Chilli con Carne

Serves 6 - 8   

Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: 3 hours   

Ingredients
750g beef (I like shin but any cut works) 
1 large onion, chopped 
4 cloves of garlic, chopped very small or minced 
1 red chilli, finely chopped 
2 tsp chipotle chilli flakes 
1 tsp chilli powder 
2 tsp paprika 
4 tbsp tomato puree 
2 x 400g tins of tomatoes (chopped or whole but if whole, cut into chunks) 
1 tsp coffee 
2 tbsp grated chocolate 
4 tsp sugar 
1 beef stock pot 
Salt and pepper to taste 
1 x 400g tin of red kidney beans 
Oil 
½ cup water

You can serve this with whatever you like, my family tend to like it with sour cream, guacamole, wraps, cheese and salsa and some rice so they can pick and choose.

Method
First you need to brown the meat in batches so that the meat seals rather than stews.  On a fairly high heat, heat a tablespoon of oil in a large pan and add a large handful of meat.  Cook until browned and then put to one side in a bowl. Add a touch more oil if needed and another large handful of meat. Repeat until all of the meat is browned and to one side.

Lower the heat to medium high and to the pan add an onion and fry until soft and translucent.  Add the garlic and fresh chilli and cook for a further minute or two.  Add all of the spices and cook for a further minute.  Add the tomato puree and cook for a minutes or so to cook out the raw taste. 

Add the meat back into the pot and stir until covered in the tomato paste.  Add the tinned tomatoes, tinned kidney beans, coffee, grated chocolate, the sugar, stock pot, water and stir.

Leave on a low/medium heat for a long slow cook.  You want the meat to break down and be soft enough to cut with a spoon so ideally you want to leave it for a couple of hours.  20 minutes before serving taste the chilli, if it is too sharp then add another tbsp of chocolate and half a tsp of sugar and check again.  Remember, tomatoes are acidic and there are so many different brands all with slightly different acid levels so what you need to add will vary.  Your sauce should not taste sharp so you want just enough chocolate to take off the edge. 

Check the seasoning and serve with rice, cornbread, guacamole, sour cream, salsa or whatever your families love.


Variation:
Cornbread topped chilli

Make half a portion of the chilli as above, leaving the water and the stock pot as per the original recipe. While the chilli is in the oven, start on your cornbread. 

Ingredients 
200g cornmeal 
150g plain flour 
30g sugar 
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda 
½ tsp baking powder 
½ tsp fine salt 
300ml buttermilk 
1 egg 
45g butter, melted 
3 spring onions, white and green, finely sliced 
130g Cheddar 
1 jalapeño finely chopped 
125g frozen sweetcorn, defrosted 

Method 
Sieve the cornmeal, plain flour, sugar, bicarb, baking powder and salt into a large mixing bowl. 

Mix together the the buttermilk, egg and butter together in a jug. 

Mix the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients, cover with clingfilm and put to one side. 

Mix together the spring onions, cheese and jalapeños. 

Make sure you stir your chilli every half an hour and if it looks as though too much liquid has reduced away, add a 150ml of coke or water. 

As soon as the beef is just soft, increase the temperature to 180c and finish off your cornbread. 

Add ¾ of the cheese mix into the batter along with all of the sweetcorn.   

Carefully put the cornbread mix onto the top of your chilli and scatter over with the remaining cheese mix and put into the oven. 

Bake the cornbread for 25-35 minutes until golden.  After 20 minutes, check, the bread should be golden, feel springy and a cocktail stick should come out clean.  Put back in if not and check at 5 minute intervals.