The Best? Chilli Con Carne…

Woah, it’s been quite a whilst since my last blog, and for that I can only apologise! You may have noticed last week that there were a few guest blogs, and I hope you enjoyed them, and I did plan to return to blogging on the Friday, but unfortunately fate was determined to get me to diet somehow, and I ended up with gastroenteritis, which meant from Wednesday-Saturday I spent all day in bed, crying with pain of my kidneys trying to get rid of the nasty bug that decided to stop me eating for three whole days!!! As I said, my body was determined to get me on some kind of diet, and restore a normal sleeping pattern, and decided illness was the way forward.

Now of course, that doesn’t excuse me for no blog posts this week, but to be honest, I was still nibbling at comfort food most of this week! After being so ill, going back to food is like learning to eat again, you’re not sure what you like, so you end up sticking to bland things. However, all is better now, and on Tuesday I received a comment on my blog from a lovely researcher at ITV on my “About Punkchef” page, asking me if I would like to apply for Britain’s Best Dish! Of course I would, I was born to be a star, sweetie darlings!! I may have a face for radio, but that’s not going to stop me trying to interfere with your reception, and hopefully soon my beaming fizzog will be staring at people all across the country, so apologies in advance!

So after speaking to the people on the telephone, I had to decide what recipe I should use, should it be one I’ve already shared on the blog, the chicken and leek pie?, the mint and white chocolate mousse?, or should I do my as of yet, undocumented Chilli Con Carne? A recipe which I’ve been developing for quite some time, each time I make it I add something different, just to enhance it. “Yes!” I exclaimed, whilst sat alone in my room, to nobody, “I shall make the chilli”.

My audition is tomorrow, so please feel free to leave good luck comments. Here is the recipe, and I would like to point out, that even though it has a wide amount of spices, particularly chillies, it is not too spicy, my opinion on Chilli Con Carne, is that it’s an earthy dish first, and a spicy dish second!! The emphasis, for me, is on earthy flavours.

The Best? Chilli Con Carne

Ingredients :

• 1kg pork mince
• 2 cooking chorizo sausages, diced
• 1 large spanish onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 and 1/2 chipotle chillies, finely chopped, or tbsp dried chipotle flakes
• 3tbsp cumin
• 2tbsp chilli powder
• 1tbsp smoked sweet paprika
• 6 slices of pickled jalapeños, finely chopped
• 1 large fresh green chilli, finely chopped (seeds removed)
• 1 tin good quality chopped tomatoes
• 1 tin pinto beans
• 200ml red wine (I suggest something Spanish or Chilean, I used a Tempranillo, but a Rioja would also work brilliantly)
• handful fresh coriander
• 90%+ cocoa solids, dark chocolate
• zest of 2 limes, juice of 1 lime
• salt
• pepper
• corn or vegetable oil

Method :

1. Add the chorizo sausage to a pan, and fry in a little vegetable oil to release spices and fats in the sausage, strain and reserve chorizo.
2. Add the onion to the flavoured oil, and sweat over a low heat, until they have reduced to half their original volume.
3. Add the minced garlic to the onions, and the paprika, and continue to sweat for another 10 minutes.
4. Once the onion is thoroughly cooked, add the chipotle chilli, and increase the heat, and fry off for a couple of minutes.
5. Add the cumin and chilli powder to the onions, and fry until the spice catches the back of your throat when you breath in the aromas. This is how you know the dried spices have cooked.
6. Return the chorizo to the onion and spice mixture, followed by the fresh chilli and jalapeños, and continue to cook over a high heat.
7. Add the pork mince, and stir until browned, then add the wine, and leave the alcohol to cook off for a few minutes.
8. Once the wine has cooked off, add a tin of chopped tomatoes, and a tin of pinto beans, and stir through.
9. Chop the coriander and stir into the chilli, check for seasoning, adding salt and pepper.
10. Grate 2-3 pieces of high quality, high cocoa percentage, dark chocolate into the chilli and allow to melt into the chilli.
11. Finally, add the juice of a lime, and zest of 2 limes, check for seasoning once again (as the chocolate may contain a little sugar, which you may wish to combat with a little extra salt), and leave overnight, as this allows the flavours to mature.
12. Serve with long grain rice, perhaps with some wild rice added to it.

