Food for the Soul

Chilli

This is my chilli with beef. I don't make it with anything else. If you've tried something else successfully then let me know.

Makes a big pot, flex the ingredients according to the quantity you're making or your taste. We always make this much and freeze portions we don't use on the day.

Ingredients

Vegetable oil
4 medium onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic crushed
2 celery sticks finely chopped
2 carrots sliced
1 or 2 peppers (capsicums, bell peppers), any colour, sliced or diced
1kg diced stewing beef
0.5kg minced (ground) beef
3 tins chopped tomatoes (with nothing added, ie. no herbs, spices, salt)
2 dessert spoons chunky peanut butter
1 tin kidney beans (in water, try to avoid sugar and salt added)
4-6 dried chipotles (depending on size and heat required)
3 teaspoons ground cumin
3 teaspoons dried oregano
Salt to taste (I find 1 teaspoon per tin of tomatoes a good guide for anything)
Ground pepper to taste

Method

Put the dried chillies in enough boiling water to cover them and let them soak while you prepare the rest of the dish

Put the oven on to heat at about 170° or perhaps 160° for a fan oven.

Start the dish in a big enough pot that is ovenproof.

Put the onions and finely sliced celery in some oil and soften them gently till the onions are translucent and soft. This can take about 20 minutes.

Add the garlic once the onions are soft. (Garlic cooks much quicker than the onions and easily burns to the bottom of the pot if put in too early.)

Now add the carrots, peppers, tinned tomatoes, cumin, oregano, salt, pepper. Keep the heat low allowing everything to get hot.

Drain the soaked chipotles (put the drained water in the pot for extra flavour), take off any tough stalks, chop and put everything, including the seeds in the pot.

Heat a separate frying pan. Brown off all the meat, in batches or it will produce too much fluid and be a dull gray colour, and put in the pot as you brown it.

Lastly add the peanut butter, if you do this too early it may burn onto the bottom of the pot.

Place in the oven for about 2 hours.

Take out and add the drained kidney beans, then put back in for another 30 minutes. (The kidney beans are already cooked and will just go to mush if added at the beginning.)

Tips

I think the mix of ground beef and beef chunks is good. Don't cut the beef too small or it can "dry out" and be hard, about 3cm square is good. I like to serve with rice. If you want get some tortillas and salad. Also some soured cream over the top is really nice and can "cool" it down a bit if it's too hot for some.

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