Leftover Beef Chilli

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A little while ago, I made a massive slab of beef rib which, despite us piling into it as though it might be the last meal we had in this life, resulted in a substantial amount of leftovers. It’s usually one of the benefits of cooking big joints and it tends to mean that you have a load of beautiful, smoky meat to repurpose into to something else. It’s good home economy too. Good produce is more expensive, yet worth saving up for and the more meals you can get out of your joints the better. The recipe below made enough for 2 meals for 2 people although it could be eked out further by adding more veg I guess. I just didn’t have any in the fridge at the time.

I decided to make a chilli, although perhaps more of a minimalist take on the theme, rather than something full-on like the recipe for Hillbilly Chilli in the Grillstock book. In it, they add bourbon and black treacle to give real dark depth to the dish and I wasn’t sure if I fancied that today. In the end, Polly found a recipe for vegan chilli with a great spice mix and I basically swapped out the beans for leftover beef; we were keen to avoid any repeats of the infamous Blazing Saddles scene.

• Leftover beef (I had about a kilo)
• Leftover gravy
• 2 onions
• 4 garlic cloves
• A glass of red wine
• Beef stock
• A tin of tomatoes
• A tin of kidney beans (if you want them)
• 0.5 tsp chipotles in adobo
• 1.5 tbsp Smoked Paprika
• 1 tsp chilli flakes
• 1 tsp cumin seed
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon

To begin with, I trimmed the vast majority of the fat from my beef slices. The lean meat was roughly chopped into smallish chunks and kept to one side. I kept back a couple of slices of fat and cubed them; these got added to the pan on a very low heat. The idea was that it would render down a bit to give me something the fry the onions and garlic in and add a bit of smoky flavour right from the off. Once I had enough rendered fat, I fished out the chunks that remained and discarded them.

The roughly chopped onions went in, still on a low flame. I wanted them to caramelise. Once they’d softened, the garlic was added and both ingredients ticked over until I was happy with the colour. I tipped in all the spices and stirred them around for a good 5 minutes to cook off a bit or their harshness. After that, the cubed leftover beef, again stirred around to get everything coated in the spicy onion mixture. If you want beans in yours, now is the time to add them – a standard 400g tin will be just right.

Since I had an open bottle of red hanging around, I used it to deglaze the pan and gave everything a good stir to release the dark brown bits that had burned on to the bottom. To this, I added about half a teaspoon of chipotle paste; I love the heat and smoke aroma you get from this luscious ingredient.

Next came the tinned tomatoes and enough beef stock to fill the pan to within about 1cm from the top (its best if your stock is already heated up, like when you make a risotto). On went the lid and the flame was turned down to as low as it could go. I left mine to simmer away for about 3 hours, peering under the lid every once in a while to check the liquid level.

The anticipation in the house was palpable.

When we could stand waiting no longer the pan came off the hob; the stock had cooked down to a lovely consistency and the whole thing smelled amazing. I added a pinch of salt and a good lot of pepper to supplement the chillies as, if I was doing this again, I’d like a bit more a chilli punch than what we got here.

I used mini soft tortillas to make tacos. The tortillas got a quick scorch on both sides in a hot, dry pan to limber them up a bit and then I added a fresh, crunchy cabbage and carrot chipotle coleslaw, a leaf or two of coriander and a tiny squidge of fresh lime. Honestly, I reckon I could have hoovered up the entire packet of tortillas and the whole pan of chilli they were so good. A degree of self-restraint prevailed and so we had the rest a day later with a bit of rice on the side. It was just as good.

Recipe: Cabbage, Carrot & chipotle slaw

This is our go-to coleslaw recipe when we’ve got folk round for a BBQ; the following ingredients make a big bowlful:

• 1 Hispi cabbage
• 4-5 carrots depending on how big they are
• Pomegranate seeds (optional)
• 2-3 tbsp mayonnaise
• 1-2 tsp chipotles in adobo

This is easy-peasy lemon squeezy to make. Peel your carrots and grate them into a bowl. Strip the outer leaves from your cabbage and cut into quarters. You can grate it too if you have a good food processor but like Beatrix Kiddo against the Crazy 88 I prefer to do my shredding by hand. Add your cabbage to the bowl and give it a good mix with the carrots. To this add in a dollop of mayonnaise and a teaspoon or so of the chipotle paste depending on how much you like heat. At this point, you can also add pomegranate seeds which add a lovely fruity pop to each mouthful and work especially well against the meaty depth of the beef. If you don’t have them, then leave them out. Now you can adjust the taste – add salt and pepper, plus a bit more mayo or chiptole if you think it needs it. It goes really well in the tacos, but is equally good as a side or on top of burgers or bratwursts.