Categories: cooking-and-recipes
Date: 19 December 2008 10:52:31
I stole this off the BBC Food website a million years ago, and tweaked it, adapted it, and messed with it until it’s like this. Originally, there were no carrots, celery, pepper, mushrooms, lardons or smoked paprika. The instruction at the end of step 1 is, however, entirely original.
Serves 6-8. Easily halved, although I tend to leave the quantities of spices the same.
2 tbsp olive oil
2 onions, chopped
2 carrots, diced
2 sticks celery, diced
1 red pepper, de-seeded and diced
125g chestnut mushrooms, sliced
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1kg/2¼lb extra lean minced beef (or half beef and half pork)
200g smoked lardons (diced bacon. Get dry-cured if you can)
2 glasses red wine
2x400g cans chopped tomatoes
3 tbsp tomato purée
2 red chillies, thinly sliced, or 3-4 tsp dried chilli flakes
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 stick cinnamon
good shake of Worcestershire sauce
1 beef stock cube
salt and freshly ground black pepper
2x400g can red kidney beans, drained
25g/1oz very dark chocolate (optional)
Heat the oil in a large saucepan and fry the onion, garlic, carrots and celery until softened. Increase the heat and add the mince and lardons, cooking quickly until browned and breaking down any chunks of mince with a wooden spoon. If it is very fatty (more of a problem if using a mix of beef & pork), drain the grease off. Add the pepper and mushrooms and fry for a further 5 minutes. Pour in the red wine and boil for 2-3 minutes. While waiting, pour a glass for yourself.
Stir in the tinned tomatoes, tomato purée, fresh chilli or chilli flakes, cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon, smoked paprika and Worcestershire sauce and crumble in the stock cube. Season well with salt and pepper. Bring to a simmer, cover with a lid and cook over a gentle heat for about 50 minutes to 1 hour, stirring occasionally until the mixture is rich and thickened. Add the kidney beans and chocolate, if using. Cook for a further 10 minutes, uncovered, before removing from the heat, adding any extra seasoning if necessary. Serve with rice or jacket potato.