Here is one of those dishes that is easy to prepare, very satisfying and will decorate any festive table! Chili con carne is suitable for both friendly parties and family dinners. No matter how many guests you invite, everyone will like it. Chili con carne comes from Mexican cuisine, is prepared on the basis of meat (carne) and chili peppers (chilli), which means it is a priori spicy and hot. But you can control the spiciness as you wish. Try cooking it according to Jamie Oliver.
Preparation:
- First, let's prepare the vegetables. Onions, celery, garlic and carrots need to be peeled and finely chopped. Cut the peppers in half, remove the seeds and cut into strips.
- For chilli con carne, Jamie recommends using a larger pot, like you would for soup. Let it heat up over medium heat. Pour a spoonful of olive oil and pour in our vegetables. We immediately add spices to them - chili, cumin, cinnamon, salt and pepper.
- Fry everything for 5-6 minutes, stirring with a spatula.
- Add the beans and chickpeas, draining the liquid from the jar in advance. And then add the tomatoes and ground beef.
- Knead large lumps of minced meat that will begin to form when heated with a wooden spatula. Please note that Primebeef minced meat is quite fatty. Therefore, it is most convenient to fry it in a separate frying pan, and then drain the rendered fat and add the minced meat to a common pan with vegetables.
- There is always tomato sauce left on the sides of a tomato jar. Jamie Oliver always fills one of the jars with water, stirs it with a spoon and pours it into the sauce.
- Tear off the parsley leaves and place in the refrigerator. It is better to add them at the very end. We cut the stems and place them in a saucepan.
- Add vinegar. Season again with salt and pepper and stir well.
- Cover with a lid and wait for the sauce to boil.
- Reduce the heat to low and leave to simmer on the stove for about 1 hour, stirring occasionally. During this time, the minced meat will be saturated with all the aromas of spices and vegetables and will acquire a bright and rich taste.
- Finally, remove the lid and cook for another 10 minutes. If the sauce is too thick, add half a cup of water.
- Serve hot chili con carne. The most delicious thing is with fluffy rice basmati, jacket potatoes or couscous. Goes great with chilli con carne natural yogurt, guacamole and lime wedges.
Bon appetit!
The famous Mexican dish chili con carne was invented in Texas. At first, Americans contemptuously called such food Tex-Mex , and then learned to be proud of her
Even at the beginning of the 20th century, Americans were sure that chili con carne (translated from Spanish as “chili with meat”) was a purely Mexican dish. “Tanzi often came to these stands at night to try delicious Chili-con-carne, a dish invented by the genius of the Mexicans, it consisted of pieces tender meat with aromatic herbs, generously sprinkled with spicy red sauce Chili cjlorado. Its special taste and fiery burning appealed to the palate of a true southerner,” this is how O. Henry described chili in the story “The Magic Kiss.” His hero finds himself in a fantastic situation when he meets a Spaniard in San Antonio who claims that he has lived for 400 years, and that chili con carne prepared according to a special recipe helps him maintain his youth.
In the 1960s, when the dish became a culinary hit in the United States, Americans were disappointed: it turns out that what they had mistaken for many years for traditional Mexican cuisine was just a Texas invention, which in 1963 received the name “Tex” in the New York Times newspaper. “Mex” was the name given to the Texas-Mexico Railroad, and then to the Southern immigrants who arrived along it.
However, even then there were many versions of the origin of chili con carne, including the most incredible. According to one of them, in the 17th century, the Spanish nun Maria from Agreda, who dreamed of enlightening savages, but had never been to America, received the recipe from the Indians during an ecstatic vision. According to another version, the recipe was brought with them by Spanish settlers from the Canary Islands. Initially, they prepared the dish from goat or venison and always seasoned it with cumin and oregano, and only later added chili pepper to the recipe.
The earliest written mention of the dish dates back to 1828. Then the town of San Antonio, which today is considered the birthplace of Texas chili con carne, belonged to Mexican Texas, which became part of the United States in 1845. A certain J. Clopper from Houston described the diet of the local poor: chopped meat, stewed with pepper. The dish only cost a few cents. Even the unemployed could afford a bowl of chili, which in slang was called a “bowl of red.” During the Mexican-American War of 1846–1848, this dish entered the diet of the American army, remained there through World War I, and became a real salvation for Americans during the Great Depression.
