Chili con carne

Yesterday I bought some freshly minced beef. For burgers. Today I went off the idea of burgers, but I had to do something with the beef. So I thought I’d make a pot of meat and beans.

It’s Valentine’s Day, after all, and I’ve announced a competition for a “dish you shouldn’t eat before a date”. A dish with beans surely qualifies? Besides, I fancied something hot. It is, let me stress, Valentine’s Day.

I won’t go on today. I’m a bit down. This Friday was supposed to turn out quite differently. I wasn’t meant to be sitting at home writing about chili con carne. I was meant to be in a bar sipping a “Long Island”. A certain Staś put paid to that. Or, more precisely, his forgetful dad did. Only after we’d made plans did he remember it was Staś’s birthday today.

So here I am watching Legia play the Pocketknives. And yes, compared with my beloved Premiership, it’s enough to make a pocketknife spring open in your pocket. Luckily, the person I’m meeting on Saturday has a memory that works. As the saying goes, “All good things come to those who…” Quite.

As for my chili con carne, I’ve no idea how kosher it is, or whether it’s more Mexican than a sombrero, but I promise you it tastes fantastic. Just take great care not to let it burn. I recommend it.

At a glance: 

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: about 2 hours

Serves: 3 – 4 small portions

Calories: en cólera

Ingredients for chili con carne:

• 400 grams of minced beef
• a tin of red kidney beans
• a tin of peeled tomatoes (in tomato juice)
• 4 tablespoons of tomato purée
• 1 white onion
• 1 medium onion
• 5 medium shallots
• half a hot chilli (seeds and all)
• 4 cloves of garlic
• two tablespoons of light soy sauce
• a glass of dry red wine
• freshly ground mixed peppercorns
• hot ground paprika
• dried thyme
• salt
• olive oil

Recipe (for a Mexican dish):

I heated the olive oil in a medium saucepan and added the minced beef (with no seasoning on it). I salted it quite generously and added the garlic, cut into chunky pieces. I fried it briefly over a fairly high heat, stirring all the time. After a moment I poured in 2 tablespoons of soy sauce and kept stirring.

Once the soy sauce had evaporated, I added all the onions (the white onion and the regular one cut into thin rings, the shallots quite coarsely diced). I stirred again. I added freshly ground mixed pepper (quite a lot), thyme and hot ground paprika. Another stir.

I poured in a glass of dry red wine. I turned down the “heat” (from 8 to 6 on my scale of 1 – 10). When the wine had evaporated, I gave it all a thorough stir (you want that meat nicely browned without burning it) and added a tin of peeled tomatoes in tomato sauce. I stirred, then added the tomato purée (which I’d mixed with half a glass of water before pouring it into the pan).

I drained the beans, rinsed off the liquid they’d been sitting in and added them to the meat. I cut the hot red chilli into chunky pieces (you can see them in the photo) and added those too. I turned down the “heat” (from 6 to 3 on my scale of 1 – 10).

Now it needs to cook for quite a while (I gave mine just under two hours). Just remember to stir every so often so the meat at the bottom doesn’t burn. After two hours it’s ready. You can eat it on its own (I did), but it’s just as good in a tortilla or with rice. Enjoy!