Chilli Con Carne Recipe Needed

[Mike313]

Hi All,
Hope you are all well and that you didn't lose any slates in the winds overnight
I'm looking for advice about making chilli con carne, 'medium hotness' so definitely not mild but not chokingly hot either. I know there are people on here who grow chilli's so I'm sure someone knows the secret of making a great chilli. Do you have a killer recipe???
Thanks in advance!

 

[StJon]

Google, [h=2]Don Henley's Chili Recipe[/h]my goto starting point, "Now, have a beer. If you have managed to round up all of the above ingredients, you deserve one."

 

[tartanferret]

We have this one at home..

http://www.nigella.com/recipes/view/cornbread-topped-chilli-con-carne-126

But we omit the honey and cinnamon from the cornbread as she does not like honey and I do not like cinnamon.

I always find boiled rice a bit boring.. this is like eating cake with your chilli with plenty of sour cream

Regarding the buttermilk in the recipe, we just use this method..

http://frugalliving.about.com/od/condimentsandspices/r/Buttermilk_Sub.htm

 

[British Red]

Yep, I grow chillis, cook and even can chilli con carne. Are you looking for solid and simple or fancy? Supermarket ingredients or fresh? Its a super, simple dish either way that many people get too poncy with. Peasant food is simple food, well cooked.

 

[sandbender]

Here you are.

http://mimithorisson.com/2012/04/22/chilli-con-carne/

I like all food, but prefer food that I don't have to think about while eating, so Chilli is a favourite.

 

[Mike313]

Thanks for the recipes folks, I'll make a brew and have a read.

 

[Mike313]

Yep, I grow chillis, cook and even can chilli con carne. Are you looking for solid and simple or fancy? Supermarket ingredients or fresh? Its a super, simple dish either way that many people get too poncy with. Peasant food is simple food, well cooked.

Hi British Red,
I'm all for good-tasting peasant food simply cooked using good ingredients. So ideally, fresh ingredients rather than out of a packet (but of course I do have to improvise from time to time and use dried herbs etc....). I don't mind trying something a little fancy if it makes a difference taste-wise. The taste is paramount! Do you have a killer recipe of your own?

 

[British Red]

Its a simple dish from South America. So lets not start blathering about seas salt and the like. It, like many of the worlds finest foods, is a one pot dish. Once you start seeing things like Olive Oil, you know its a European influenced dish. Not that that is a bad thing, just saying.

Ingredients

• Veg oil if you have lean beef
  
• 2 onions
  
• 2 garlic cloves
  
• 2lb fatty minced beef
  
• 2 pounds peeled chopped tomatoes (canned is fine)
  
• 3 tbsp tomato purée
  
• 3 mild chillis (Fresno), 2 medium (Apache) or 1 hot (Scotch Bonnet). Your basic larger supermarket chilli needs 3.
  
• salt and pepper
  
• 2 pounds of kidney beans (soaked overnight and rinsed or use canned)
  
• 
  Optional
  
  1 piece of bitter dark chocolate
  1 desert apple
  Cumin
  
  Use a lidded, heavy saucepan, a sharp large knife and a wooden spoon - nothing else needed,
  
  1) Finely chop the Onion and Garlic. Brown the fatty minced beef and soften the onion and garlic in the meat fat until translucent. If using lean meat, you will need to add some veg oil to stop the meat and veg sticking.
  
  2) Finely chop and de-seed the chilli. Add to the meat and soften
  
  3) Add the tomatoes and tomato puree with the salt and pepper, simmer for half an hour stirring occasionally
  
  4) Add the kidney beans and cook for two hours stirring occasionally.
  
  Thats it.
  
  Putting in a peeled, cored chopped finely desert apple at stage three adds a little hint of sweetness (much better than refined sugar).
  
  Putting in a tablespoon of ground cumin at stage 4 is common and develops a more complex character
  
  Putting in ONE square of bitter dark chocolate at stage 4 gives an interesting bitter note - great if combined with the apple
  
  For serving I like to serve on tortillas with a finely shredded salad, sour cream and grated cheese, but rice or tortillas chips is also good,
  
  The thing is, use simple ingredients, not too many, not lots of European herbs and cook long and slow,
  
  Red

 

[Mike313]

Thanks for that, Red, and for going to the trouble of writing it all out. I've save it under the title 'British Red Chilli' and later I'll print it out and put a copy in our kitchen folder which I'm sure will generate a bit of interest!
Cheers.
Mike.

