Tweaking chilli to take away with us.

I cannot believe that we have less than 2 weeks to go of our 3months here in Australia, oh how time flies! We do still have one last mini adventure to take though, 6 days in the South of WA where it is cold and wet apparently! Very painful when we look at temperatures back home in Canada....anyway, we are going to love our getaway with friends, in an ecolodge villa on an inlet with a roaring fire and forrests all around. We are also going to enjoy some hearty meals with all this cold weather too! We planned on taking down 2 ready to eat meals and then picking up local produce to make other meals. My meal was chilli, which I was very excited to make as I been wanting to make it since we got here. 

I used about 400g of ground pork and about 500g of ground lean beef, both of which I fried in a hot pan with some oil to brown. There is always lots of stabbing motions with the spatula as I try to break apart the chunks of meat, not in anger or anything, just technique! In a large pot I started sauteeing about 3 small onions chopped up and about half a head of garlic roughly chopped, about 6 or 7 cloves I would guess, or if you are using the lazy garlic (pre chopped in a jar which I love and miss dearly because I use garlic every time I cook and it is highly labour intensive!) about 3tbsps. The meat then joins the onions, along with a couple of beef stock cubes, a very generous squeeze of tomato paste (easily 1/4cup), 2 cans of diced tomatoes, a large stick of celery finely chopped, 2 red peppers chopped, and a can of Mexican beans. These are your kidney beans that already had some seasoning and sauce with them (peppers, garlic, chilli etc) so it only added to my base! Plain kidney beans will do just fine too. When it comes to the spices it gets a bit tricky because I tend to just shake and stop when I think there's enough in there so it is hard to tell you how much to use really. I like things well seasoned and I am going to guess that I used about 3tsp of ground coriander, 2 tsp of ground cumin (which Chef Stu says is vital and everyone forgets to put it in, not me! I was beaming with pride!), 1/4 cup of fresh coriander paste ( the actual fresh leaves were absent at the store) probably about 1 1/2 tsp of smoked paprika, 13 cloves (because that's how many fell into my hand when I tipped the bag) and a stick of cinnamon. And easily 2tsp of chilli flakes. And lots of salt and pepper. You need salt to bring out the flavours, do not be afraid of it! There was also a few shakes of Worcester sauce, a small squeeze of ketchup and a couple tbsp of brown sugar. I overdid the sugar!!! I also found it wasn't seasoned enough for me so added a little more of each spice towards the end, you need to let it cook out to see how it is going to taste. Chef Stu suggested I add some lemon juice to counteract the over sweetness I had created, which I already tried to fix with balsamic vinegar though as he pointed out that can be a bit sweet itself once it reduces. So, to cut the sweetness I added the juice of an entire lemon! And then a little bit of cider vinegar too for good measure!  I would say the dish gently simmered on the lowest heat for a couple of hours while it softened and combined and then reduced when I took the lid off. I fished out the cinnamon stick and the cloves (which took forever really and I was about to give up only the thought of being the unlucky one to chew on one made me continue the search!). 

I was very pleased with the final product though the moral of the story is go easy on all seasoning as it is easier to add than take away at the end. However, there is generally always something you can do to fix a mistake, like adding some lemon or vinegar if it is too sweet, or sour cream/yoghurt if it is too spicy, never fear, cooking is like a science ( says Chef Stu) there is always a way to rectify things. Or just learn for next time! In future I won't add any sugar to my chilli, unless it needs it when I taste it at the very end. I guess it depends on the tomatoes etc in it. The final product is thick, rich, warm, well seasoned, dense with flavour and held together well, you can dollop it onto rice rather than pour it sort of. I couldn't find any pickled banana peppers to top it with here so we will have to be alright with sour cream and green onions! I'll try to remember to take a picture of it when we eat it next week as it is in the freezer right now in tupperwares!