2012 Cooking Club Week 24 - Green Chilli & Navajo Flatbreads

Honey-ec

MODS: I have no idea why the pics are so huge, feel free to resize!


So, green chilli makes a really nice change to the usual "red" chilli that people often assume is pretty much the only chilli going. This is also a ridiculously easy dish to make, and the flavour-to-effort payoff is astronomical. I've included the flatbreads as they're actually really simple to make, but feel free to just use store-bought flour or corn tortillas if you're feeling really lazy - it's the chilli that's the star of the show here.

We'll start with the bread, cause it's the more time-consuming of the two.

Navajo Flatbreads - makes about 10

600g strong white bread flour
1 tsp sea salt
1 tbsp baking powder
6 tbsp olive oil
c. 300ml warm water



1. Place all your dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the centre and add the olive oil and about half the water.



2. Mix with a fork, bringing the flour in from the edges of the bowl and adding the water a little at a time until you have a nice ball of dough. Use your judgement with the water - you don't have to use all of it. Once the dough has come together (it shouldn't be too wet/sticky), flour a clean work surface, turn the dough out onto it and knead until smooth & elastic - about ten minutes.

3. Clean and oil your bowl, then place the dough back into it, turning to coat completely with the oil. Cover with clingfilm and leave to prove for an hour or so. (For the sake of clarity, I'm going to do the whole recipe in one go, but this hour is the perfect time to make your chilli!)



3. When you're ready to roll out your flatbreads, knock the dough back and knead it again very lightly - literally for about two minutes. Divide into ten equal balls and roll out to the thickness of about a euro coin. Don't worry about getting them perfectly round, part of the charm of these is their rustic-ness. You can roll them all out in advance and stack them with flour-dusted sheets of tinfoil between them.



4. Preheat a heavy frying or griddle pan (or better yet, do them on the barbie!). Cook the flatbreads until bubbles start to form on the top, then flip and do the other side. Keep warm in a low oven until your chilli is ready to serve.


Green Chilli - serves 4

1kg lean pork mince
2 large onions
2 green peppers
6 small green chillies
4 fat cloves garlic
1 tbsp dried sage or oregano
4 large tomatoes
Juice of 1 lime
Salt & pepper
Olive oil
Large bunch fresh coriander
Small bunch fresh mint
1 romaine lettuce
Bunch of spring onions
Yoghurt or sour cream to serve



1. Dice your peppers, onions, chillies & garlic and have them ready to go in a large bowl. I leave the seeds & membranes in the chillies, but if you have a tamer palate, remove them before dicing.



2. Heat a splash of oil in a large pot & brown the pork until no pink remains. If your meat is good-quality, it shouldn't need draining, but if it has rendered a lot of fat, drain the excess. Add your diced veg and the sage/oregano and cook on a high heat for ten minutes or so until any water from the veg has been driven off.

3. While this is happening, deseed and roughly dice your tomatoes. Add them to the pot with about a half a glass of water and plenty of salt & pepper. Turn the heat down slightly and let everything simmer away nicely for another 15 or 20 minutes - this chilli is supposed to be quite dry (in a good way!) as opposed to stewy, so again, you want most of the moisture to cook off.

4. When the chilli is almost ready to serve, stir in the lime juice, coriander and mint. Taste and adjust the seasoning - it will likely need more salt and maybe a pinch more sage/oregano. Turn the heat off, but leave the pot on the warm ring.

5. Wash and dry your lettuce and spring onions, then roughly chop them. Fold four of your flatbreads into quarters and pop into four bowls. Ladle over a generous portion of chilli, then scatter over the chopped lettuce & spring onions. Serve with the remaining flatbreads, the yoghurt/sour cream and any remaning salad. Enjoy!

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What's romaine lettuce, and where can it be got?

Faith

It looks like full size little gem lettuce:



It's very common, you can get it anywhere usually.

Honey-ec

Faith wrote: »

It looks like full size little gem lettuce:



It's very common, you can get it anywhere usually.

Yep, or you can just use little gem if you prefer.

BaZmO*

What happened to the last pic?

hdowney

Gah this sounds right up my street (MASSIVE chilli fan) but herself I don't think would eat it. Time to round down the amounts and make a massive bowl for me to keep in the fridge methinks!!!