Interview
There are many answers to this question, and each region of the United States has its own answer. In Texas, the homeland of chili, the dish is prepared only with meat, without adding beans. In the rules of the competition CASI V. Terlingua states that any fillers: beans, rice, pasta are prohibited. In Cincinnati, on the contrary, this dish is most often served with Italian pasta. But do all the variations have something in common, like spices? There is also a huge selection here. Fresh or smoked chili peppers are used, chili powder is very common. I prefer chipotle - smoked Mexican chili - and sun-dried tomatoes and do not add cayenne pepper, it overpowers the taste of the dish. Did your family often eat chili? Often. I grew up in the 1970s, when chili was wildly popular in the United States. My parents made chili a couple times a month, and I make it for my kids about the same frequency. |
Poor people's food gradually gained popularity among the upper echelons of American society. American President Lyndon Johnson was a fan of chili; his favorite recipe was named after the president’s Texas ranch - “Pedernales River Chili.” First Lady Bird Johnson eagerly shared her cooking method, sending the recipe to the president's supporters across the country.
The state of Texas has achieved that since 1977, chili con carne has been considered its official dish, and the Texas town of Terlingua has become the site of the largest international chili cooking championship. Its rules are very strict. Cooking is allowed only outdoors; participants are not allowed to use semi-finished products, frozen meat or any flavor enhancers. During a heated debate about the merits of the dish, supporters of adding onions and tomatoes to the dish may be advised to “buy a ticket to Illinois.” Texans are always ready to defend the authenticity of their recipe with their fists, but will happily share a bowl of spicy hot chili with a guest.
Chili con carne
Recipe
How many servings: 8–10
Cooking time: 2.5 hours
1 Pour into a thick-bottomed pan olive oil, put it on fire. When the oil is hot, add the minced meat and fry until brown.
2 Remove the meat from the pan and drain off the fat (if you don't do this, you'll end up with a fattier version). Return the same pan to the stove and put the meat back into it. To fill with water. Boil. Add chopped garlic and tomato paste, simmer for about 6 minutes.
3 Puree the chipotle pepper, cilantro, parsley and capers in a blender until pureed. Add to the meat and simmer over low heat for 2 hours, stirring from time to time.
4 Add spices and beans, mix thoroughly and simmer for another 10-15 minutes.
Photos: Grigory Polyakovsky
Chili con carne, like any other National dish, has many variations. Chili can be vegetarian or meat, with the addition of coffee, cinnamon or dark chocolate, seasoned with grated cheese and sour cream. Our chili con carne recipe is classic - with beef, red beans, hot chili peppers and tomatoes.
Chili is easy to prepare, but takes time. All ingredients need to be simmered in one pan for several hours, then the sauce will be thick and rich. The longer the ingredients simmer, the tastier the result. It is advisable to cook the day before serving so that the chili is thoroughly infused, which will only benefit its taste.
Total cooking time: 3 hours
Cooking time: 2 hours
Yield: 6 servings
Ingredients
- beef (flesh, neck, shoulder) – 500 g
- canned or boiled red beans – 400 g
- onions – 2 pcs. medium size
- garlic – 2 teeth.
- celery – 1 stalk
- vegetable oil – 3-4 tbsp. l.
- bell pepper – 1-2 pcs.
- hot peppers- 1 PC.
- fresh or canned tomatoes – 300 g
- tomato paste – 1 tbsp. l.
- water – 400-500 ml
- salt and ground black pepper - to taste
- ground cumin (cumin) – 0.5 tsp.
- ground sweet paprika – 1-2 tsp.
- cilantro - a small bunch
Preparation
Big photos Small photosBeans can be used canned in tomato sauce or boiled. In the latter case, it is best to start cooking the day before - the grains need to be soaked and boiled. I used red beans (1 cup), soaked them in water overnight, drained the liquid in the morning, filled with clean water and boiled until almost done without adding salt. I threw the beans into a colander and saved the broth. The grains should become soft, but not overcooked.
Beef (flesh from any cut is suitable, not too fatty) must be washed, stripped of films and tendons, and then cut into very small pieces. You can pass the meat through a meat grinder. I recommend avoiding store-bought minced meat; as a rule, it contains too much fat, so it’s better to cook it yourself.
I peeled the onion and garlic and then finely chopped it with a knife. I like the combination of celery and beef, so I added one diced stalk. If you don't like it, you can exclude it from the list of ingredients. We will also need sweet and hot peppers, seeded and cut into bean-sized pieces. You can adjust the amount of chili to your taste, but remember that Mexican cuisine is spicy.
When all the ingredients are prepared, you can start cooking. It is best to simmer beef with vegetables in a wide saucepan with a thick bottom or in a large frying pan. I heated vegetable oil in a saucepan and fried the onion and garlic over medium heat, stirring, until soft - about 5 minutes.
I added a little hot ground red pepper and cumin ground in a mortar (the second name is cumin, not to be confused with cumin!). Heated it for less than a minute, stirring constantly so that the spices could better reveal their wonderful aroma.
