I have had a love affair with chillies ever since I was first introduced to them. This wonderful berry has imparted its spicy, capsicum goodness across the world influencing cuisines on every continent.

The chilli originated in the Americas and it is a famous dish from that region where I first learned to love the heat, a dish synonymous with this noble ingredient – that exotic fare popularised in the 80’s, chilli con carne.

Not only is this still a staple favourite of mine I simply LOVE TO COOK IT! I started to perfect a basic chilli con carne recipe to my taste when I was young and thought I had it in the bag…and then I went to Texas. What a revelation this was, at the time I was naïve enough to think they didn’t do heat in the USA…then I tried real Texas Chilli. In Texas they drop the “con carne” and the beans to make a rich meaty sauce, full of flavour, spice and heat.

At that time in the UK you could only buy two types of chilli power, regular or hot, in supermarkets, but over there they had a raft of much more imaginative almost threateningly titled styles including “Double Eagle” and “Texas Gunpower” some of which are seriously (and I mean seriously) hot, also Mexican Chilli powders like ancho which we had never even heard of in the UK back then. Making Chilli is embedded in the culture and there is a massive variation on this classic style all over the States, take a look here: International Chili Society they have the winning recipes from The World’s Championship Chili Cookoff (WCCC) since 1967!

I have tried many different methods and recipes and I cannot remember ever making a bad one. It’s such a straight forward honest dish which delivers every time, whether you are using beef, pork, veggie mince, etc it is the centre to a good old fashion Tex-Mex feast. Served with rice, tortillas, tacos and even in some parts of the US it’s a must with spaghetti (yes really!), and with all those sides, salsas, guacamole, sour cream, cheese, you can serve it any way you like it.

I guess my main reason for loving to cook chilli is that I love to eat it, so much so when I’m cooking it I take “tasting for seasoning” way to far and probably get through a quarter of the pan before serving, I can only get away with this because my girlfriend is a vegetarian, where’s the beef?…it’s with me!

What do you love to cook? Is there a dish which routinely makes its way into your diet for the only reason that you can’t get enough of it?

Please share your favourites with me and before next weeks post I will give you my basic Chilli recipe with some tips on variations.

Author information

The Food Curator

The Food Curator (AKA Michael Robinson) is an aficionado of all things food and bon viveur based in London. A passion for cooking and dining has driven him to put fingers to keyboard to bring you his thoughts on the world of food. When not writing, eating or cooking he has a love of American muscle cars. Pop on over to my Facebook page and let's start a Facebook food revolution together: http://tinyurl.com/thefoodcurator

|

The post Love to cook it! appeared first on Food on the Blog. Post by The Food Curator