Chilli con Carne, Made at Camp

Chilli con carne is a Mexican-style dish born in Texas: beans and meat simmered with chilli, spiced and hot.

It is the spicing that turns it into the sort of chilli con carne that stops you mid-mouthful. But between “which spices do I need to buy?” and “how much of each do I put in?”, the bar feels high, and there must be plenty of campers who have never made it.

Which is where Dish comes in.

Within the Dish series, the one that suits chilli con carne is Dish Symphony No.1. No.1 holds plenty of paprika powder — the spice often described as chilli with the savour kept and the heat taken away — so on its own it makes a proper chilli con carne.

It is not hot, so anyone who does not like heat, and children, can eat it too. If you do want heat, add chilli powder or the like to taste.

Dish blends we recommend for this camping recipe. Dish Symphony No.1 Equipment A Dutch oven A pressure cooker or a Dutch oven softens the beans and concentrates their savour, so it is well worth having one to hand.

Ingredients (serves 4–6) Dish Symphony No.1: 2 tbsp Tinned tomatoes (whole): 1 tin (400 g) Onion: 1 Sweet pepper / green pepper: 1.5 (use whichever peppers you like, to a total of about 1.5) Lime (or lemon): 1 Garlic: about 1–2 cloves (finely chopped) Minced beef and pork: 300 g Beans: about 300 g (kidney beans, chickpeas and so on) Grated hard cheese: 30 g Salt: 2 tsp Ketchup: 1 tbsp Olive oil: 5 tbsp Water: 100 ml Optional extras Chilli powder: as much as you like (dried chilli, cayenne pepper and so on) Coriander or basil: as much as you like As for the peppers, the type and the combination are entirely up to you. In quantity, about one and a half peppers in total feels balanced. The beans are up to you as well. Mixed beans work, but red kidney beans are the classic, so we would use those.

What to serve with chilli con carne

Rice, of course, but tortilla chips and naan go with it just as well, and spooned onto a hot dog it becomes something like a chilli dog. It is a soupy dish, so serving a good deep bowlful of it outdoors and eating it as it is works too, and that is very good indeed.

Preparation

• Chop the garlic finely.
• Chop the onion finely.
• Cut the green pepper / sweet pepper into fairly large pieces. (The size changes both the look and the texture, so cut it as you prefer.)
• Cut the lime (or lemon) into wedges.

Method

1. Put 5 tbsp of olive oil and the garlic into the pan and set it over a low heat.
2. Once the garlic starts to release its aroma, add the onion, stir it through, then turn the heat to high. Cook for 3 to 5 minutes, until the onion begins to turn translucent.
3. Turn the heat to medium, add 300 g of minced beef and pork and 2 tsp of salt, and fry.
   
   
4. Once the meat is more or less cooked through, push everything to one side to make space, add the tin of whole tomatoes (400 g), crush the whole tomatoes thoroughly, then mix it all together.
   
   
5. When it comes to a bubble, add 2 tbsp of Dish Symphony No.1 and stir it in.
6. Add 30 g of grated hard cheese, 1 tbsp of ketchup and 100 ml of water, and mix it all together.
7. Add the sweet pepper / green pepper and about 300 g of beans, stir them through, put the lid on the pan and simmer over a low heat for 20 minutes.
   
   
8. Taste it, and check that the beans have softened properly and that the salt is right. (If it tastes thin, add a little ketchup or salt at a time to adjust.)
9. Serve into bowls, top with coriander or basil and lime (or lemon), and it is ready.