Chilli Con Carne

Chilli Con Carne

It's been a while since I've covered a recipe from one of my expanding library of cookbooks. It comes from the 1 mince mix, 50 dinners book that my mum gave me a few years ago. It's quite a handy book with a simple mince mix that is kind of utilised by every one of the recipes. It's not exactly the same quantities or proportions in each recipe, but it is the same ingredients (Mince, Garlic, Onion, Salt and Pepper)

Ingredients

2 tablespoons Oil
2 Onions, thinly sliced
1 Carrot, cubed
2 Celery Sticks, cubed
2 Garlic Cloves, finely chopped
650 grams Beef Mince
200 grams Chopped Tomatoes (canned, ~1/2 a normal can)
5 tablespoons Tomato Puree
1 teaspoon Ground Cumin
1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
1 tablespoon Chilli Powder
1 teaspoon Dried Oregano
1 Bay Leaf
350 ml Beef Stock
400 grams Canned Red Kidney Beans, drained and rinsed
Salt

^{I'd like the onion to be finer sliced, but was quite happy with the cubing of the carrot and celery}

Method

• Heat the Oil in a large saucepan.
• Add the Onions, Carrot, Celery, and Garlic and cook over a low heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 - 10 minutes until softened.

^{sweating them probably took more like 10 minutes over low heat, but it was worth the extra time to get the ingredients properly softened}

• Add the Beef and increase the heat to medium and cook, stirring frequently and breaking it up with a wooden spoon for 8-10 minutes until evenly browned.
• Stir in the Tomatoes, Tomato Puree, Cumin, Cayenne Pepper, Chilli Powder, Oregano, Bay Leaf and Stock, before seasoning with Salt to your taste.

^{As expected, when you add the stock in, it all becomes quite liquidy and soup like}

• Bring to the boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for an hour, stirring occasionally.
• Add the Kidney Beans, re-cover the pan and continue simmering for a further 30 minutes.

^{After an hour of simmering the liquid is reduced quite nicely. And that lot of purple beans adds a nice bit of colour to the dish}

• Remove the Bay Leaf and serve with rice.

^{Half an hour later and it's all ready to go}

^{As usual with this style of meal, it's got a very 'brown' look, but it certainly doesn't taste bad}

Thoughts

• I added a few extras as is my way with most things. Carrots and Celery weren't in the original recipe.
• This made me around 6 meals worth of food. It was better the next day than immediatly afterwards, and it froze well.
• This could be a better version of chilli con carne, but it probably couldn't be a simpler one.

Book Details

**Title: ** 1 Mince Mix, 50 Dinners
Publication: LOVE FOOD, and an imprint of Parragon Books, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4454-0639-8

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