As I said earlier in my blog, my recipe for chilli con carne focuses on the earthy flavours of cumin, and paprika, and good wine and chocolate, and although it does have a chilli kick, it’s not the main focus of the recipe. I know a lot of people claim to have “The best recipe for chilli con carne EVER”, but for a lot of people who make this claim, it’s just a synonym for “the most needlessly spicy recipe for chilli con carne EVER, where you won’t be able to taste anything else for days as your sensitive taste buds will have been rendered useless due to obscene amounts of capsicum”… and if you think I’m talking about your chilli con carne recipe here… I probably am.

Finally, I would like to add a MASSIVE, HUUUUGE “THANK YOU!!” to the very wonderful Paul Farley, the head chef at Hero Burrito, for donating me a can of chipotle chillies for my recipe, when Morrison’s decided that now would be a great time to stop selling them, which is a ball ache for me, as chipotle is a key ingredient in my recipe, and without it I would have been up a creek without a paddle! So go to their restaurant, or order a takeaway, and mention that you heard of them through me (even if you didn’t!! lol) and tell them I say thank you, again!!!

Hero Burrito : http://www.facebook.com/#!/group.php?gid=145411818243&ref=ts

Anyway, wish me luck for tomorrow!!

Kris.

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Pork and Beans

Yes!! That’s what I’m having for tea tonight, no, I’m not eating the popular rock band, Weezer (see video above!), but I thought I would make a Mexican style meal of pork and beans! I love Weezer, they’re a great band… y’know, I don’t really know where I’m going with this… I’m half watching The Simpsons, half eating nachos, with jalapeños and a lime and tequila salsa, whilst half writing this blog post,… although at this point, The Great British Menu is about to start, so now I will be half watching that. I don’t know if that puts me at 2 wholes, or 1 and a half. I did fail maths at school, though… at this point, I’m going to live blog… though.

Righto, that’s the liveblog done… now for some recipe goodness!!

Mexican Pork Shnitzel, with Pinto Bean Chilli

Ingredients :

For the pork shnitzel

• Pork shoulder steaks
• Stale bread, crust removed
• Cumin seeds
• Coriander seeds
• Smoked sweet paprika
• Dried chilli flakes
• Salt
• Pepper
• Plain flour
• Egg

For the Pinto Bean Chilli

• 2 tins of Pinto beans
• 1 large onion
• Chopped tomatoes
• Tomato puree
• Fresh red chilli, chopped finely (seeds removed if you wish)
• Pickled jalapeños, chopped
• Chilli powder
• Ground cumin
• Smoked sweet paprika
• Dried coriander
• Zest and juice of one lime
• Salt
• Pepper

Method :

1. The first thing which needs doing, is to bash out the pork steak so it is thinner (therefore cooks quicker!), do this by laying it between two sheets of cling film and give it a good whack with something heavy. Imagine it’s your enemy’s face.
2. Leave the pork in a fridge, so that it remains firm.
3. At this point, begin work on the pinto bean chilli. Finely chop an onion and gently fry in a pan.
4. Once softened, add the cumin, paprika, and chilli powder and fry out the spices until the fumes catch the back of your throat.
5. Add the red chilli and jalapeños to the onions and spices.
6. Add some tomato puree, and mix thoroughly into a paste consistency
7. Add the chopped tomatoes, and mix through.
8. Then add the pinto beans, add salt and pepper, and leave to gently simmer.
9. Blitz the bread in a magimix until it is breadcrumbs.
10. Gently crush all the spices in a pestle and mortar, and mix through the breadcrumbs.
11. Dust the steak with flour, and then into an egg wash, and then in the breadcrumbs, making sure it is well coated.
12. Fry the shnitzel in a little vegetable oil until golden brown and cooked through (remember, pork should never be overcooked!!! it can be slightly translucent in the centre)
13. Add the zest and juice of the lime to the chilli before serving.

Pork and Beans, Mexican style

Look, I even did that cheffy thing, where you cut it in half, and then lay one half on top of the other! Move over Heston!!

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Pledges, Wedges and… err, something else that rhymes with that

Right then, a few things to cover in this blog post. I’ll cover them in no particular order whatsoever, too!

Firstly is the news that I am going to be on my own this week, my dad is going holiday with his missus and her family, and I opted to stay at home (much more relaxing for me, I’m a fairly quiet person), and this gives me the opportunity to cook some tasty things that I wouldn’t normally get the chance to cook. So I pledge to put up at least three blog posts between Monday and Friday (although, if I’m too busy, I may extend that to include the weekend, to catch up, you know?). I’ve already been shopping, and some ingredients I’ve bought include breast of lamb, pork cheeks, and my personal favourite (purely because I’m rather curious about how they will go down), pig trotters!! Ahh yes, me and my love of offal, eh? I’m also planning on cooking something fishy on Friday, because, even though I’m far from being a Christian, it’s a nice tradition to eat fish on a Friday!

