Tonight he eventually got his way and made his own after some research for a good recipe. That is when he came across an article on the Guardians Word of Mouth Blog – How to cook the perfect chilli con carne.

He quickly decided that he wanted to make the perfect chilli con carne but we did find it difficult to source the ingredients and we swapped the speciality chillis for a hot red one & some dried chilli flakes, Mexican oregano for dried oregano and we forgot the sugar. We also added half a tin of tomatoes at the end to bulk things out too.

We were slightly disappointed with our version, I couldn’t taste any coffee but Anthony thinks it added to the base layer of flavour. And the overall heat was much less than I had expected but it did leave me with a slightly tingly tongue! We’ll see how it develops overnight/in freezer.

Ingredients

• 2 Tuna Steaks
• 1 lime
• 1 red chilli
• Olive oil
• Tin of mixed beans (Soya beans, Chick Peas, Pinto Beans, Black Eye Beans, Red Kidney Beans & Aduki Beans)
• Mixed salad leaves – we used rocket, spinach and watercress
• 3 tomatoes

Method

• Rinse Tuna & put in a dish so that they can lie down next to each other
• Squeeze juice of lime & a good glug of olive oil over tuna
• Chop chilli finely & add to tuna – cover dish & pop in fridge for 20 minutes
• Put griddle pan on to heat up
• Drain tin of bean & rinse well
• Put tuna in griddle pan, pour over excess liquid, season with salt and pepper – cook as you like it
• Place a good handful of leaves on a plate, sprinkle over a good handful of beans & place tomatoes around the side
• Place tuna steak on top of salad & serve

Delicous and healthy, even if I do say so myself.

Whilst this recipe isn’t a runny yolk one, it is another tasty way to start your day

Ingredients (for 2 people)

• 4 free range eggs, as fresh as you can lay your hands on ;0)
• 2 tortilla wraps, rolled & sliced into strips
• Tablespoon oil
• 1 tomato, de-seeded & chopped
• 2 spring onions, chopped
• 1 green chilli – though I may swap for a red chilli or use 2 for more heat next time

Method

1. Heat oil in pan & then add tortilla wraps until crispy golden brown
2. Remove these strips to a plate & fry the tomato, onion & chilli for 4 minutes (no need to add more oil)
3. Whilst cooking whisk the eggs together with a pinch of salt & pepper
4. Add strips of tortilla back into the pan
5. Add eggs & mix gently
6. The eggs will set into an omelette style with the tortilla pieces
7. Serve

Recipe courtesey of Nigella, Express

I first made this a few weeks back but I didn’t blog about it after taking the photos. Tonight I’ve made another loaf so here is the recipe but as my loaf is in the oven the pictures are from last time.

Chilli Loaf

• 375g wholemeal strong flour
• 375g white strong flour
• 3 teaspoons salt
• 2-3 teaspoons chilli flakes (I used 2 & that provided a good heat without going OTT)
• 7g sachet of dry yeast

How To Do It

1. Mix all dry ingredients in a bowl
2. Add 450ml water (at room temperature)
3. Combine into dough & knead until elastic – around 5/10 minutes
4. Leave to rise in bowl (cover with damp cloth) for 2 hours
5. Knock back & shape into ‘tin’ shaped & pop in a floured tin
6. Leave to rise again for 45 minutes
7. Cook for 15 minutes at 230 ° c then for 20/25 minutes at 200 ° c until cooked
8. Leave to cool on rack

This years rituals included eating dinner at our parents house, drinking wine from the home of the opposition and sitting in the same seat. My parents were away this weekend but that didn’t stop us all piling round there for food & drink before sitting down to enjoy the match.

I had offered to cook – but then I realised it would be for 6 people, including my brothers who prefer their meat. I don’t eat much meat & really cant bear the smell of red meat cooking so I opted for a cheeky Cornbread Topped Vegetarian Chilli served with homemade Guacamole, Sour Cream & Grated Cheese.

The recipe I took from Nigella’s book Feast.

Ingredients (Serves 10 – 0r 6 hungry peeps + leftovers for freezing)

For the Chilli:

• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 medium onions, finely chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 red peppers, finely chopped
• 2 teaspoons dried chilli flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 3 cardamon pods, crushed
• 300g red lentils
• 2 x 400g chopped tomatoes
• 750ml water
• 2 x 400g kidney beans
• 4 tablespoons tomato ketchup
• 4 tablespoons tomato puree
• 1 tablespoon cocoa

How to Do It

1. In a VERY large pan – heat oil & fry onion, garlic and pepper until soft
2. Throw in the spices – chilli, coriander, cumin and cardamon pods. Stir
3. Add lentils. Stir
4. Next, add the other ingredients – water, tomatoes, kidney beans, ketchup, tomato puree & cocoa.
5. Bring this mixture to the boil and simmer (with lid on) for 45 minutes – though check & stir regularly.
6. At this point you can proceed to cook or pop it in the fridge until your ready for the next stage (or cool it down and freeze it). It was at this point I packed everything up & took it to my parents house to finish.