Next I put the chopped beef into the pan. Fry for 10 minutes over medium heat, stirring. The beef should be browned. If you use minced meat rather than minced meat, then crush it with a fork, then lumps will not form, the meat will fry evenly and turn out crumbly.
I added tomatoes - fresh (scald with boiling water and remove the skin, cut into small pieces) or canned tomatoes in own juice(mash with a fork). For a richer taste, I also added a spoonful of concentrated tomato paste. Fry everything together for a couple of minutes.
Pour in boiling water - the liquid should completely cover the contents of the pan. Simmer over low heat for 1 hour, stirring occasionally to ensure nothing burns.
An hour later, I added boiled beans to the pan, added the broth (which remained after cooking the legumes), and added salt and pepper to taste. Seasoned the dish with ground sweet paprika- it gives a beautiful red color and a richer taste (2 teaspoons are enough). And continued to simmer over low heat for another 30-40 minutes. During this time, the beans should be fully cooked and soft. If you use canned beans, then it will cook for about 10 minutes. Tomato sauce You can also pour it from the jar into the pan. The fire should be low and simmer with the lid on. Be sure to adjust the heat level, add more chili if you want the dish to be super spicy.
When the chili con carne is ready, let it sit covered for at least half an hour. After this, sprinkle with cilantro and serve. Can be served with a side dish or just as is, with pita bread. If the dish turns out too “fiery”, you can add grated cheese or a spoonful of sour cream, they will neutralize the spiciness. Those who like to experiment can try the combination of chili with a cube of dark chocolate.
Chili con carne, chili with meat, is a famous dish that is often simply called chili. It necessarily includes tomatoes, spicy hot peppers, and meat, usually beef. Many people believe that it is impossible to make real chili without beans, but this ingredient has been the subject of controversy for centuries, as hot as the chili itself.
Photo by Shutterstock
What to make chili from
To prepare classic chili, take: - 1 tablespoon vegetable oil; - 1 large head of red onions; - 1 red Bell pepper; - 2 cloves of garlic; - 1 teaspoon chili powder; - 1 teaspoon of paprika; - 1 teaspoon of ground cumin; - 500 g lean ground beef; - 300 ml beef broth; - 400 g chopped canned tomatoes; - ½ teaspoon dried oregano; - 1 teaspoon of sugar; - 2 tablespoons tomato puree; - 450 g red beans canned in their own juice.
Chili is served with heaps of boiled rice on top and garnished with a spoonful of sour cream. Or with corn chips and cheese. You can also wrap the chili in a special taco tortilla along with shredded lettuce, chopped tomatoes and guacamole in a dish called a burrito.
How to cook chili
Prepare the vegetables. Peel the onion and cut into small cubes. Remove the stem from the red pepper, remove the seeds, wash the pepper and cut the pulp into cubes. Remove the peel from the garlic cloves and chop them. Heat the olive oil in a large, deep saucepan, add the onion and cook, stirring, until it becomes translucent. Add garlic, bell pepper, season with paprika and chili powder, ground cumin, mix well and simmer, stirring, for about 5 minutes. Place the minced meat in the pan and break it into pieces with a wooden spoon or silicone spatula. Mix the meat with vegetables and fry the mixture, continuing to “break up” any lumps that form.
Prepare the sauce by mixing broth and canned tomatoes, add oregano and sugar, tomato paste, whisk and pour into the minced meat, stir and bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover and simmer for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Some cooks consider this chili to be ready-made, while others add beans.
You can replace sugar with dark chocolate, you won't need more than a slice.
Today different varieties peppers are grown in many warm countries. Most varieties, united under the common name “chili,” have a pronounced spicy taste. This name is applied not only to the vegetable itself, but also to sauces prepared on its basis. You can buy this seasoning at almost any grocery store. But it's not that difficult to make chili sauce at home. A huge variety of recipes allows everyone to choose a dish to their taste. Let's look at several popular and easy-to-follow cooking methods.
What is chili sauce?
Typically, chili sauce is based on a mixture of vegetables. Often it contains either fresh tomatoes, but there are many recipes based on other vegetables: rotunda, bell pepper and even plum puree. If you decide to make chili sauce at home, base it on your family's eating habits. Choose a type of pepper whose spiciness suits your taste. If you don't like excessive heat, or if such products are contraindicated for your health, you may like sweet chili sauce, which also contains some heat, but to a lesser extent.
Chili pepper and its varieties
When you go to the market or store for the main ingredient, expect to find it in one of the most common forms. Along with fresh peppers, you may also find dried, powdered, or sliced peppers. You can see pickled or frozen chili peppers on supermarket shelves. In some countries, such as Spain, dried and smoked peppers are popular.