 

[British Red]

You are very welcome Mike. There are plenty of variations you can play with - on occasions I make vegetarian Chilli (its not con carne - as that means "with meat"). Lots of softened yellow and red peppers, mushrooms etc. to replace the meat. Its a healthy, and balanced meal - plenty of protein in beans, a little veg oil to fry off the mushrooms, onions and garlic gives enough fat. Throw in some salad in the tortillas and you have your five a day in one meal. Its easily made over the camp fire too as many of my friends can attest

Chilli by British Red, on Flickr

A good chilli, cooked slow, is one of lifes pleasures. It wont be long before you are growing all the ingredients too

 

[Fluffydave]

I've been cooking Jamie Oliver's Chilli one for years now, that said, I'm definitely going to give British Red's a go as I like the simplicity of it.

 

[santaman2000]

I've used lots of different recipes over the years but as BR said, keep it simple. Don't be afraid to shift the proportions around once you've tried a recipe; you'll know if you want it with more meat or with more beans, etc. Likewise with the chilis and seasonings. I usually add tomatoes (canned or whole/fresh) and a stick of butter, but I don't like adding garlic to my chili though) it just doesn't really fit in to a chili dish to my tastes) You can also substitute ground chili powders (such as cayenne pepper) for the fresh chilis with fair results (not great, just good)

One of the meat fun experiments you can try (once you gain a bit of confidence) is to try using different meats such as diced or shredded beef as opposed to minced; or venison, or buffalo. As BR said, it's a South American dish (actually North American; Tex/Mex) and they didn't have beef until the European settlers introduced it (and by the mid 1700s the Spanish/Mexican colonies had their own olive groves on North America)

 

[Adze]

• 1 desert apple

I'm going to assume that's dessert and not something originally produced by any sort of camel

 

[British Red]

I find finely minced pedant also makes a nice alternative to beef

 

[Adze]

Surely you mean pork?

 

[British Red]

But pigs are intelligent animals. More "long beef"

 

[rik_uk3]

I always use minced pork and beef in my chilli (as I do when making burgers)

Americans take cooking CCC very seriously http://www.chilicookoff.com/

 

[Rabid]

I also add a heaped teaspoon of cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) or a couple of squars of bitter chocolate adds a real depth and richness to the flavour.

 

[leon-1]

I look at Chilli Con Carne I read "Chilli with meat", it doesn't specify what meat or whether it's minced or diced. The simplest way of making a chilli is using what's easily available and this is a basic recipe with a few alternatives thrown in.

20ml vegetable oil / chilli oil.
240g tin chilli beans (kidney beans in a chilli sauce).
240g tin Borlotti beans.
240g tin Haricot beans (as an alternative to haricot and borlotti just get a 400g can of baked beans).
400g chopped tomatoes (can use a tin as it saves time).
2 Sweet bell peppers.
6 or 8 finger peppers (if using birdeye chilli's use 6).
2 medium Red onions.
1 medium white onion.
200g plain mushrooms.
3 medium cloves of garlic.
500 - 600g of mince (when things are tight I use pork and beef mince).
1 heaped teaspoon of Ground Ginger.
1 heaped teaspoon of Smoked Paprika.
1 dessert spoon tomato puree.
2 squares (30g) of dark chocolate over 70% cocoa solids.
500ml red wine or cider (your are using the acidic notes to help break down any fats).
Method is simple.

Slice up mushrooms, bell peppers and onions. Put in a bowl.
Finely dice chilli and garlic (the smaller the better). place in a cup or egg cup.
Place chilli oil into a large pan that has a lid (I have a large wok with a lid, but a big casserole will do as well), put on a high heat.
When the oil starts to give of the smallest amount of smoke put in the mushrooms, peppers and onions. Keep them moving and then sweat them off untill the onions go opaque.
Add the meat to the mix along with the garlic and chopped chilli. Initially keep turning the meat so that it breaks up. Cover the pan for five minutes and then continue to turn the meat. Continue this process untill you no longer can see pink in the meat and there are no large clumps of meat.
Add cans of beans and chopped tomatoes.
Add Ginger.
Add Smoked Paprika.
Add 250ml of chosen alcohol.
Add Chocolate.
Add Tomato Puree.

Use a spatula to turn all of the ingredients into each other, don't try and stir with a spoon as the beans will end up going to mush after a while.
Reduce the heat to simmer and leave simmering for a minimum of an hour stirring periodically.

Sit down and enjoy 250ml of either red wine or cider.

Once cooked I tend to leave to cool overnight, it allows the capsicum oils to infuse deeper into the mix and then I re-heat it and have it on the second night. Dependant on how I am feeling I may have it with a baked potato, par bake roll or rice. The recipe above I would find positively mild, but it should be okay for most palettes.

 

[santaman2000]

I find finely minced pedant also makes a nice alternative to beef

LOL. How'd that turn out?

I always use minced pork and beef in my chilli (as I do when making burgers)

Americans take cooking CCC very seriously http://www.chilicookoff.com/

Absolutely!

I also add a heaped teaspoon of cocoa powder (not drinking chocolate) or a couple of squars of bitter chocolate adds a real depth and richness to the flavour.

Chocolate is fairly common in a lot of Latin-American cooking.