For the Cornbread Topping:

• 3/4 teaspoon salt
• 325g Cornmeal (I used ground corn as this was the nearest we could find – in Sainsburys)
• 3 tablespoons plain flour
• 3 teaspoons baking powder
• 1 teaspoon cinnamon
• 375ml buttermilk
• 2 eggs
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 2 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 75g cheese

1. Combine all dry ingredients in a bowl – salt, cornmeal, plain flour, baking powder & cinnamon
2. In a jug, whisk the wet ingredients – milk, oil, eggs & honey
3. Throw the liquid into the dry mixture & whisk to a batter NB. mine was more like a thick dough, maybe caused by measuring problems, but it worked.
4. Put you chilli mixture in a large dish (Nigella suggests 23cm x 32cm with a 7.5cm height)
5. Pour (or scoop) the batter on top of the chilli
6. Top with grated cheese.
7. Cook for 25 minutes at 220°c
8. Serve with guacamole, grated cheese & sour cream.

Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo in the rush to get warm food on the table. I do have a photo of the left overs though!

For pudding a quickly made some Passion Fruit Creme Brulee’s – a recipe from Delias website which can be found by clicking here.

The before cooking stage:

And the readyto eat stage:

Unfortunately England played well but couldn’t manage a win against those pesky Sarf Africans – nevermind. Maybe in another 4 years ;)

The recipe can be found in the Fast Food section of ‘How To Eat’ as it can be made quite quickly, though yesterday I marinated the chicken whilst we went out. I say marinade, it literally is the juice of a lemon & a tablespoon of olive oil!

The refreshing part of the dish is the yoghurt – take 1/2 bunch spring onion & 1/2 a green chilli finely chop. Take 1/2 cucumber & dice it up quite small. Then take a small handful of coriander & mint (courtesy of the tub on the balcony) and a clove of garlic. Use mezzaluna to chop these very finely. Mix all ingredients into 200g greek yoghurt.

When ready to eat, heat a table spoon of oil in the frying pan & add the chicken – cook for at least 5 minutes each side until cooked through. Just before serving throw over the left over marinade to make it shiny & a bit sticky.

Serve with a simple salad – or just a nice tomato salad, crusty bread & very cold white wine. Mmmm.

So the poor excuses over, for tea we had some tortilla chips served with a layer of bean salsa, a layer of tomato salsa and cheese – served with spring onion as the chilli I *thought* we had was not as edible as it once was. Served with sour cream, guacamole & refried beans.

For the main course we had fajitas – the filling was quorn mince, peppers and red onion, chopped tomatoes and a mexican seasoning. Again, served with sour cream, guacamole & refried beans.

We forgot the Corona too but made up for it with a very nicely chilled white wine.

On Saturday, I made nothing, not a sausage, ziltch. In the evening we went out for a drink & ended up going for an Indian. Not much to write home about I have to say.

Today we are having the rest of the chili. So a weekend well spent. Hmmmm.

We did however have a nice morning out in Liverpool, wandering around the waterfront to see what all the developments look like from t’other side of the river. I think its going to be really nice when its finished & I am quite looking forward to it. Work has started on the canal, joining the Mersey from in front of the Liver Building up to the Albert Docks, the new stadium is nearly finished (well, from the outside) & it is starting to look like it is coming together. There is still a lot of building work going on though, cranes everywhere, but I have faith it will be done in time for 2008 & will be great.

Here is a flavour of what we saw…
Can you (just about) make out the cone at the bottom of the dock? As usual the fun lovin‘ scousers have been up to their tricks, but blimey how clean is the water?!

The beginnings of the canal

Oh and how could I forget, whilst we were wandering we saw a chap sprinting towards us in his red shorts (no top), just as he got past us he headed down to a dock, stripped of his red shorts & dive into the cold water – eek. Yes I had to look away as he stripped, it wasn’t a pretty sight but how I could I not post this pic… (if you click on the pic to enlarge it, you might just be able to see the desirable swimwear…)

Last night I made the chilli & I am not a big fan of the stuff but Hubby quite likes it so this was really for him.

Ingredients (From Delicious magazine May 07)

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 300g frozen quorn (Tescos didn’t have any so I used a 350g box from the refrigerator section but its £1 more expensive!!)
• 2 peppers, chopped fairly small
• 3 cloves garlic, crushed
• 2 teaspoons of lightly crush cumin seeds
• 320g jar of tomato & chilli pasta sauce
• 1 tine of kidney beans

How to Do It

1. Heat oil & cook peppers for 5 minutes
2. Add garlic & cumin seeds & quorn – cook for for 3/4mins
3. Add kidney beans & sauce + a further 160g water – simmer for 20 mins
4. Serve with rice

We also had the suggested sour cream & guacamole.

It was very easy & the cumin really made it for me. For once, I am looking forward to the second serving of this which is sitting in the fridge.