Chilli Con Carne 2.0

Good evening, folks ... it's Friday night and time to kick back, enjoy the evening and eat Chilli!

For many, Chilli is about the beef. It's diced or minced beef. Beef. Got it?

That said, there's no reason why we couldn't make it with other meats. I know ... I know ... some folks half and half with pork, but let's look outside the box.

Turkey Mince!

Yes, minced turkey. It's a lean meat, which means you can couple it with your favourite paleo fat, takes on flavours well and cooks quickly.

My regular method is to hand blend onion, garlic, ginger and chilli to fry off after thoroughly browning beef mince. Add in beef stock, tomatoes, tomato puree, Worcestershire Sauce (Salsa Anglais), paprika, ground coriander, ground cumin, oregano, marjoram and black pepper. Water and let it simmer for a couple of hours.

Turkey mince is a lot quicker ... and gives us an opportunity to do things just a little differently.

Brown off some mince. One pound between two is plenty.

Finely dice an onion, crush some garlic and shred some ginger.

Make a well in the meat, drop in a good cube of coconut oil and in go the onion, garlic and ginger. Stir around and get it well cooked.

One carton of chopped tomatoes, some tomato puree, ground coriander, ground cumin, black pepper, oregano and marjoram. No Worcestershire Sauce this time.

Now, we need some colour and crunch. You could put just about any vegetable in for some interest, but I want to make the chillies the big deal.

I have some large (and so, mild) cooking chillies. Sorry, no idea on variety - they're just sold in bags as 'Chillies', but I know they're quite mild ... which is great, because we can add a lot in.

Several chillies, red and green, sliced up.

Chicken stock, water and on a good simmer, reduce.

Maybe 30 minutes later, we're ready to eat! See, I said it was quick!

Meanwhile, simply make some accompaniments ...

Holy Guacamole, Pico de Gallo and some wraps: British Cos lettuce leaves.

... and your favourite Tequila alongside.

Yeah, the speed on this could be a new favourite for 'Chilli Night'. Chilli Con Carne 2.0, indeed!

Fun with Chilli Con Carne

I've got new plates!

I know ... I know ... it's very sad to be so excited about new plates, but I really enjoy the artistic side of cooking.

I seem to put nutritionally balanced and flavoursome ingredients together, but it's the plating that thrills me - the arrangement and the garnish.

Yes, sad, I know ... new plates offer all manner of new ways of arranging and presenting.

Friday night ... Chilli Night!

My standard Chilli is a pound of minced beef, a carton of chopped tomatoes, an onion, garlic, ginger, chilli, another chilli, another chilli,  black pepper, oregano, paprika and both chicken and beef stock.

[Edit: I also drop in a chunk of dark chocolate. Thanks for the total recall in the comments, Jean ... actually, the week after I tried some cocoa powder and it worked out really well. Thanks for the tip.]

Chillies, I tend to use Scotch Bonnet for the fire, then Japaneno for the crunch. Sometimes, I smoke it up a bit with Chipotle. Ginger, garlic, black pepper and paprika offer other types of fire flavours.

I brown off the meat, blend up onion, garlic, ginger and initial chilli, pour in to cook through, add the tomatoes and the stock, black pepper, paprika and oregano and let it go for a couple of hours simmering away.

Later on, in goes some Worcestershire Sauce (Salsa Anglais, as Mexicans call it) and more chilli.

Alongside, like all manner of dips, bowls of this, that and the other, but tonight ... a little different:

• Avocado rice
• Macerated red cabbage

Avocado rice is simple. Blend an avocado with a little sea salt. Blend it really well. Steam some cauliflower florets and then crush into the guacamole.

Macerated red cabbage is just a case of shredding some red cabbage and steeping it in red wine vinegar. The sweetness really comes out, it softens a little and bleeds a little.

Ready to serve?

It's a rectangular plate, so Chilli Con Carne for about half of the plate, some avocado rice and then some macerated red cabbage at the far end. Garnish ... nice!

Huge fun!

Chipotle Chilli

First, I will say that there is nothing authentic about this ...

In fact, considering the word "authentic" ... can it ever be applied to cuisine? One may have an authentic painting or an authentic first edition book, but cooking?

As with all traditional recipes, nobody really knows where they started, what they looked like when they were first put together or just how much they have evolved or changed since then ... that evolution is actually the process that creates a refined and defined dish which becomes celebrated and so: authentic.

It is because the idea has travelled around the world, been re-interpreted, tried and tested by people outside of the original ethnic group that a dish becomes so great.

So, here's to the Chilli, Chili, Chilli Con Carne, or whatever it is you call it ...

