Chilli con carne recipe

Last weekend was my son's 1st birthday party, and I cooked up two big pots of chilli for the adults. Everyone loved it, and seeing that my mum asked for the recipe after I cooked it on my birthday last month, it is time to put my famous chilli con carne recipe in writing. Any good burger chef should always have plenty of minced beef in the house, which makes a chilli both a great last minute meal, as well as a great dish to cook for a large party. Apart from the minced beef and onions, everything else can come straight from a tin. Ingredients for chilli con carne: Minced meat Chopped tomatoes (tinned are ideal) Kidney beans Chick peas Black eye beans Butter beans Chilli powder Cumin Garlic (3 or 4 cloves) Black pepper Salt Red and green sweet peppers Onions Red wine. On Saturday I made actually made 2 chilli-con-carnes, one spicy and one mild. THis is what I used: 1600g (4 packets 400g from Tesco) lean Scottish mince. 4 medium onions chopped 2 red peppers 2 green peppers In one chilli I added red peppers, just kidney beans, and more chilli powder, more pepper, some mustard powder, some extra curry powder. This was the spicy chilli, and had a red look to it with the kidney beans and red sweet pepper. You can of course use red fresh chilli pepper also if you want a real good kick. In the second chilli I added green peppers, all the other beans, plus kidney beans, and only a small amount of chilli, with more Indian spices, using a mild curry mix, some turmeric and paprika. As this chilli is mild, it is good to have a variety of beans to give a more varied texture to the dish. Method: Gently fry the onions and garlic in olive oil, chuck in the mince, stir a bit, keep on low heat, when brown, chuck in everything else, leave to simmer, add water and more wine to stop it burning, simmer for about 45 minutes. Serve with rice or jacket potatoes.

The perfect full English breakfast

An old friend, now living overseas, came to stay over New Year, and insisted that a cooked full English breakfast on New Years day, and it was good. If you want to impress your friends and cook a decent full English, then this is what you do. The art is in the timing, everything has to be ready at once. The toast cannot be cold, the eggs cannot be burnt or rubbery. Everything must be perfect. Ingredients Good quality pork sausages Bacon - your favourite type, smoked or unsmoked Black pudding, cut into thick slices (at least 1cm) Free range eggs, or the best local eggs you can find Baked beans Bread for toasting Hash browns (optional extra - I rarely use, but do like them) Tomatoes Button mushrooms Sausages Do the sausages under an oven grill if you have one. Keep the grill on a medium setting, and keep the door closed. This ensures that they are cooked well, but not burnt to a crisp. Turn once, after about 10 minutes. Once ready they can be removed and placed with the black pudding a bacon once they are done too. Bacon and black pudding Cook the bacon and black pudding on a griddle, ideally so that grill marks are burnt into the bacon rashers. Turn the black pudding a few times. The key to black pudding is not to overcook, they must be served moist on the inside and crispy on the outside. Mushrooms Cut the mushroom in half and fry in butter, in a separate pan. Beans Heat the beans in a saucepan. Keep on a low heat. Eggs For a large group, scrambled eggs are best. Scramble with just some butter, salt and pepper. Do not add any milk, this is a big mistake when scrambling eggs as it totally changes the flavour and ruins a good egg. Toast Prepare the toast last when the eggs are cooking. Ideally once the sausages, bacon and black pudding are cooked, place the sausages on the griddle, and turn the heat right down, or switch off. Then use the oven grill to do all the toast at once. Finish and Serve All the time ensure the beans are not burning, the eggs are not over cooking, and the mushroom are not drying out. There should be plenty of butter in with the mushrooms. Once everything is ready, place the griddle straight onto the table (on a protective mat!), serve the beans and eggs in a bowl, and the toast in a rack if you have one, then let everyone help themselves. This makes a great breakfast / brunch / lunch. Especially good after a hangover. Enjoy!