good old chilli con carne

Serves 6
method 

What a classic this dish is. Most of my mates love the chickpeas, but butter beans or even cubed potatoes will work well in their place. Feel free to pep up this dish with more chilli depending on your taste. This will make enough for six portions, so simply freeze the extra if you’re only cooking for four – it’s so damn good the next day, even on a jacket potato!

To make your chilli
• Peel and finely chop the onions, garlic, carrots and celery – don’t worry about the technique, just chop away until fine 
• Halve the red peppers, remove the stalks and seeds and roughly chop 
• Place your largest casserole-type pan on a medium high heat 
• Add 2 lugs of olive oil and all your chopped vegetables 
• Add the chilli powder, cumin and cinnamon with a good pinch of salt and pepper 
• Stir every 30 seconds for around 7 minutes until softened and lightly coloured 
• Add the drained chickpeas, drained kidney beans and the tinned tomatoes 
• Add the minced beef, breaking any larger chunks up with a wooden spoon 
• Fill one of the empty tomato tins with water and pour this into the pan 
• Pick the coriander leaves and place them in the fridge 
• Finely chop the washed stalks and stir in 
• Add the balsamic vinegar and season with a good pinch of salt and pepper 
• Bring to the boil and turn the heat down to a simmer with a lid slightly askew for about an hour, stirring every now and again to stop it catching

To serve your chilli
• This is fantastic served with fluffy rice 
• Just divide the rice and chilli into big bowls or serve in the middle of the table and let everyone help themselves 
• If you don’t fancy rice it’s equally good with a nice hunk of fresh crusty bread, over a jacket potato or with couscous 
• Put a small bowl of natural yoghurt, some guacamole and a few wedges of lime on the table, and sprinkle the chilli with the coriander leaves 
• I love to add a nice green salad to round it off


• from Jamie's Ministry of Food

ingredients

• 2 medium onions
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 2 medium carrots
• 2 sticks of celery
• 2 red peppers
• olive oil
• 1 heaped teaspoon chilli powder
• 1 heaped teaspoon 
• ground cumin
• 1 heaped teaspoon ground cinnamon
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 1 x 400g tin of chickpeas
• 1 x 400g tin of red kidney beans
• 2 x 400g tins of chopped tomatoes
• 500g good-quality minced beef
• 1 small bunch of fresh coriander
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
• 400g basmati rice
• 1 x 500g tub of natural yoghurt
• 1 x 230g tub of guacamole
• 1 lime

Pumpkin Muffins

Serves 12

Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• 2 tsps baking powder
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 tsp ground ginger
• 2 tsp all spice
• Pinch of salt
• 160g soft brown sugar
• 60ml milk/buttermilk
• 200g pumpkin pureé made from leftover scoops of pumpkin flesh – *see below for method
• 2 eggs
• 30g apple sauce
• 120g melted butter
• Few drops of vanilla extract
• Pumpkin seeds for garnish

Method:
Pre heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius / gas mark 6.

To make the pumpkin pureé, scrape out the flesh of a medium pumpkin – this is a great way of using up leftover pumpkin when you carve your Jack O Lantern!  Cut the flesh into small cubes or pieces and simmer with a splash of water in a hot pan until soft. This should take around 15 – 20 minutes.  Drain, then blitz the pumpkin to a pureé. Weigh out 200g for the muffin mix.  You can either freeze any leftover to make these muffins again another time or use it in soups.

Sieve the flour, baking powder, baking soda, ginger and all spice into a bowl, add salt and sugar and set aside.  In another bowl whisk together the milk or buttermilk, pumpkin pureé, eggs, apple sauce, melted butter and vanilla extract. Gradually mix the dry ingredients into the wet to create a smooth batter.

Fill up your muffin tin or cases and sprinkle with pumpkin seeds.

Bake in the pre heated oven for 20 - 25 minutes until just cooked.  To check the muffins are cooked through insert a cocktail stick into the centre, if it comes out clean when removed the muffins are cooked.

Leave to cool on a wire baking rack. Then serve plain for a savoury muffin or if you want to make them sweet ice with frosting and more cracked pumpkin seeds if desired.  (I’ve included my maple cream cheese frosting recipe below if you want to frost them.)


Maple cream cheese frosting

Covers 12 muffins

• 100g icing sugar
• 100g cream cheese
• 45g butter
• 1 tbsp maple syrup

Method

Blend all of the ingredients together and spoon over the cooked muffins.