I’ve adapted this to suit my pocket and tastes and reduced the quantities. Serves about 3 with rice or in wraps with cheese, lettuce, sour cream, more ketchup and mustard. It’s also a delight with tortilla chips or actual chips (i.e. fries).

Ingredients

• 500g minced beef. My Sainsbury’s dumps packets of this that have reached their sell-by date cheap on a Saturday afternoon, I buy & freeze.
• 1 beef stock cube (I use Knorr).
• 1 finely-chopped white onion.
• 2 minced cloves of garlic.
• 1 tablespoon tomato puree
• 1 large can of Sainsbury’s Basics Lager. It’s 2% abv (steady now) and tastes like weak apple juice but it’s only about 50p a can and works brilliantly in this recipe.
• 1 tablespoon ground cumin.
• 1 tablespoon ground coriander.
• 1 teaspoon each of chilli flakes, cayenne pepper, smoked paprika.
• 1 tablespoon dried oregano.
• 1 tablespoon of pickled jalapeños, finely chopped – more to garnish.
• Large squirt of Heinz tomato ketchup – more to garnish.
• Large squirt of French’s American Mustard – more to garnish.
• Salt and pepper.

Method

Fry the onions gently in some vegetable oil, add the garlic and remove when they start to brown. Fry the minced beef with the tomato puree until browned all over. Crumble in the beef stock cube and then deglaze with the beer. Add all of the other ingredients, stir, topping up with hot water if needed. This is a wet chili. Leave to simmer for at least an hour, preferably longer, adding water if it looks like it’s getting too dry. Serve with tortilla chips, wraps, fries, rice, cheese, sour cream, whatever. It is totally amazing.

• 800g beef brisket
• 2 red peppers
• 1 red onion
• 1 clove of garlic
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• half tsp smoked paprika
• 2 fresh red chillis
• 1 beef stock cube or pot
• 1 can of cooking beer
• 1 tin of tomatoes
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tbsp tomato ketchup
• 1 tbsp French’s American mustard
• fresh coriander leaves
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar

Put the oven on at 200 C. Cut deep slices into the brisket. Rub the spices with salt & pepper into the meat. In a casserole fry the chopped onion until translucent, then add the garlic and sliced peppers and thinly sliced red chillis. Cook for a bit longer on a low heat, then whack the heat up and fry the brisket. Then add the tinned tomatoes, beer, beef stock, ketchup, tomato puree, mustard and bring to the boil. If needed, top up with water. Put a lid on, turn the over down low (I went down to 100C) and leave in there for 3 or 4 hours.

Then remove the meat, put the sauce on the stove and simmer vigorously to thicken, adding the vinegar and chopped coriander. Pull the beef apart with a couple of forks, and re-immerse in the liquid.

Serve in wraps, with rice, grated cheese and sour cream. Delicious!

Whilst cooking this, I also invented Tequila Rice. I can confirm that tequila does not add enough flavour to rice to warrant flambé-ing half your hair off.

You will need:

• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 clove garlic, chopped
• 1 tsp ground coriander
• 2 small red chillis
• 1 potato, peeled and chopped
• 450g carrots, peeled and chopped
• small piece of fresh ginger, finely diced
• 1  litre vegetable stock
• knob of creamed coconut
• small amount of fresh coriander, chopped

Fry the onion in some oil for 5 minutes. Add the potato, one of the red chillis, chopped with seeds and all,  fresh ginger and ground coriander. Fry for about 10 minutes. Add the carrots and vegetable stock. Simmer for 20 minutes. Add a knob of creamed coconut, let it melt then blitz in a blender. Season to taste.

Sprinkle some slices of red chilli and fresh coriander on top when you serve. Hot, spicy and delicious.