Southsea Style Chilli :D

We watch a lot of Man v Food at my house, if you've never seen it the host Adam, travels across America looking for the best "pig out spots" and occasionally indulges in eating challenges. I love it. The Husband loves it, even The Boy loves it. Its great, take 30mins go watch it and then come back, you'll understand, you'll know. The biggest problem I have with MvF is that it leaves me a sobbing heap of despair that I will never be able to eat the glorious creations on offer, seemingly all over America. Where are our BBQ joints? Where could I go to get grits? Or pancakes that are bigger then my head?! I've tried my hand at Pulled Pork, and Pulled Beef Brisket but neither were as juicy or flavourful as the meat of dreams my telly box showed me. But did I give up?! Did I throw a hissy fit and refuse to ever try any thing again!? Yes, yes I did but there's a silver lining to this cloud of tantrum. I decided "I'm British,so scale it down a bit." Tonight we'll be eating Chilli Cheeseburgers with home made Sweet Potato Fries and salad :) I'll be towering up the burgers and slopping on huge portions of chilli until, if I squint real hard, it looks as good as the food on TV. I made the burger, chilli and fries from scratch but I'm just doing the chilli recipe today - with pictures! You lucky people ;)

Sally's Southsea Chilli.

I've called this Southsea Chilli because it is nothing like authentic Mexican or Texan food! I make it reasonably mild so The Boy, who is 6, can enjoy it too. It's very easy to spice up for an all adult crowd - just add a couple more fresh chilli's and some extra chipotle paste or if you need something to please everyone pop some Tabasco or Habanero sauce on the table and let the moaners and sadists spice it up to their hearts content. I normally detest recipes that call for obscure ingredients like Essence of Kumquat or Bottled Well Water that you have to go to some boutique deli (or Waitrose) to buy, for nothing less then about £20. However I do urge you to seek out a jar of chipotle paste - its amazing stuff. I got mine from Waitrose (in my defence I have one round the corner!) but I did see that my local Asda started stocking it so I don't feel too bad about making you buy it :) Its smoky, spicy and utterly delicious and relatively inexpensive (i.e. about £2). Also feel free to chuck in kidney beans, I hate the bloody things so I traded them in for pepper's which has the advantage of making a portion of my chilli 1 of your 5 a day. DO NOT ADD SWEETCORN. Sweetcorn has no place in chilli. Ever. You monsters.

Ingredients:

500g lean beef mince
1 500g carton of passata or 1 tin of tomatoes of choice
1 large onion
1 red chilli pepper (or chilli of preference)
1 large or 2 small cloves of garlic
2 peppers - Orange & Yellow are my preference
1/4 tsp - 1/2 tsp of hot chilli powder (chilli powder will loose heat over time so adjust according to the heat of your powder.)
1 tsp of ground coriander
1 tsp of smoked paprika
1/4 tsp of chipotle paste
2 OXO cubes (OXO crumbles better then other beef stock cubes but feel free to use whatever you have.)
Salt, Soy Sauce, Worcester sauce and Sugar - for seasoning

Method:

Finely dice the onion, garlic, chilli and peppers and pop the onions in a large frying pan with some olive oil or cooking fat of your choice. When they start to turn translucent add all the spices (chilli powder, coriander, smoked paprika, chipotle paste) mix well and cook on a medium heat until the onions start to soften. Now add the garlic and peppers and cook until the onions are very soft and the peppers have started to soften also. Scrape this veggie mix into a bowl, add a tiny drizzle of oil to the pan if needed, pop in your mince and put back on the heat. I use a wooden spatula to break down the mince - it takes some time but break up the mince as much as possible - it will cook much quicker and your chilli will have a much better texture. Crumble over both your beef stock cubes and slosh over a good amount of soy sauce (about a tbsp) and a good splash of Worcester sauce and mix. You mince should go a lovely deep brown colour. When you can see no more pink add the veggies back into the pan along with your tomatoes. Mix well and season if necessary. I add a flat tsp of sugar at this point to really bring out the flavour of the tomatoes and chilli. Allow to simmer gently for 30mins. The chilli gets better with time so if you can I suggest making this in the morning or the night before you plan to eat it.
We spooned chilli over the top of cheeseburgers today but I normally serve with plain white rice or taco's.