What I Cooked for Dinner Tonight - Chilli Con Carne

 Hello All

I thought I'd talk about one of my favourite dishes of all time - chilli con carne.


I actually cook chilli con carne or chilli as I call it, virtually every week for me and my family. Everyone loves it, but it's taken a while to get my kids on board, mainly because I rarely compromise with the heat. It's got to live up to it's name right? I've been cooking chilli for nearly 40 years and I suppose it's evolved over time. When I pile my ingredients into my wok, I feel like an artist that will always produce a wonderful work of art and occasionally a masterpiece. You see, I don't measure my ingredients. I may have measured ingredients out in the early days of my cooking, but I can barely remember this.  

Why do I love it so? Well, taste obviously. Although I say it myself, it's delicious. Each mouthful is a meaty, beaney, spicy hit. Chilli is definitely a desert island dish for me because I've never got tired of having it. It's also incredibly versatile. We start off with the classic chilli, rice, grated cheese, tortillas and soured cream. I always finely chop 2 or 3 finger chillis and sprinkle on top of mine. The next day we may have chilli and jacket potatoes covered in grated cheese and served with home-made coleslaw. On another day we have burritos - two large tortillas laid out on foil and filled with chilli, rice, cheese and guacamole then folded up and served Mission Burrito style. I also like making quesadillas in a large frying pan. Lastly as a snack, we enjoy chilli toasties oozing with chilli and melted cheese. Yum!

I can't bring myself to share my recipe for chilli con carne yet. All I'll say is it's got to have the right mix of cumin and chipoltle and if you can, use a mix of beef and pork. 

Thanks for reading

Matt AKA Chillichap


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