I cook us Chilli every week for our Friday night "kick back and relax" meal after a hard week of work, recognising that we did our thing and we did it well ... and now it's time to really enjoy the weekend break.

Since going paleo, I've left out the beans - granted, that is not "authentic" but then I was cooking a Chilli Con Carne, not a Chili. I've substituted them with all manner of good things, picking a seasonal veggie and dropping it in, cubed - this keeps my Chilli fresh, interesting and always different.

Tonight, I was after purity ... a really refined version.

I decided to go with a smoky flavour and so, the Chipotle is the main chilli in here, boosted with chocolate and smoked sea salt.

I also like my Chilli hot, so in goes a dried (and smoked?) Scotch Bonnet! Whoa! This was hot!

I also looked further into oregano. Mexican oregano is an entirely different herb/plant to European oregano, but, as far as I can tell, the Mexicans called their plant "oregano" because it had a similar flavour to European oregano. In fact, I understand that it is more like marjoram, and I did find an Oaxacan Chef who uses marjoram in preference to Mexican oregano.

The flavour of Mexican oregano is further, more earthy, quite intoxicating in scent, carried by an almost mint-like compound, even slightly citrussy. My herb blend was dried marjoram, fresh mint and some lemon peel.

Let's take a run through the ingredients, then look at the method ...

Minced beef, beef dripping, chopped tomatoes, tomato purée, red onion, onion, garlic, ginger, Chipotle chilli, beef stock, black pepper, smoked sea salt, chocolate, marjoram, mint, lemon peel and jalapeno chillies.

First, brown off the minced beef in a skillet with some beef dripping. No, coconut oil will not do! The ingredients have been very specifically chosen. Beef dripping, it is.

As the mince browns, keep breaking it up and try to grind it further to a really fine texture.

For two people, I find a pound of meat is good. This is about half a kilo, if that's your scale of measurement.

Meanwhile, take half a red onion and half a regular onion, chop roughly and place into a receptacle suitable for blending along with some cloves of garlic, a good teaspoon on fresh ginger and some pre-soaked dried Chipotle and Scotch Bonnet chillies. Blend the lot together and add the chilli water.

For a gentle deviation, if you have dried mushrooms, now would be the time to re-constitute and blend them in with this paste. I may well do this later. I did consider fresh mushrooms, but think the dried would work out better. Another time, maybe ...

Anyway, back to it ...

Pour this paste into the now browned minced beef and cook through.

Add in a good squirt of tomato purée, some black pepper and beef stock. Stir together.

Pour in a carton of chopped tomatoes and stir in.

Add the herbs: sprinkle over dried marjoram and a couple of leaves of well chopped fresh mint along with a piece of lemon peel.

Place a couple of squares of high content chocolate in the middle and cook on, gently for a couple of hours, topping up with water as necessary.

Towards the end of cooking, check tastes and adjust accordingly - salt, or more chilli, where necessary.

Serve out with some fresh chilli de-seeded, halved longways and sliced as garnish. Accompany with a chopped salad of red cos, giving an interested red/green base, cucumber, tomato and radish; guacamole and Greek yoghurt alongside.

Grab a bottle of your favourite red to put out the fire and kick back for the evening.

Winter Chilli

Your favourite chilli recipe can take on a whole new personality when partnered with a seasonal vegetable.

If you're anything like me, you'll like your Chilli regularly. We have Chilli once a week, varying the meat from minced to diced, sometimes adding in pork, sometimes switching entirely to fish, other times to turkey or chicken ... but my minced meat Chilli remains the most commonly undertaken.

My method ...

Take a couple of pounds of minced beef - that's ground beef to you folks over the pond. Brown it off in a large lidded skillet along with some coconut oil.

Meanwhile, chop a large onion, a few cloves of garlic, a couple of chillies and a some ginger root. Blend this lot together with a hand blender until it is a slurry.

While the meat is browning, add in some beef stock and reduce, allowing the darkness to colour up well with the meat.

Pour in the onion slurry and cook through, adding in a carton of chopped tomatoes afterwards.

Finally, a good dollop of tomato puree, an over-generous helping of ground black pepper, a seriously good helping of oregano, some paprika, a little cayenne pepper, cube of 100% chocolate (cocoa powder would do fine) and a good pint, or more, of beef stock.

Lid on and let this lot simmer together for at least an hour.

Lid off, heat up and reduce.

That's my basic Chilli with several levels of heat - ginger, garlic, paprika, black pepper, chilli and cayenne pepper. Vary the chillies for different flavours.

Now the seasonal thing ...

