Chilli Con Carne

There is nothing comparable to your mum's cooking, it could be your favourite restaurant in the world but it wouldn't quite be the same.
At least, that's how I feel about my mum's chilli.
I'd eat it any time of day, any day of the year (except Christmas day, chilli isn't a Christmassy food.).

Since we've entered September, I thought I'd post my mum's recipe.
You could even call it her secret recipe because every mum has their own variation, just like with Bolognese, one of the best Bolognese sauces I've ever had was by a family friend and it had baked beans in, it was heaven!!

750g beef mince
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 large red onion
2-3 garlic cloves (depending on how much you love your garlic)
1 rich beef stock cube
A dessert spoon cornflour
1 400g tin of chopped tomatoes
1 400g tin of kidney beans
2 tsp cumin
Salt and pepper to taste
1 dessert spoon of tomato puree
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

I best say before we start, yours won't look exactly like the pictures, mumma and I were making a hefty batch!!

First, you're going to need to brown your mince, put your large saucepan on the heat, get it piping hot, then put your mince in, keep stirring it until it's all browned, it won't look appetising yet.

While browning, most of the fat from the mince will be bubbling away at the bottom, get a large bowl and once it's all browned, carefully spoon the mince into the bowl.
To reduce the fat in this recipe, grab yourself a slotted spoon and a wooden spoon. Scoop the beef out with the slotted spoon then press down on it with the wooden one, this will help drain anymore fat and allows you to get away with beef that has a higher fat content.

With the beef to one side, pour the fat away, we put ours over the dog's biscuits for their breakfast the next day, and add the chopped onions and crushed garlic to the pan with a tablespoon of oil.
Stir these until they begin to soften and brown, then add a beef stock cube, this will just make the chilli super rich and delicious.

Once the stock is all mixed in, add the cornflower and keep stirring until that cooks and forms a sort of paste.

 Bung the tomatoes in, and also fill the empty can up halfway with water, then add that too, this is just to loosen it all up.

Once the tomatoes are in, add the cumin, tomato puree and cayenne pepper, then salt and pepper to taste

 

Then add all of the mince.

Love them or hate them, in my opinion, chilli isn't chilli unless it has kidney beans, they're just so tasty!
Don't throw these in willy nilly (as my mother would say), get a colander and wash them well, you don't want any of that horrid liquid they're tinned in tainting our chilli!

Put this in the oven at about 200C for an hour or so, I find that it's a dish best made in advance.

We made this for Josh's surprise birthday party, and served it with basmati rice.

This will feed four hungry people, but I like to make a huge batch of it and keep it for meals throughout the week, like jacket potatoes or for example, I grab a wrap spread it with a little mashed avocado, salt, add a little lettuce, dollop on the chilli, fold it up and there's a chilli wrap!