My first recipe made from Thomasina Mier’s book Mexican food made simple. Another really nice book, with so many good looking recipes it was a struggle to choose where to start. I love chile, but I usually stick to a very basic method using chilli paste, minced beef and kidney beans so this recipe was very intriguing. The result is unlike any chile I’ve ever had – fresh tasting and bursting with flavour and spice. I’m giving my adaptation according to what ingredients I could get.
To Feed 6-8: 1kg shin beef cut into 5 pieces, 2 large onions, 4 cloves garlic, 225g chorizo, 2 tsp each of ground cumin, allpsice and dried oregano, 1 tsp cloves, 1 large cinnamon stick, 2 small red chillies chopped finely, 1 tsp salt, ground black pepper, 3 tbsp balsamic vinegar, 2 tbsp tomato ketchup, 2 tsp dark muscovado sugar, 2 tins chopped tomatoes, 200mls red wine, 2 tins borlotti beans
Heat a couple of teaspoons of oil in a very large casserole. Brown the beef all over. Meanwhile you can chop the chorizo into bitesized chunks. Take the beef out and add the chorizo to pan to brown it and let the fat render out. Meanwhile chop the onion and garlic finely. Take the chorizo out, leaving the red oil in the pan. Fry the onion and garlic with all the herbs and spices in the oil till soft. Season this with the salt and lots of pepper. Stir in the vinegar, ketchup, sugar and tomatoes. You should preheat the oven to 120C at this point. Add the meat back to the pan then stir in the wine and 200mls water. Bring this to a simmer then cover and cook in the oven for 2 hours. Add the beans at this point, give it a good stir, then return to the oven for another hour. Before serving, take out the chunks of meat and shred them before returning to the sauce.
I served it with basmati rice, and topped it with shredded cabbage dressed with a little lemon juice and oil, fresh coriander, a squeeze of lime. I made fresh salsa also to accompany it, and put grated cheese and soured cream on the table for people to add their own.
I took an idea for the salsa from the same book. It made plenty and had just the right amount of kick.
For the salsa: 4 vine tomatoes, 1/2 large onion, 1 jalapeno chilli, small handful coriander leaves, juice of 1 1/2 limes, salt and pepper, 1 tsp demerara sugar
Quarter the tomatoes and take the juicy seeds and flesh out, you can save them for another time. Dice up the remaining flesh. Dice the onion and chilli very finely, mix these together with the tomato in a bowl, stir in the lime juice and sugar and season well to taste.
JambleBam 