Jan's Chilli con Carne

A right nice Chilli con Carne always goes down well and is so, so easy to make.



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To serve 4 you will need:
1 large onion - chopped
2 cloves garlic - finely chopped
1 red chilli - finely chopped - seeds left in
2 sprigs of thyme, leaves picked and roughly chopped
olive oil, for frying
500g good quality low fat minced beef
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoon sweet paprika
1 teaspoon dried oregano
1 teaspoon of chilli powder
a pinch of crushed dried red chilli's
400g can of good quality chopped tomatoes
150ml chicken stock
a good amount of tomato puree - say 2 to 3 tablespoons
1 cinnamon stick
1 bay leaf
400g kidney beans, drained and rinsed
a good splash of balsamic vinegar
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

How to do it:
In a large frying pan, brown the mince in a teeny bit of oil. In a separate smaller pan, cook the onion, garlic, chilli and thyme in a couple of glugs of oil.

Add the dried spices to the onion mixture and cook until it smells lovely.
Stir in the tomato puree and cook for another minute. Now add the browned beef and give it all a good stir.
Pour in the tin of tomatoes including the juice, and leave to cook down a little for about 5 to 10 minutes.

Pour in the chicken stock and throw in the cinnamon stick and bay leaf in then bring to the boil and then leave to simmer.

Once the sauce is beginning to thicken up nicely add the kidney beans and the balsamic vinegar. Leave to cook for another 5-10 minutes.

Have a taste and add salt and pepper to season, then remove the cinnamon and bay leave.
Serve immediately with some nice rice - I like a mixture of wild and long grain rice.



**If you wanted to make this to freeze, do everything except add the kidney beans.
Then when you come to re-heat it (after defrosting, of course) just stir in the beans 5 or 10 minutes before serving. Making sure the whole thing including the beans is piping hot.