 Red Pepper

1 Green Pepper

1 Large Red Onion

4 Garlic Cloves

3 Red Chillis

2 Celery Sticks

1 Carrot

3 Tins Plum Tomatoes

1 Tin Kidney Beans

40g Tomato Puree

30g 70% Dark Chocolate

1Tbsp Cumin Seeds

1Tbsp Smoked Paprika

1Tsp Coriander Seeds

1Tsp Cayenne Pepper

1 Cinnamon Stick

2 Bay leaves

Handful Coriander

Handful Parsley

2 tbsp Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Sea Salt + Cracked Black Pepper

1 Mug of Rice (to 2 mugs of water) 

Sour Cream (to garnish)

Method:

Dice the onion and chop the garlic, and get it straight into a large heavy bottomed pot with some olive oil. Finely dice the carrot, celery and green pepper and when the onion is nearly translucent add these to the pot. Give a good stir, and put a lid on and sweat this for 10 minutes, making sure that you don't burn anything.

Make a well in the center of the pot and add the meat. This means the meat will have full contact with the bottom of the pot, and you want to colour it before stirring it into the veg. When the water has boiled off the mince and it begins to fry, roughly chop your chillis and add them to the pot. When the meat starts to brown, add the tomatoes and the puree.

In a small dry pan on a medium heat toast the Cumin and Coriander seeds until they become aromatic. Crush them to a fine powder, and along with the smoked paprika, cayenne pepper, bay leaves, cinnamon, salt and pepper, add them to the mixture. Finely chop the fresh herbs, and chop the red pepper into 1 inch cubes and add these with the dark chocolate. Simmer this for 2 hours, and let the flavours mingle and become best friends. Don't add the kidney beans until the last 10 minutes of cooking because they only need to be heated through. Otherwise they will become nothing in the mixture. To prepare these, drain them, and rinse off the canning liquid.

Cooking the rice is straight forward, for every one cup of rice add two cups of water. Add these to a pot with a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. When the water starts boiling reduce to a simmer, cover and leave for about 10 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed and little airholes appear throughout the rice.

To Serve:

Remove the bay leaves and cinnamon stick from the chilli. I serve this dish in a bowl, but if you prefer a plate use a plate. Scoop some chilli over the rice and garnish with a few sprigs of coriander and  a dollop of sour cream. This dish has mighty flavour and you will love it. Keep an eye out for other recipes that includes this chilli as a component!