All these varieties are perfect for our purposes. Of course, if it happens in summer or autumn, the choice is quite wide. But if you decide to make chili sauce at home during the cold season, you are unlikely to be able to get fresh fruits. Don't despair - buy dry powder. It is also suitable for imparting the necessary spiciness and for imbuing the finished dish with a characteristic aroma.
Basic recipe
If you've never made this sauce before, get started with it. classic recipe. For it we will need:
- hot pepper - 2 pcs.;
- bell pepper (red) - 2 pcs.;
- tomato paste - 4 tbsp. spoons;
- garlic - 3 cloves;
- salt.
You can also use a rotunda for this recipe. Culinary experts say that for pepper heat treatment is not necessary, and it dulls the taste. Therefore, the sauce does not need to be boiled. Simply chop the vegetables in any convenient way: using a blender or meat grinder. Do not touch the chili pepper or the knife used to cut it. Cut it with gloves.
Add tomato paste, seasonings and salt. If the sauce seems too thick, thin it out vegetable broth or water. If the mixture turns out runny, add a little cornstarch.
Additional Ingredients
You can diversify the taste of the sauce, make it fuller and richer. Fresh herbs go well with it: dill, basil, watercress. Instead of salt, you can use soy sauce. Some add to homemade sauce chili chopped pickled onions. In this case, you will need to cut it smaller in advance, pour boiling water over it, add a couple of drops of vinegar, a pinch of sugar and a little salt. When the water has cooled, carefully squeeze the onion and add it to the sauce. Thanks to boiling water, it will lose unnecessary bitterness, but high temperatures will not harm its aromas and spiciness.
For those who like it spicy
If you want to “increase the degree”, that is, make the sauce even hotter, feel free to experiment. You should not increase the amount of pepper by 2-3 times at once, the result may turn out to be too expressive. If the recipe calls for 2 pods, but the prepared sauce didn’t seem strong enough for you, next time use 3 pods.
In general, chili - which should cause a burning sensation. You can enhance the effect with garlic and dry seasonings. For basic recipe You can use both young garlic and regular heads. Do you like it spicy? Double the amount of garlic. You can also add chili powder to ready sauce until the concentration reaches the desired level.
Harmony of flavors: sweet and sour sauce
If classic sauce While chili refers us to the culinary traditions of Latin America, its sweet and sour interpretation is a classic of the Far East. It is widely used for preparing Chinese dishes and If you want to cook sweet and sour sauce chili, you can move away from the traditional vegetable base of Mexican cuisine. In Asia, the sauce is prepared differently.
We will need:
- water - 100 ml;
- garlic;
- corn starch - 1 tbsp;
- sugar - 50 g;
- chili - 3 pcs.
- - 3 tbsp.
Making this chili sauce at home is quite simple. Bring the water with sugar, salt and wine to boil, and at this time chop the vegetables into a paste. Dissolve the starch in a small amount of water and pour into the boiling mixture in a thin stream. Add the vegetables and let the mixture come to a boil. All that remains is to add salt to taste.
Sweet chili
There is an even sharper version of this dish. It combines very little spiciness with pronounced sweetness. It is achieved with a small amount of honey, brown or cane sugar. Sweet chili sauce can be prepared according to any favorite recipe, only you need to take half as much pepper, and at the end of cooking you need to add 1 tsp to the sauce. honey or sugar.
Procurement for future use
Housewives who have mastered this recipe say that it makes sense to prepare more of this wonderful delicacy. If you decide to make chili sauce at home for the winter, use the following recipe. Prepare the following products:
- tomatoes - 4 kg;
- onions - 6 pcs.;
- vegetable oil - 30 ml;
- chili pepper - 0.35 kg;
- salt - 6 tsp;
- sugar - 12 tsp;
- wine vinegar - 40 ml;
- garlic - 8 cloves;
- greenery.
Grind pepper, garlic, parsley in a blender. We pass the tomatoes through a meat grinder. Heat the oil in a cauldron and fry the pepper mass for about two minutes. Add tomato mince, simmer for half an hour over low heat. Grind the mixture through a sieve to make the sauce smooth. Add sugar and salt and boil again. At the very end, add vinegar. We pack it in sterile jars, seal it and put it in the pantry.
Chili sauce on the table
Having prepared chili sauce at home for the winter, you can use it to prepare the most different dishes. It goes well with pasta, side dishes stewed vegetables. In the East, it is added to traditional soups and meat gravies. You can prepare marinades for meat and fish with the addition of this sauce before baking, or simply serve in a saucepan.