Secondly, I’ve come across a new blog, and I think it’s a good blog, it’s called Random Eats, Nairn (the blogger) bought 11 BBC Good Food cookbooks on Amazon. Upon realising that they just act as dust magnets, he set himself the challenge, of every weekday, having a recipe chosen at random by a colleague or friend, and that night he will cook it, and provide photographic evidence. It’s a fair good read, too!

And, as always, there’s a recipe, for spicy potato wedges. Yeah, it’s a simple one, but it was damn tasty, so I’m going to share the recipe.

Spicy Potato Wedges

Serves 1 as a snack, 2 as part of a main meal

Ingredients :

• 3 medium sized potatoes, cut into wedges (8 wedges per spud)
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 2 tsp crushed garlic
• 2 tsp smoked sweet paprika
• 2 tsp chilli powder
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1 tsp ground black pepper
• 1 tsp ground sea salt

Method :

1. Plunge the potato wedges into a pan of boiling water, and par-boil for 10 minutes.
2. Drain the potato wedges, and put into the pan to cool.
3. Whilst cooling, mix the remaining ingredients in a bowl.
4. Coat the potato wedges in the spice and oil mixture, be generous!.
5. Transfer the potato wedges to a baking sheet, and bake in a pre-heated oven, at 200 degrees Celsius/Gas Mark 6, for roughly 20 minutes.

And, the reason I did this recipe, was because of one of the blog posts on Nairn’s blog, in which his random meal ended up being potato wedges and baked beans. So, I served mine up with some tinned baked beans, although mine were Branston baked beans (the baked beans of kings!!), straight from the tin. Not proper baked beans, lovingly crafted from scratch like his. It was good though. Filled a hole!

Anyway, I’m shooting off, this perry and these doughnuts aren’t going to eat and drink themselves!

Cheerio

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Made a complete (corned beef) hash of it

Last night I was looking around the fridge thinking, there’s nowt in. Sure, me and my dad went to the shops earlier that day, but all he bought was cake and bread and fruit juice. My dad is a terrible shopper, he never buys the food required for meals, he just zones in for the cake aisle straight away. This is a house that is never without cake. I don’t even care for cake that much. Anyway, so there I was looking in the fridge thinking, “what the hell am I going to have for tea?”, then suddenly, I saw, a silvery glow. Half a tin’s worth of corned beef, wrapped in foil to keep it fresh. I thought to myself “fuck it, corned beef hash it is”, and last night, I made my best corned beef hash, ever! So it seems only right that I share the recipe.

I’m going to type up this recipe as I did it last night, which served just me. If you want to serve two people, double it up.

Corned Beef Hash

Serves 1 Greedy Pigloid

Ingredients :

• Half a tin of Corned Beef
• 2 rashers of smoked bacon
• 1 medium size potato
• Tomato Puree
• Dried Mixed Herbs
• Cayenne Chilli Powder
• Cumin
• Sweet Smoked Paprika
• 1 egg (for poaching, although if you really like eggs, go for 2, we’re not rationing them any more!)

Method :

1. Dice the potato into small, bite sized cubes. About 2cm cubed. If you want to take out a ruler, go for it.
2. Par boil the potato in salted water. Then drain and leave to cool slightly.
3. Cut the bacon into lardons, and begin to fry in a little vegetable oil.
4. Dice the corned beef to similar size as the potato.
5. To the bacon, add a dash of cumin, as much cayenne pepper as you like, and a teaspoon or two of paprika (I go for two, I like paprika)
6. Add the potato to the frying pan and turn hob down to medium, toss occasionally. I don’t like to stir this, as it tends to turn the hash to a more mushy consistency.
7. Once the potatoes have taken on a little crispness and colour, add the corned beef, and turn the heat up a little.
8. Add a dessert spoon of tomato puree and continue to toss. Allow the hash to take on a little crispness from the bottom of the frying pan before tossing each time. The crispy bits are the best.
9. Whilst cooking the hash, poach an egg. If you don’t know how to do this, I suggest looking at Auntie Delia’s website, here.
10. Turn the hash out onto the plate, in a mound, make a well in the top of the mound of hash, and put the poached egg into that.

I think corned beef hash goes great with white, buttered bread and tomato sauce. But you can use whatever sauce you like and if you’re feeling particularly healthy, opt for wholemeal, your body is a temple, yeah?

I suggest this is best enjoyed with a glass of Shiraz, or a crisp lager.

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