Friday 18 September 2009

Supper for six - Part 1: Chilli con carne

Last Saturday, I cooked a simple supper for six lovely people: Ben, Bryony, Laura, and Anthony. They provided the drinks, we provided the food.

The main course was a chilli which I found in a Good Food recipe book. It was pretty straightforward and tasted good. However, it tasted a lot better when we ate the leftovers the day after! Note to self: make this one a day ahead.

Chilli con carne - serves 6-8
  1. Heat 2 tbsp veg oil in a large pan. Fry 1 red onion, finely chopped, until soft.
  2. Add 2 chopped red peppers, 2 crushed garlic cloves, 2 tsp chilli powder, 2 tsp paprika, 2 tsp ground cumin, 1 tsp dried marjoram and fry, stirring, for 5 mins.
  3. Tip in 1 kg minced beef. Fry until brown, breaking up lumps with the spoon.
  4. Crumble in 1 beef stock cube, then add 600ml water, 2 400g cans chopped tomatoes, 3 tbsp tomato puree, and 1 tsp sugar.
  5. Bring to the boil, then cover and simmer for at least 30 mins. If it dries out, add hot water from the kettle.
  6. Stir in 2 400g cans kidney beans and heat through uncovered for 10 mins.
  7. Remove from the heat. Let it stand for 10-15 mins before serving, or cool it, fridge it, and serve it the next day.
Easy! Anyone could make this recipe. You just need the ingredients, a chopping board, a knife, a large pan, and a wooden spoon. We ate it with rice and salad.

Monday 14 September 2009

Why I have started this blog

Welcome to my blog, inspired by food and cooking.

Before my wedding two years ago, I could barely cook anything. Now many of my friends ask me for recipes and for cookery advice - and always seem surprised when I tell them how easy it is to make amazing-tasting things with a small range of ingredients and an even smaller kitchen.

I never imagined I would find cooking as enjoyable as I do, but now I really look forward to getting my recipe books out and trying something new. I am blogging so that my friends can read about my experiences and try out new things for themselves, and discover that they too can make fantastic meals that will have everyone coming back for second (and third) helpings.

I am not a trained chef, so there is nothing special about me and in fact I'm sure that professional chefs and critics would tell me that I'm doing loads of things wrong. And I don't pretend that everything I make tastes amazing - in fact I've had my fair share of culinary disasters (maybe I'll blog about those some time). But I do think that with a little bit of patience, cooking can become one of the greatest joys in life, especially because the result is wonderful food that you get to share around the table in the company of friends and family.

Enjoy reading - and cooking!