Texican Braised Steak & Beans

This is about authentic as Laurence Harvey's accent in the classic movie of The Alamo; as with most of my dishes I hope that by grasping what the essential ingredients are I can reproduce, simply, the essence of the whole cuisine and the particular dish. Purists will further hate the fact that the meat wasn't even cooked in the sauce - when I buy any braising or stewing beef I get it in bulk, cook it all off in a little beef bouillon, before portioning and freezing. The reason being that one can be far more flexible in choice of meal without wasting huge amounts of freezer space.

So, I started with about 200g of beef cooked the previous day, as were my pinto beans. Soften a handful each of onions and peppers in a little oil with 2 tsp of crushed garlic. Add a level tsp of salt, a heaped tsp of ground cumin and a scant tsp (or less) of chilli powder. Stir in and fry for a couple of minutes. Add 1 medium tomato, cored and chopped in 1 cm cubes, 150ml of tomato juice, 1 dstsp of lime cordial and 1 scant tsp of sugar. Turn the heat up and add a handful of pre-cooked pinto beans. Check seasoning and carefully lower the meat in, together with a dstsp of the cooking liquor.

Cover with sauce and gently heat through.