Apologies for the radio silence of late. I’ve been trying to juggle my day job, 3 girlie girls, reporting on coffee antics on my other blog and more. Business as usual. Another challenge I’ve been having is daylight, or lack of it! I prefer to post recipes with photos and, as I don’t have the necessary lighting equipment (yet), I need to have enough daylight to be able to take good ones. Since I only get home in the late afternoon every day this can be a bit tricky to manage. However, the days are getting longer fast, so soon there will be no stopping me!
To date I’ve had my resident photographer, who also doubles as my husband, by my side. This too has limited my activities somewhat in that it meant he had to be at home every time I made something I wanted to post. To get around this, my noted photographer has kindly given me a crash course and today you will see my handiwork featured – please bear with me!
So here it comes, an easy recipe for all you meat lovers – a yummy Chile con Carne. It’s made up and I’ve never been to Mexico, so I’m not sure how authentic it is, but it tastes good :)
Serves 6
1kg minced beef
2 onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
2 tin tomatoes
3 tablespoons tomato purée
2 tins kidney beans or 200g dried (steeped and cooked – the best!)
100ml beef stock (preferably the good stuff, no MSG)
100ml strong coffee
glass of red wine
splash of Worcestershire sauce, if you want to flavour it up a little
3-4 squares of dark chocolate
2-3 teasp. chili powder/flakes or 1-2 red chilis chopped
salt & pepper
oil for frying
coriander, lime wedges & crème fraîche or sour cream for garnish
Heat your oil in a heavy pan – I prefer to use rapeseed oil (canola) as it’s very obliging about being heated high.
Fry the onions until soft. Add the meat and stir until it’s brown.
Add the tomato purée, followed by the tinned tomatoes, kidney beans and garlic.
Pour in the stock, coffee, red wine and Worcestershire sauce. Throw in the chocolate, chili (add gradually until you have the strength you like) and season with salt and pepper.
Let it all cook uncovered on a lowish heat for about an hour - or longer if you have time, you might need to cover and add a little more moisture though.
Add the green pepper about 15 minutes before the end of the cooking time.
Serve with plenty of crème fraîche or sour cream, a few sprigs of coriander and a wedge of lime. If you like your carbs you could also serve with rice or flour tortillas.
By the way it tastes even better re-heated the next day…
¡Buen Provecho!
