Chili con carne recipe

Autumn is here in the garden and the morning sun makes the dew on the grass sparkle and casts long shadows.

It's an excellent time to eat chili and use up any excess tomatoes you may still have. OK, it's probably a bit late in the year to still be harvesting tomatoes, we've just cleared up the garden and there won't be any more tomatoes for us, but you can always use tinned or remember it for next year. Serves 4-6. Takes about 45 mins to 1.5 hours, depending on how long you simmer it for.

1-2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, chopped (I often use frozen)
2 cloves of garlic, chopped/minced (I often use frozen)
2 peppers, chopped fairly small
500 g beef mince
1 - 1 ½ glasses of red wine (about 150 ml)
400-500g of fresh tomatoes (or 1 tin of tomatoes)1 level tsp mild chili powder
1 level tsp cumin
1 level tsp ground coriander
1 level tsp cinnamon
3 shakes of Worcester sauce
1 beef stock cube
1 tin of kidney beans

1. Heat oil in a pan, fry onion for 2 minutes, add garlic, fry for 1 minute,  add chopped peppers and fry for 3 minutes.
2. Add meat, cook until brown.
3. Add red wine and simmer for 5 minutes.
4. Stir in tomatoes (if you want to avoid lots of large pieces of skin from fresh tomatoes, chop them up first, but I liked the texture the skin gave).
5. Add chilli powder, cumin, ground coriander, cinnamon and Worcester sauce.
6. Crumble in stock cube.
7. Simmer for between 15 and 1 hour, longer is better.
8. Give the tomatoes a good squish with a spoon to make sure they are broken up.
9. Add kidney beans, stir and simmer for another 5-10 minutes.

Serve with rice or couscous or baked potatoes.