Slow cooked chilli

You can so tell that I've been back at work this week. Blog posts have been conspicuous by their absence and according to the Husband I've been grumpier than normal, cheek ! Meals this week have been on the quicker side of normal and I've been trying to avoid the lure of the takeaway menu. On the weight loss front this week it's not been good. Well I suppose it could have been a lot worse but I maintained which I'm not surprised about but would have preferred a loss - well wouldn't you ?!

A few weeks ago we all went to Yellows for lunch (review pending !). The Husband had something called Cinicinatti chilli 5 ways. After some research on the internet and Delia's cheat ingredients aside, it seemed as if it was a slow cooked chilli with cinammon and allspice but served with spaghetti rather than anything else. This wasn't the way Delia did it and I don't know about you but spaghetti with chilli ? Not sure. Slow cooked chilli however is something I've wanted to try for a while but after getting some stewing steak really cheaply at Waitrose I thought I'd finally get around to doing it. It's based loosely on my Kick ass chilli recipe but with a few tweaks. I haven't added any beans to the chilli as I've served it with them on the side but you could easily add some in before the slow simmer.

SLOW COOKED CHILLI
serves 4

1 tbsp olive oil
500g stewing steak
2 onions chopped
2 chillis chopped (leave the seeds out if you want it milder)
3 cloves garlic chopped
1 tsp each of ground coriander, ground cumin and dried oregano
2 beef stock cubes
2 x 400g cans chopped tomatoes
1/2 tsp sugar
good squirt tomato puree
fresh coriander to finish

Heat the olive oil in a large pan
Brown the beef and remove to a plate
Add the onions, chillis and garlic and cook for about 5 minutes
Add the herbs & spices and cook for a minute or so
Add the beef back to the pan and then add the rest of the ingredients apart from the coriander
Simmer over a low heat for at least 2 hours.

I've served this with pinto beans, sour cream, Monterey Jack cheese, red onion and Ritz crackers so the "5 ways" that Delia talks about. It was so delicious but not really an everyday way of doing it. The left over portions going in the freezer will probably just be served with a jacket potato and sour cream for a quick and easy week night dinner.