Add in some cubes of pumpkin at the last stage, while the excess liquor is reducing. The pumpkin will cook through and go soft, but still retain some shape.

Of course, this concept can be continued throughout the year, including a different seasonal vegetable each month - aubergine, marrow, summer squash and winter squash are a few of my favourites.

Serve out, as is, or with some lettuce leaves for scooping up, some guac alongside, Greek yoghurt, simple salsa, you know the drill ...

Beef Chilli & Salads

Far too often, we think of Chilli as something to put in some kind of wrap or over some rice.

How about just on a plate? With some salads?

Let's get the Chilli cooking and then we can look at the salads.

First, get some meat browning - I used a couple of pounds of diced beef in a heavy sauté pan with some coconut oil.

Chop an onion and place it in a receptacle for blending (or in your blender, if you have one).

Peel a little ginger, a few cloves of garlic and prepare a few chillies - rough chop and add into the receptacle. Blend together to a rough paste.

Once the meat has browned, pour in the paste and add in one carton of chopped tomatoes.

Add in some water, some stock (or sea salt), black pepper, paprika and oregano.

Lid on and set it on low for a couple of hours, more if you want.

Quick, eh?

So it should be. Chilli is not complicated, doesn't need multiple spice dumps, need not be prize winning; can just be good, tasty food which doesn't get in the way of you enjoying your day.

When ready, just serve it out with the cooling salads and enjoy!

Okay, the salads ...

Cauliflower & Avocado

Steam some cauliflower, allow to cook, crush with a fork and fold into a blended avocado. Squeeze over some lime juice and pop into the fridge to chill.

Marinated Pepper & Mushroom

Slice mushroom, green pepper (capsicum) and onion. Pour over a good slosh of cider vinegar, a little sea salt and some chopped dill.

Fold through every now and again, and when it comes to serving, lift the salad out into a bowl discarding the settled vinegar.

Fried Okra

Chop a few Okra into slices on the slant and fry off in some coconut oil or avocado oil with some ground coriander.

Serve hot with a few chopped things - tomatoes, radish, even olives.

Texas 'Bowl of Red'

I am led to believe that I might be tarred, feathered and run out of the State if I even thought about putting beans or ground meat into a Chili in the State of Texas.

Best get some practice in ...

The 'Bowl of Red' is aptly named. I have read a bewildering array of recipes, multiple spice dumps, all manner of exotic ingredients, but in the end ... this is a bowl of Chili and should be made simply, respecting the ingredients therein.

To work ...

I began by browning off some beef and some pork in a heavy lidded pan. I used some beef dripping here, but coconut oil, tallow or lard would do perfectly well.

Meanwhile, I blended a couple of small onions with a good few garlic cloves, some ginger and a few green chillies. This blend is not far off a green curry paste, and a paste which I happily use in 'Beef Soup' (or Chilli Con Carne to the rest of us), curry and many other spiced food dishes.

Why? Well, it just seems to work well. The paste adds to the richness and texture of the dish without imparting its own characteristics - flavour for the simple reason that it works.

Pour in the paste and brown off for a short while before pouring in a carton of chopped tomatoes, a good squirt of tomato puree and some beef stock.

Sprinkle a good quantity of dried oregano over, fresh is better, some ground black pepper, cayenne pepper and a good tablespoon or more of paprika - this will give is a serious red colour, the rest a heady scent and a good kick! Cumin is popular, but not so popular with my Mrs.

Get some heat under it, lid on and cook through for a couple of hours, topping up with hot water as necessary.

What goes well with red? Green!

Some time before you want to eat (and this can be eaten hot or cold, so timing is really not important), steam some cauliflower florets and mash into a soft avocado - think of this as a kind of green rice.

Ready to eat? Serve out a generous spoonful of red alongside a spoon of green. Garnish, if you're fancy, with some chopped chives.

Dig in!

Paleo Musings' Smoky Chipotle Five Alarm Chili

We eat Chilli Con Carne at some point over the weekend, most weekends. Seeing a really tasty looking alternative recipe posted on one of the paleo forums with the full article on her website, I thought it would be a fun change to follow somebody else's method.

Here goes ...

The recipe calls for tomato paste. I enquired as to the consistency of the paste - firm, like puree; sloppy, like passata; slurry, like chopped tomatoes? Her reply put me in mind of somewhere between puree and passata, not that it really matters I suppose - once cooked in its in there for flavour. As it happens, I simply hand blended a carton of chopped tomatoes.

The recipe also calls for a box of chopped mushrooms. I went for a small can of button mushrooms, which are usually tiny and retain a firm texture. This turned out to be a good choice.

