Chilli Con Carne
This is Maria's recipe but I grew up on this stuff - and look where I am now! My dad used to like to make this regularly and would serve the Chilli con carne in its own special individual bowls and the rice (which was always emmaculately white) separately. All this delicate artistry was lost within seconds of hitting the dinner table as I would just upend the bowl and mix it all through.
My brother (who is yet to contribute to the site, not that I'm making a point here) would take a tiny piece of meat and a tiny bit of rice and merge them together on the fork. He would take 3 times as long to eat his dinner - something I could never understand. I am sure a psychology student could do a research paper on what this says about our personalities. Email at the usual address.
Preparation 10 minutes
Cooking time 40 - 50 minutes - though if you make a big pot of it, you can have it with rice one day, tortilla another and finally with a baked potato a third day.
Ingredients:
- 1 onion
- 1 clove garlic
- Olive oil
- 400 - 500 g mince (lamb or pork or steak)
- 1 can red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
- 1 tsp cumin
- 1 tsp ground coriander
- 1/2 tsp tumeric
- Sprinkle of cinnamon
- 1 tblsp chilli sauce
- 1 -2 tblsp tomato sauce
- 1/2 can chopped tomatoes
Instructions:
- Finely chop the onion and garlic.
- Heat olive oil in saucepan. Add onion and garlic and gently cook until soft. Add spices. Cook for 1 minute.
- Add mince. Break up with wooden spoon until brown.
- Add chopped tomatoes, chilli sauce and tomato sauce. Cook for 15 minutes. This may be a good time to make the guacamole and prepare any optional vegetables.
- Add kidney beans (mash half of them before adding to thicken con carne mixture). Add optional extras at this point.
- Cover and cook for 20 - 30 minutes. If serving with rice, start preparing that now, if serving with tortilla, wait till near the end of this time.
Serving options:
- Serve with tortillas. These taste best if dry fried
in frypan. Keep hot in clean dry tea towel until
ready to assemble.
On medium heat, place tortilla in frypan. After about
1 minute, turn over.
Add grated cheese, a dollop of guacamole, a dollop of yoghurt and two tblsp of chilli con carne.
- Serve chilli on its own with steamed rice.
- Serve with baked potato as a topping or in stuffed potatoes