There are a couple of different ways you can cook the filling, it’s really up to you, I’ve gone for the slow cook method but the others work just as well

If you aren’t sure about the heat, leave the chilli powder and cayenne pepper out until you have tasted it.

Preperation time: 10mins – Cooking Time 30mins to 6 hours depending on which method you choose

Ingredients

• 500g lean stewing steak , your fave cut of steak cut into thin strips, or minced beef or if you are a veggie feel free to use more veg and no meat.
• 1 tin of kidney beans, drained
• 1 big red onion, sliced
• 3 cloves of garlic, chopped/grated
• 3 red chillis sliced
• 2 tsp cumin seed (ground)
• 2 tsp coriander seed (ground)
• 2 tsp paprika
• 2tsp smoked paprika
• Red pepper, sliced
• green pepper sliced
• 2 flat mushrooms, sliced
• Small tin of sweetcorn
• 1/2 tsp chilli powder
• 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
• 1 tbsp Worcester sauce
• 1tsp Tabasco sauce
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 tbsp tomato puree
• 1 tin of chopped tomatoes
• 20g of dark chocolate (grated)
• salt and pepper
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 50ml of beer (or stock)
• Handful grated cheese
• guacamole
• sour cream
• salsa
• sliced pickled jalapenos
• The biggest flour tortillas you can find.
• Salad, Rice or chips to serve with

Method(s)

There are 2 methods you can use here, i’ve used them all with great success

Method 1: Slow cooker

1. If using steak or beef pieces then lightly coat it in seasoned flour and fry in olive oil until browned, remove from the pan
2. Fry the garlic,tomato puree and all of the spices in the remaining juices, add the chopped peppers, onions, mushrooms and chilli, fry until soft.
3. Add the sweetcorn, kidney beans and tinned tomatoes along with the Worcester sauce , red wine vinegar and Tabasco, then add the beer or stock.
4. Fry for 5 mins then add the dark chocolate and transfer to your slow cooker
5. Cook in your slow cooker for 6 hours or so then proceed to the serving instructions below

Method 2: Frying

This method is the same as above but you can just leave it in the frying pan until cooked and has thickened up a bit.

Serving:

1. Heat your tortillas in a microwave or dry frying pan so they are nice and soft.
2. Place some of the filling in the middle, don’t get too much sauce otherwise it will end up too wet, top with cheese, wrap into a parcel and place on a baking tray.
3. Drizzle over a little of the sauce and bake for 5mins in the oven.
4. Remove, add sour cream, guacamole and salsa and serve with your choice of side dish.

Result:

Sorry about the rubbish pic, Emily’s portion were proper parcels and looked really neat but she cleared off with them before i could take a pic.

Biltong or Jerky is meat that has been flavoured and then dried to produce strips or chunks of delicious healthy snack goodness. It comes in various flavours and a wide variety of meats ranging from beef to ostrich.

Some people might be put off by the way it looks, Emily says it reminds her of dog chews and it didn’t help when she saw that Morrisons had mistaken it for dog treats and hung it in the pet food isle. On the other hand i love the stuff.

Its not cheap at between £1 and £2 for a 40g bag, it also depends on the brand or make. This 40g bag of cruga was just over a pound in Tesco, but on the plus side you are getting nothing but dried meat.

The Cruga Chilli Beef is quite soft and a little chewy so it won’t break your teeth, it also has a hefty chilli kick to it, the low fat, high protein make it a great choice for hikers, it also doesn’t need keeping cool and doesn’t get squashed so its great for keeping in your rucksack, not to mention it goes great with beer.

I will review some other makes of jerky and bilton when i get my hands on it but in the meantime check out http://www.cruga.com/

Chilli Up North Verdict: Cruga is one of many decent chilli biltong products, its easy to get hold of if a little pricey but has great flavour and texture – 8/10 (Heat 4/10)

Ingredients:

• 2 thin pieces of your favourite cut of steak (minute/friying/sirloin all work well)
• two heaped tablespoons of marscapone
• big bunch of spinach
• 2 tablespoons of sweet chilli sauce
• 1 tin of chopped plum tomatoes (drained)
• 2 cloves of garlic (chopped)
• salt and pepper
• small red onion
• olive oil
• handfull of grated cheddar cheese ,parmesan or mozerella

Method

1. Pre heat oven to 180 degrees C
2. Blanch the spinach in boiling water then plunge into cold water so that it keeps it’s colour.
3. Place the onion and garlic in a blender and whizz until finely chopped, add the drained tomatoes and a little olive oil to thin out, then add your sweet chilli sauce (you can add more if you wish).
4. Tip the sauce mix into a sauce pan and simmer for 10-15mins until nice and thick. Season to taste. Remove from the heat.
5. Cover the steaks in cling film and bash out really thin using a mallet or rolling pin
6. Drain the spinach and remove moisture using a tea towel or by gently squeezing the spinach.
7. Mix the marscapone and spinach in a bowl and season to taste.
8. Season your flattened steaks with salt and pepper then slice each steak into half.
9. Divide the spinach and marscapone mix between the 4 slices of steak and carefully roll up into 4 little parcels.
10. Place on a baking tray and cover with the tomato sauce.
11. Top with the grated cheese
12. Bake in the oven for 20-25mins until steak is cooked and the cheese is golden.
13. Serve with homemade chips and veg.