The recipe also calls for Applegate Spicy Sausages. These were not available to me, but any good spicy pork sausage will do fine. I went for venison, which were all meat and flavoured with a little red wine. Perfect for this since we'll be getting all the heat from the chipotle.

To the kitchen ...

Begin by browning off a pound of beef mince. That's ground beef if you're following from over the pond.

Meanwhile, get the sausages in a frying pan and gently cook them through. Too high a heat and the skins burn. Medium is just right.

Chop some onion, fennel, a few garlic cloves and just a little ginger. Hand blend to a paste, then quickly blend further with a carton of chopped tomatoes.

Pour over the browned mince and combine, wetting up with a good pint of beef stock.

Sprinkle over some chilli powder suitable to your tastes, a couple of teaspoons of red wine vinegar and a few dried, smoked chillies - chipotle. This will deliver the smoky flavour.

Set on an active simmer for a couple of hours and then, maybe, half an hour before serving, pour in the can of mushrooms, chop up the sausages and chuck them in.

Raise the heat and reduce.

Serve out over spaghetti squash, cauliflower rice, maybe white rice, maybe just as is in a bowl with some salsa, yoghurt and guac alongside with a few leaves of gem lettuce.

Whichever way you do it, have fun and finish up with Chilli all over your face, grinning like a good 'un!

Cowboy Soup!

Simple concept, quick and easy, from leftovers ...

You made a great batch of Chilli Con Carne, but have some left over which isn't quite a meal, but could pad out.

Pad it out!

Add some cubes of potato or roots, some water and thicken up somehow - okra, arrowroot, egg yolk, however it is you do it.

I love cheese and am happily tolerant of dairy, so a good handful of grated cheddar went over the top, along with some chopped ripe tomatoes.

There really are no rules for this ...

Pad it out however you like and enjoy! The more daring might like to try out the notion that legumes are actually okay for ancestral eaters (biochemically speaking, of course) and chuck some beans in!

Have fun ...

Leftover Texas Chili Omelette

Leftovers are always fun, providing seriously interesting combinations for breakfast!

With a bowl of last evening's Texas Chili in the fridge, I set about making an awesome paleo breakfast.

Let's get cracking ...

Eggs, that is. For a couple of people, crack five large eggs into a bowl and gently whisk until the yolks are broken and just combined.

Eggs should be free range at the very least, woodland reared are best since the chickens are left to roam, peck and scratch for grubs natural to their diet, and the taste difference is evident.

Warm the leftover chilli through.

Place a good block of butter in a large frying pan and pour over the egg mixture. Move it around every so often to create a little interest in the omelette and introduce any uncooked areas to the heat of the pan. Once just set, sprinkle over some grated cheese and some finely sliced mushrooms. If you've exclude dairy, just leave out the cheese.

Slide the omelette out onto a board and cut in half - half each on clean plates.

I love sauerkraut and so placed a bed of sauerkraut on my half along with a number of shakes of green Tabasco.

Spoon over some chilli, top with more cheese, some chopped pickled chillies and a blob of Greek yoghurt.

Fold the sides of the omelette half up around and squirt over some table sauce. Again, if you're off bought sauces, garnish however you like.

Texas Chilli

Bowl of Red - the classic Texas Chili.

Meat and chillies - that's all that goes into a classic Texas Chili, and they'll run you out of town tarred and feathered if you even think of dropping some beans into it!

Checking out a few award-winning recipes, I found that tomato was often included, garlic, too and even herbs. I put together a hybrid from a number of recipes to make up my own Bowl of Red ...

Slip on some rubber gloves - we've got chillies to chop!

In a large sauté pan, get some minced beef browning off.

Meanwhile, soften up some chopped onions in a pan with some fat - I used pork fat, recovered from a belly pork roast. Bacon grease, lard, tallow or shortening will do. Something fatty, anyway.

Put the softened onions into a receptacle to be blended, along with a sliced clove of garlic and a little root ginger for a fiery hit! Blend to a paste. You could add in a couple of chillies here, too.

Add a can of peeled plum tomatoes and a squirt of tomato purée into the receptacle and give it a quick pulse to break down the tomatoes.

Pour over the now browned meat.

The purée will appear quite light, but it will darken with cooking. The purpose of blending the onion is to make the most of the minced meat without much interference from other textures. I'd seen onion powder used a lot in the award-winning recipes, but didn't have any ...

Add in some beef stock and some chicken stock. The combination of stocks gives a depth and a lightness! About a pint in total.

Now for the chillies!

