'Mexican' Beef Stew served with Wildrice

Before all my Mexican friends go Ga-Ga this was originally taken from a British Magazine and has been modified. I don't know how 'Mexican' it is but since this was the name given, I'm keeping it as it is ;).

Mexican Stew Beef served with Wildrice-Basmati

Ingredients:

About 1 dl of vegetable oil
2 kg of stew beef (cubed, the bigger the cube the longer it takes to cook)
1 litre of of beef stock
2 tbsp of chipotle chili paste (or Poppamies's vampyyri)
4 cloves of garlic (crushed, although I only smashed them with a knife)
20 grams of grated ginger
1/2 tbsp -3/4 tbsp of ground cumin (it's quite a strong spice you reduce if you don't like it too much but you must use it to give the stew the kick)
1/2 tsp of ground cinnamon
3/4 tbsp plain flour
1-1 1/2 cans of chopped tomatoes
1tbsp of oregano
1-2 cans of kidney beans (if using dry beans you need to prepare this in advance. Pinto beans work nicely too but since kidney beans are readily available from Finnish supermarkets I suggest to just use them. They are tasty anyways.)
salt to taste

The ingredients overview

Method:

• Heat a small amount of oil in a cast iron pan (if not just a normal flameproof dish). Brown the meat in small batches and set aside to a clean dish. Add a little more oil after each batch to avoid burning and sticking. After all the beef cubes are cooked and set aside.
• Add onions to cook until caramalized. Then stir in chipotle paste, garlic, ginger, cumin, cinnamon and flour into the onions and cook until fragrant (1-2 mins). Gradually pour in the beef stock stirring constantly. Add can chopped tomatoes and oregano and allow to slowly simmer for 10-15 mins.
• Gently pour in the beef into the pot, cover the pot and allow to simmer gently from 2.5 - 4hours (depending on the cut of meat) until meat is tender and tears easily.
• Open the lid and add the beans and allow to boil another 15 mins.
• If the sauce appears to thin just allow it to continue simmering without the lid. Take a taste and add salt to taste.

Brown in small batches

Fry onions, garlic, ginger, chipotle paste,
 flour, cumin, cinnamon in a little bit more oil.

After all the stock has been added, chopped tomatoes
and meat has been put in the stew will be a bit thin.

This is the finished product after the liquid has been
reduced.

Tip 1: Sometimes the stock is readily salted so you don't have to add any additional salt. If you're using low sodium or saltless stock then you'll need to adjust to taste.

Tip 2:  In this recipe it says caramelize onions, DO IT. Seeing I wanted to get everything into the picture I just dump the onions, grated ginger and garlic altogether. (Don't do this or else you'll have clumpy onions, I'm already regretting. xD)

Tip 3: Poppamies Vampyyri paste is much much spicier than the chipotle paste (that I haven't been able to find at the store but on poppamies's webstore) Vampyyri is sorta similar but the idea is to get the smokey flavor of chipotle into the stew. So if you don't want to end up a fire breathing dragon I suggest you order the paste directly if you can't find it from your local K-Citymarkets.  Poppamies Website

Condiments:

Beautiful Wildrice

This goes well with tacos, enchiladas, tortillas, rice...For today I'm having enchiladas and wildrice

So that there are options for my guests I've decided to buy a ready made enchilada and steam the wild rice seperately.

Wildrice is black in color hence the water will be black when cooked. So if you're planning to do a combo cook the wildrice separately or else you'll get a glob of goo and uncooked Wildrice. Another good thing is that I get to put more Wildrice instead of white like you would normally get from Myllyn paras or Uncle Ben's wildrice mix boxes.

To cook the wildrice:

Soak the rice for about 5 mins and pour away the water. If you're using the microwave (I did), cook the rice for about 18 mins at high heat with a dash of salt. If there is some water left behind it doesn't matter just strain it away. You can mix the wildrice with white race or eat it as it is. It has a nice nutty taste so it goes well with the stew.

If you are boiling, You can add a bit more water, cook at medium-low heat stirring until the grains have expand slightly in size, depending on volume it can take from 20-25 mins. Wildrice is perfect for baking as well.