Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Beef Chilli

Our Australian Prime Minister is riding the highs in the popularity stakes.

Just today he announced, at a meeting in Indonesia, that Australia is to give Indonesian a billion dollars Aus to promote democracy. I confess to not knowing excreta from clay, but Indonesia recently ordered Russian submarines and helicopters etc. See here. Democracy does come at a high price!

My friend Dennis and I have been on a long-time project to replicate a chilli beef dish which was very popular at a hamburger bar at Canning Bridge in the 1950s. He has claimed to have cracked the recipe and I have tried many times to do so too. Memories are funny things....we remember the same things about what was served and even the deposits on the white china bowls, but even though we have come close we have not been succesful. Today we discussed it at length and decided that the cuisine of the day didn't include fancy sauces and the chilli was probably made from skirt steak with plenty of fat and some raw chillies. To that end I bought some gravy beef and some chillies and did a long, slow cook with beef, chillies, onions and a little gravy powder.

The result is as close as poo is to swearing! I reckon I have cracked it and will take a sample of my CB Chilli for Dennis to try. In such a competitive atmosphere I am not sure he will admit to my success.

2 comments:

Fremantlebiz said...

I was a fan of the Canning Bridge chili con carni as well. Don't forget the little saloon crackers that were crushed into the mix just before eating.

They also did a very good chicken-in-a-basket, well prior to the arrival of KFC.

Paul.

Anonymous said...

You are not making me want to eat it - unlike the Pudding which has inspired me to make a xmas fruit cake - a recipe from the Woman's day 46 years ago. I haven't made it in years.