We've already got a fiery note from the ginger and garlic. Time for a wall of fire! I used the naga jolokia chilli (also known as the ghost chilli). Weighing in at one million Scovilles, this is a HOT chilli and must be handled with care. Gloves on and wash the knife afterwards. I used just one centimetre of the chilli and believe me ... this is HOT!

Next, some chipotle for that smoky depth. I used Smokey Tabasco.

Next, some jalapeño for the crispness. Finely chop these with the seeds removed.

Sprinkle some cayenne pepper and paprika over to complete the wall of chilli!

Sprinkle over some oregano and grind in some freshly milled black pepper and a little celery salt to taste.

Finally, add in a good block of chocolate - make it as dark as you have. This will give an enigmatic back-flavour which enhances the whole dish.

Set to simmer for a couple of hours.

Serve out however it is you like your chilli ...

I put mine into a bowl and covered with cheese, placed alongside some tomato, cucumber and pickled chillis, some sliced avocado and a few British cos lettuce leaves to make up wraps. Greek yoghurt alongside is very welcome! Slug down a few tequilas, bite on some lime and have a blast!

Chilli Con Carne

Chilli Con Carne is a great dish and one which requires only a mere tweak to become paleo.

Red Kidney Beans are poison! Simple as that. Leave them out and bring in the colour and that slight texture with paleo-friendly foods - aubergine, red or green peppers.

Then, there's the tacos or tortillas. Corn or flour-based, these are contra-paleo. You're now thinking that Chilli Con Carne is perhaps not a great dish to simulate in the paleosphere. I am not a great fan of mimicing non-paleo foods but this dish becomes equally fun and tasty when made as a paleo dish; a different dish, not necessarily simulating the original.

Chilli is best enjoyed with some accompaniments - guacamole, cachumbar, pickled chillis, salsa and yoghurt. All these can be prepared alongside while the main feature is cooking.

Without further ado, let's put the dish together ...

You'll need the following:

• Beef Mince (2lb)
• Onion (Large)
• Garlic (2 Cloves)
• Chillies
• Chopped Tomatoes (400g)
• Tomato Puree (1 tbsp)
• Worcestershire Sauce (1 tbsp)
• Aubergine
• Black Pepper
• Sea Salt

The compressed version:

1. Brown off the mince in a skillet.
2. Add Worcestershire Sauce.
3. Add a chopped onion and sliced garlic cloves.
4. Add chopped tomatoes.
5. Add squirt of tomato puree.
6. Add chillies.
7. Simmer for 1-2 hours, adding water as necessary.
8. Add diced aubergine.
9. Simmer on for a further 15 minutes.

... and the long version:

Place a large pan with a lid on the heat and get it warming up. Meanwhile, chop an onion. Fry off beef mince without any additional fat or oil and spend some time breaking it down further with a wooden paddle so that the texture is almost ground beef. If some of the meat gets very coloured, great! It's all flavour!

Once coloured, add in the chopped onion, a good squirt of tomato puree, perhaps some Worcestershire Sauce and a slug of tequila. Put the lid on sharpish! The steam will soften up the onions and deglaze the base of the pan in one.

After a few minutes, add a can of plum tomatoes and break up. Add water where necessary.

Add your chillis now. I use a variety of chillis to build up a wall of assault! I use Bhut Jolokia for the intense heat; just a little. Scotch Bonnet adds a subtle alternative flavour. One or two plain green chillis, de-seeded, for the crisp green flavour and I often add a little ginger for the high notes. Put in whatever chillis float your boat or are available to you.

Simmer away for a couple of hours and about half an hour before serving add in chopped aubergine, red and green peppers, whatever it is you want to colour it and give an alternative texture.

Meanwhile, prepare the accompaniments ...

Greek yoghurt to cool down the heat is easy - take the lid off and put in a bowl.

Likewise, pickled chillis can be removed from the jar and placed into another bowl.

Guacamole is simple - just blend a couple of avocados with a squeeze of lime juice, from a lime NOT a bottle! Place in another bowl.

Cachumbar is an Indian accompaniment and works really well with Chilli Con Carne - chop some onion, cube some tomato and cucumber and mix together in a bowl. Add some finely chopped green chilli as well if you like.

Salsa? Break down some tomatoes, add a drop or two of vinegar and some chillis. Chopped pickled chillis work great here. Pour into a bowl.

Finally, the tortillas. Use a crisp lettuce.

I favour Cos for the long leaves and strong spine structure and rather than wrapping the food, use the lettuce leaf more like a taco. Wider leaves will wrap like tortilla.

Take a lettuce leaf, spread some guacamole over, sprinkle some cachumbar, add a good helping of Chilli Con Carne and top with spoons of salsa and yoghurt. Enjoy :)