Campfire chilli


Another weekend on lockdown, but this time it was with almost summer-like weather. Sun was shining and reportedly 20 degrees, but whatever it was, it was warm enough to be in shorts and t-shirts and spending all day in the garden. And as long as it's warm enough to be outside, its warm enough to cook outside!



To be honest with you, my original plan for campfire chilli was to homeschool the kids a little bit about making campfires, but I soon realised, with the lovely weather, it would be a bit anti-social to have a fire in the garden in the middle of the hottest day of the year so far, so it ended up being over coal briquettes (smoke-less) and we ended up not having any educational how-to-build-a-fire fun (we will have to save that for an evening time) but instead cooking a chilli on the BBQ.



It's been a couple of years since I last entered a chilli cook-off and had the pleasure of cooking chilli outside, so had forgotten how much fun it is cooking chilli outside. It's a very low-maintenance, hands-off affair, that takes a few hours to cook (meaning you have to stand around outside in the sun all afternoon) and fills the air with the most wonderful of smells (and quite different to your standard BBQ smells, so maybe that was quite inconsiderate of the neighbours too!).


The chilli can be made on a BBQ, a campfire, a camping stove or just inside on the hob - you'll be cooking for probably three hours or more, so as long as you have the fuel to last then cook where you like! (BBQ briquettes easily burn that long, mine were still red hot hours later, campfires you can get going and just keep fuelling with logs).

Ingredients

  • 1 onion
  • 2 cloves of garlic
  • a couple chillis (red/green/jalapeno, as you like) - optional
  • 2 carrots
  • 1 tablespoon tomato puree
  • 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (optional, if you don't have this on your shelf then don't worry about it)
  • 1/2 teaspoon onion powder (optional, if you don't have this on your shelf then don't worry about it)
  • 2 teaspoons oregano
  • 2 teaspoons cumin
  • 1 tablespoon chilli powder (when I entered chilli cook-offs, I would blend chilli powders often De Arbol, Mulato and New Mexico Red, but for regular family chilli powder, run of the mill supermarket chilli powder will work fine)
  • 1 tin 400g chopped tomatoes
  • 400ml vegetable stock
  • 1 sheet gelatin (optional)
  • 1 tablespoon cider vinegar
  • Meat: this weekend I used 500g chopped pork shoulder & 70g chopped chorizo - but you can choose the meat as you please. My competition chilli would normally be pre-dominantly beef (short ribs) and some pork (pork cheek, chorizo etc) - but you can use any meat you please, just as long as its suitable for slow cooking - pork shoulder, beef ribs, beef shin, ox cheek, pork cheek etc - or just supermarket generic braising steak type thing.

Method

  1. If cooking outside, get the fire going and nice and hot

  2. In a large pot, add a drizzle of oil and start cooking the onion and carrots until soft and translucent, probably about ten minutes (depending how hot the fire is - it often takes a bit to really get going)

  3. Add the garlic, chillis (if using), pork (e.g. chorizo or bacon) and tomato puree and cook for a further minute

  4. Mix in the spices and oregano and cook a minute longer

  5. Add the main meat you are cooking with and brown in the pan (don't stir it too much to allow it to brown nicely)

  6. Mix the sheet of gelatin (if using) with the 400 ml vegetable stock, stir so it dissolves and then add the liquid to the pot and stir

  7. Allow to come to the boil and reach a rolling simmer (if you are cooking outside, you wont have fine control, but because the liquid essentially braises the meat so the liquid acts as a temperature control)

  8. After an hour or so, add the tomatoes and cider vinegar

  9. Continue to cook, stir occasionally, for another two hours or so. If it gets too thick, then add some more boiling water

  10. When its done, the meat should be tender, and you will probably be able to pull it apart with forks (like pulled pork), which can help create a nice textured chilli, with some pulled meat and some chunks left whole.

  11. Serve with rice, nachos, fajitas or whatever!




Rob Shambolically fumbling my way around the kitchen

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