Greetings to the few of you still out there.
I am currently off work with a bad shoulder and feeling rather sorry for myself especially seeing as Mrs Bunny Chow is away on business so I thought I would throw together one of my favourite all time meals which incidentally she isn’t a fan of. This is a loose guide chili is not something that should use a real recipe more something you make your own but it will give a good baseline.
I started out by browning some seasoned chunks of Oxtail in a heavy potjie (dutch oven) with a little oil, until they had some good colour. To these I added three or four diced medium onions.
At this point I added some mixed herbs, a good couple of tablespoons of powdered, cumin, powdered coriander and dried garlic powder. Honestly all chili type dishes are based on this spice mix and if you want no heat just leave it there or work your way through to whatever level of stupidity you’re comfortable with. I am not know for my cleverness so I made myself a little tea with some dried african birdseye chillis and a beef stock cube (picture before I added the stock cube) I was not cautious about how many of these chillis I used, be cleverer than me!
These chillis are commonly known as peri peri under a variety of different spellings depending on which portuguese priest first wrote about them they’re all essentially the same thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peri-peri
This was simply a process of rehydrating the chilli’s in some boiling water and adding the resulting stock and whole re-hydrated chillis to the cooking pot. I also added a little ketchup for sweetness and to cut some of my newly introduced intense heat. I simmered on a medium heat for a few minutes.
This was covered and placed in a low oven for four or five hours, oxtail is a tough old cut, your meat might not need this long but I planned well ahead to allow for this time with just the occasional stir.
At around 5pm (I started at midday) I added a tablespoon or so of tomato paste, a couple of tins of tomatoes, mine we whole but chopped are fine I just broke them up with a spoon and some sweet potato fries that have been languishing forgotten in the freezer and needed using. Use whatever veg you need to use up.
Upon tasting I decided that the chili heat was a little one dimensional so raided my extensive collection of chilli powders and oils and added a little bit of this and that to add sweetness, fruitiness and smokeyness, this is your chilli, add what you like.
I also added about a tablespoon of flour to help thicken the sauce and I know this is in some circles considered controversial (but I like them) kidney beans.
This went back into the low oven for another couple of hours and was served simply over rice with a squeeze of lime, and quite a lot of low fat yoghurt as it is stupid hot even for me the idiot who once did this.
Anyway, that’s a lot of rambling from someone you’ve no heard much from in a long long time.
It was yummy!
TTFN
Mr Bunny Chow AKA Rob
The life and photography of Mr Bunny Chow 