Come over for dinner. There's plenty to eat! Chilli con carne

When talking about blogging people always say you should find your niche. To be entirely honest, I'm not sure what mine is, if I even have one that is. (M's input on this was to suggest that I was jumping the gun and it might be a nephew. NICHE!) However, when I look at how people find me, it's often with "how do I?" searches, and some of my more popular posts are the comfort, family food. It's logical really, it's the food I eat the most, and am most passionate about, because it's where anyone with any level of confidence in their cooking abilities can make a difference to their health and wellbeing with a few,small, easy changes. Moving from sugar and preservative laden jarred sauces to making your own, fresh, unprocessed meals is the biggest difference anyone can make to their diet. I'm not talking about weight loss here, but how you feel - not craving sweets all the time, feeling gently full, healthier skin and brighter eyes, from making that switch.

And with that - here is the Pantry version of how to cook Chilli con carne. Freezes beautifully. Works really well in the slow cooker - I just whack everything in before work, leave it on low and eat that night. Also, eats really well a day or so after making - so I made this on Friday night after work, and we had it today. The flavours have really developed and it was lovely.

This goes well with red wine, if you're having people over. If you want to be a bit more fancy and foodie about it, I picked up some dried anjo chillies at the Newbury show last year. I chop one with everything else in the food processor, and add one in whole to the chilli just before it goes in the oven. After cooking I take that one out, but if you're feeding someone that likes a bit of heat - pop it on their plate!

Penelope's Pantry does Chilli con carne

1 glug olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
2 cloves of garlic, crushed or chopped
500g (or so) of minced beef
1 red chilli
1 teaspoon cumin (powder or seeds - if using seeds, crush first)
1 stick cinammon (or a pinch of dried if you've run out. Not that that happens here. Oh no *shifty eyes*)
1 teaspoon of chilli powder/ dried chilli
2 tins tomatoes
2 tins red kidney beans
About 100g of tomato paste (you can make your own by blitzing sundried tomatoes) or buy it. Either way.

Preheat oven to Gas mark 3/ 150 degrees
Either chop, or food process the onions, garlic and red chilli (if I'm being fancy/ organised and using home made tomato paste, I add the tomatoes into the food processor and blitz it all together)
Add to an ovenproof pan (with a lid) over a low heat on the hob, cook until the onions are starting to colour
Add your spices; cumin, dried chilli/ chilli powder
Add minced beef and cook, stirring regularly until browned
Add both tins of tomatoes - rinse them out with water and add that
Drain both tins of kidney beans in a colander
If you're using one, add the cinammon stick now
Add those, stir in
Put on the lid, and put in the oven for a couple of hours
Voila! - this easily makes 4-6 adult portions, I normally serve 4 and freeze the rest.


I've served this with cornbread or brown basmati rice, in tortillas, in tacos, with cheese on from a bowl on my lap. Anyway that suits me at the time.