Malari

I've never really tried chilli, but this one looks good. The boyfriend isn't a big fan either so I'll have to try it on my own sometime first

However I'm just having a few tapas pickies with friends tonight so gonna do the flatbreads with it. Nom nom!

Roesy

Made this this evening. Very tasty. Thanks Honey-ec!

eviltwin

Making a veggie version of this tonight. I love chilli but this is a new variety for me so looking forward to giving it a whirl. Have just made the dough for the bread and it smells yum.

eviltwin

Gorgeous, it was really nice and the bread was lovely.

Star Lord

I know this may sound incredibly pedantic, but just curious as to why you've specified sea salt in your recipe, yet shown and used table salt in making the flatbread?

Mellor

DamoElDiablo wrote: »

I know this may sound incredibly pedantic, but just curious as to why you've specified sea salt in your recipe, yet shown and used table salt in making the flatbread?

My guess would be because sea salt is better, but he ran out recently.

Honey-ec

Mellor wrote: »

My guess would be because sea salt is better, but he ran out recently.

This.

And yes, it did sound incredibly pedantic.

Star Lord

Honey-ec wrote: »

This.
And yes, it did sound incredibly pedantic.

I excel at being pedantic.
Just wanted to know!

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How is sea salt "better"?

Is it not all just Sodium Chloride? If you put sea salt, table salt or whatever into a dish, it disolves and disperses throughout the dish evenly, and the same amount of either will have the same effect in the final dish.

The only difference I can see is the texture, which would only matter if you were leaving the addition of salt to the end of a cool dish, where it won't disolve and the latger crystals can be crunched in your teeth, like on a pretzel or something.

Malari

It's not nutritionally better, it just has a different taste.

Little Alex

Nice one, Honey-ec!



A bit of chilli never did anyone anyone any harm!

I made mine with Quorn mince and smoked tofu (which tastes sensational!).

LadyHeart

Made this last night-was nom nom nom!!! Left out the mint tho cos I had none. Also the flatbread didn't work out as I didn't have enough flour and couldn't make it out to the shop so had naan bread in the freezer and it was lovely!!

I'm glad I made enough to freeze and have for dinner another night

hardCopy

Little Alex wrote: »

Nice one, Honey-ec!



A bit of chilli never did anyone anyone any harm!

I made mine with Quorn mince and smoked tofu (which tastes sensational!).

Slightly OT, but where did you get the smoked Tofu.

I got some Natural Green branded solid tofu recently and just found it totally tasteless, even after covering it in garam massala for an hour to flavour it.

face1990

Des wrote: »

How is sea salt "better"?

Is it not all just Sodium Chloride?

Sea salt has small amounts of other minerals in it too.
Table salt is pretty much just sodium chloride, but usually has iodine and anti-caking agents added to it too.

Whether it really affects the taste is debatable but some people swear by sea salt!


Not a huge fan of chillis myself, but I really want to give those flatbreads a try! I'd say they could be nice with a curry, maybe with a little bit of herbs and spices added to them

MissFlitworth

This is gosh-darned good. I had been eyeing the recipe up for a while but hadn't made it because of the mint, which I don't always love in food, but then I've been eating loads of thai salads with mint in them lately and it's grown on me as a taste so gave it a whirl today. Really enjoying it, the mint definitely adds to it. Made a couple of changes to the recipe because firstly I forgot to buy green peppers and secondly I wanted to use quorn mince but it was still delicious. Had it in tortilla cups. Trying to restrain myself from going and getting the pot and just eating it in front of the telly off the ladle



Thanks a mill for the recipe!

Chronic Button

I'm going to try this in the next couple of weeks. Is pork mince readily available? I've been keeping an eye out for it recently without luck.

BaZmO*

Chronic Button wrote: »

I'm going to try this in the next couple of weeks. Is pork mince readily available? I've been keeping an eye out for it recently without luck.

Most, if not all, big supermarkets should have it. But failing that, your local butcher should be able to make some for you no problem.

MissFlitworth

Supervalu, Dunnes & Tesco around me definitely have it in stock normally (Dublin 2 & 8 is where I normally shop)

Honey-ec

Chronic Button wrote: »

I'm going to try this in the next couple of weeks. Is pork mince readily available? I've been keeping an eye out for it recently without luck.

I get mine in Aldi, they nearly always have it.