Thursday, March 16, 2006

Chilli Con Carne


Last night I was in the midst of a lovely cold so didn’t feel up to too much cooking, I whipped up a huge pot of Chilli Con Carne ala Jamie Oliver Happy Days. Can now live off of this for a couple of days at least between Michael & myself! This chilli isn’t that much different from a standard recipe apart from the fact that it has sun dried tomatoes as well as tinned tomatoes, the richness of these gives it a more intense sweet flavour that I like very much. I also strayed from the recipe slightly in that I used semi dried tomatoes with no oil & then added my left over garlic, chilli & olive oil combo from my marinated tomatoes the other day, these went into the food processor with the tomatoes to form the paste. Also I used dried red chilli (from my garden) as I didn’t have any fresh on hand. My only complaint was that it was not hot enough for me & I have to remember to add more chilli next time! Other than that it was pretty good easy comfort food to feed the cold.

Chilli Con Carne

Olive Oil
2 medium onions
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 level teaspoons chilli powder
1 heaped teaspoon ground cumin
1 fresh red chilli, deseeded & finely chopped
Salt & pepper
500g Fine grade Mince beef
2 x 400g tin tomatoes
2 x 400g red kidney beans, drained & rinsed
200g sun dried tomatoes in oil
½ stick of cinamon
1 wine glass of water

Finely chop the onions in a food processor & fry with garlic until soft. Add the chilli powder, fresh chilli, cumin & season with salt & pepper. Add the beef & fry until browned. Chop the sun dried tomatoes in a food processor & add some of the oil until a smooth paste forms. Add these with the tin tomatoes, cinnamon stick & water to the onions in the pan. Season to taste. Stir in & reduce to a low simmer for 1 ½ hours. Add the kidney beans 30 minutes before serving (these only need reheating not cooking)

4 comments:

leedav said...

This is the first thing I learned how to cook and I still love it. I'll have to tried it with some dried tomatoes. Sounds delicious!

Belinda said...

I tried this once and the leftovers do last for days. Yum!

Lexi said...

this is the only thing my bf cooks, and he does it extremley well even though he can't bare as much chili as I do, and i think CHILI con carne's supposed to be hot hot hot...
he still made some tasty chili.... mmm hhhhmmmmmm

Anonymous said...

I love Chilli. Interesting recipe, I'd never have though of adding cinnamon. I posted my own version of Chilli con Carne on my blog today but my recipe is one I am constantly refining.

Next time I make it I may just try adding some cinnamon, thanks for that!