2008
Beef and Chorizo Chili
In spite of the best laid plans we never made it to Waterford and the Terra Madre events yesterday - sometimes life just happens. Oh well. But I am going to make it to Cork tonight for the Geek Girl Dinner, come hell or high water. Yeah!
My son thinks this is hilarious - that his Mum is actually happy to be called a ‘geek’. I haven’t explained to him that it’s really the ‘girl’ bit that is making me smile.
But I had planned to be away yesterday and so also planned to put something in the oven before we left that would be ready and waiting on our return. This chili can be happily left cooking slowly on a low heat for hours, in fact it’s almost a case of the longer the better.
It’s a hearty and warming dinner I’d normally consider most suitable for the depths of Winter, so that basically covers the months of September-August in Ireland.
1 lb round steak or stewing steak, cut into cubes
1/2 a Lidl Chorizo
2 onions
4 cloves garlic
2 chili peppers, as hot as you like ‘em!
1 tin chopped tomatoes
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
2 teaspoons chili powder
2 teaspoons dark unsweetened cocoa powder
A few basil leaves
1 parsnip
Piece of turnip about the size of an apple
Olive oil
1/2 pint Beef stock *
* If you don’t have homemade beef stock and cannot find either very low salt or, preferably, no salt stock cubes, leave this out and just use water instead. Otherwise, because of the chorizo, the chili will end up way too salty.
Put some olive oil into a large pan over a hot ring. Brown the beef in two batches, removing them to a deep ovenproof dish with a lid once they are done.
Peel the casing off the chorizo - which is a fiddly job, but nessessary. Cut into slices about 1/2-3/4 inches thick. Add some more oil to the pan and toss the chorizo and the chopped onion in this until the onion is soft. Towards the end add the chopped garlic and chopped chilis. Add to the beef.
Add the tomatoes, chili powder, coriander, cumin, chili powder and cocoa to the beef/chorizo and stir well. Chop the basil (I used about 10 leaves) and stir it in. Finely grate the parsnip and turnip and mix through. These may look strange, but they completely dissolve into the sauce with slow cooking and make it thick and unctuous and add a really nice mild sweetness.
Add the half pint of stock or water. Cover and put into an oven pre-heated to 180° C. Immediately reduce the oven temperature to 120° C. Leave it there for 4-5 hours. You can stir it now and then if you are around, but it’s not strictly necessary.
The result will be a dark chili, with meltingly tender meat and a rich sauce that has lots of heat and flavour. Perfect to come home to after a day away.
We had this with cheesy spinach and spicy roast turnip, with some grated cheese and sour cream on top of the chili.
September 7th, 2008 at 10:40 am
I notice there are no beans in it. Is this part of the low carb diet?
September 7th, 2008 at 11:38 am
Yes. The parsnip was pushing it a bit on the carbs as it’s a quite high sugar veg, though worth it, beans would send it over the edge
But also if you are just leaving it in the oven and going out the beans kind of disintegrate, though you could add them near the end of cooking.
September 8th, 2008 at 2:28 pm
Sounds great, I will try this in this slow cooker. What’s the cheesy spinach side dish?
September 16th, 2008 at 1:46 pm
This was nice but too hot. Think I overdid on the chilli. It needs a good bit less liquid in the slow cooker though.
February 26th, 2009 at 12:40 am
Sorry to be a broken record but any idea on the carb content ? I really like your recipes, as a finicky eater !