Chilli Con Carne

I really love this recipe for Chilli con Carne. I am not claiming that it is in any way an authentic recipe, but it is spicy, warming with chilli heat, comforting to eat and most important of all it is delicious. It’s the type of dish to revive but not assault your taste buds and it is relatively inexpensive to make. As such, it is the perfect food to eat at this time of the year when the January blues have really set in.

The recipe that I give here is based on an Alistair Hendy recipe which I first came across in his book Home Cook. I have cooked many things from this book which contains many familiar recipes, presented in a no-nonsense, practical way. Alistair presents his recipes in a very reassuring way and it is a book that I would definitely recommend for anyone who wants to cook tasty dishes but lacks confidence in the kitchen. Not all food and recipe writers have this ability, and whilst I like to try something new and challenging and I am confident in adapting and inventing recipes, what most people want are recipes that they can rely on! Whilst Alistair may not be as well-known as Delia Smith, I think that he shares many of the same qualities that she does in the way he writes and how he encourages the reader to get out there and cook with confidence.

This really is tasty and although it does make a large pot of chilli, any left-overs are easily frozen and can be used again.

I like to serve this with plain boiled rice with a simple green salad on the side. I also like to eat it atop a baked potato for a warming lunch or supper dish. It is also great heated, spooned on a large mound of tortilla chips with some added sliced jalapeno peppers. I then top this with some mature cheddar and stick it under a hot grill so the cheese can melt – a lovely dish for sharing or nibbling on when watching the telly on a cold January evening. Whatever way I serve it, I always have some sour cream and some homemade guacamole and cornbread on hand to accompany it.

I am also going to separately post a recipe for the cornbread that I make and I do urge you to try making some. It is so quick and easy to make and if you make it whilst the chilli is simmering away on the hob, it will be ready and still slightly warm from the oven when you are ready to serve the chilli.

Ingredients:

2 large onions, finely diced
3 garlic cloves, crushed
Vegetable oil for frying

2 tsp ground cumin
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 tblsp dried oregano
1-2 sprigs of fresh thyme
4 bay leaves

1kg good quality minced beef

2 tblsp paprika

3 tsp cayenne pepper

100ml malt vinegar

6 tblsp tomato purée

3 cans of chopped tomatoes

1 tin red kidney beans

250ml red wine

Method:

1. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a heavy saucepan and gently sweat the chopped onions and garlic until they have softened, but do not let them turn brown. Add the cumin, the dried oregano, thyme and the bay leaves and season generously with the salt and freshly ground black pepper. Fry for a minute or so.
2. Add the minced beef, breaking it up with a wooden spoon so that there are no large lumps. Continue cooking until the meat is browned all over (you may need to add a little more vegetable oil).
3. In a small bowl, mix the paprika, cayenne pepper, vinegar and tomato purée. Add this to the pan with the browned meat and cook for a couple of minutes, stirring all the time, so that the meat gets coated.

4. Add the chopped tomatoes and stir well. Leave on the hob to cook gently, merely blipping away gently for 2 hours approximately.

Serves 8-10 generously.

Lemon Bougatsa

2014 has arrived and we have welcomed in the New Year. After all the rich and heavy foods consumed over the festive season, I now yearn for something a little lighter and zingier on the palate. This seemed like just the recipe to kick-start my taste buds during the long and cold month of January, made as it is with light and crispy filo pastry and tangy, refreshing lemons.

I love the taste of lemon and think that it is an invaluable ingredient in the kitchen; a few drops of lemon juice, used almost as if it were a seasoning refreshes all manner of savoury foods, intensifying their flavours and creating balance. For this reason, I always have lemons to hand in my kitchen.

I go weak at the knees when lemon is used in baking and in desserts…lemon meringue pie, tarte au citron, lemon drizzle cake, lemon mousse, lemon surprise pudding… I love anything that includes lemon! It is therefore unsurprising that I was drawn to this recipe.

Filo pastry can be a little tricky to work with because it does dry out very easily, but so long as you keep the sheets you are not immediately using wrapped in a damp tea-towel and are generous in your use of melted butter when brushing the individual sheets prior to layering up, you should have no problems. Believe me, if you like the flavour of lemons and are also partial to custard-based dishes, this is a recipe you must try out! There is nothing particularly complicated in making this dish and it keeps surprisingly well covered in the fridge.

Bougatsa is a Greek breakfast pastry which may be sweet or savoury but which always uses filo pastry. Savoury versions use minced meats or cheese, but sweet versions usually consist of a sweet semolina custard. Whilst I would love to be greeted by this bougatsa for breakfast, I also think that it would make a fabulous dessert, served with a few fresh raspberries during the Summer or some poached figs in early Autumn - and with a dollop of crème fraîche or softly whipped cream on the side! This version of bougatsa is based on a recipe that I came across in Food and Travel Magazine.

Ingredients:

600ml double cream

500ml full cream milk
125g caster sugar
100g semolina
150ml fresh lemon juice (about 4 juicy lemons)

Rind of 4 lemons, pared into wide strips.

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1 x 270g filo pastry

75g butter, melted

Syrup:

100g caster sugar

50ml fresh lemon juice

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4. Base line a 24cm x 17cm x 6cm deep tin with non-stick baking parchment.
2. Put the cream, milk and caster sugar in a saucepan and bring to the boil over a moderate hear.

3. Slowly pour in the semolina, stirring continuously as you add it. Keep stirring until the mixture begins to bubble again and then remove from the heat and set aside to cool for about quarter of an hour.
4. Add the lemon juice to the semolina mixture, followed by the eggs and stir well to fully incorporate.
5. Place four sheets of filo pastry in the lined tin, using a pastry brush to brush each sheet individually with meleted butter before placing another on top. Leave some of the pastry overhanging the top edges of the tin.
6. Pour in the lemon semolina filling and fold the overhanging pastry on top of it.

7. Leave two of the remaining filo pastry sheets to the side and layer the others on top of the filling, brushing with melted butter between each layer as before. Ruffle up the two remaining sheets of pastry and place on top of the bougatsa. Brush  with the remaining butter and bake in the pre-heated oven for 40 minutes until the pastry is crisp and a rich golden colour. Remove from the oven and place the tin on a wire rack and allow the bougatsa to cool completely.

Make syrup:

8. Put the caster sugar and lemon juice into a small saucepan and gently heat until the sugar dissolves. Increase the heat and bring to the boil. Allow to simmer for about three minutes until the syrup thickens slightly. Add the strips of reserved  lemon rind and set aside to cool.

To finish:

9. When the bougatsa and syrup have cooled, spoon over the syrup and lemon rind and cut into squares.

Cuts into 20 squares.

Cinnamon & Raisin Bagels

These bagels are really tasty and keep very well. The crumb is light but with that slight chewiness that you should get with bagels. The cinnamon and raisin combination is a classic marriage of two flavours that are just made for each other.

Often when I cook or bake, the challenge that I privately set myself is to produce something that is tastier and well…just better than that which you could purchase in the supermarket or local shop. These bagels definitely achieve this and I will be making them again and again. They are perfect breakfast fare, split in half and smeared with good Irish butter and preserves or my favourite – toasted and then slathered… and I mean SLATHERED in butter which begins to melt seductively into the spicy sweetness of the hot bagel.

Homemade yeasted breads tend to go stale quicker than their mass-produced, processed counterparts which are packed full of preservatives to extend shelf-life. However, the keeping qualities of these bagels are great. They are lovely eaten shortly after being baked, but were every bit as tasty a couple of days later when I toasted them. To be honest, I had to hide the bagels because the rest of my gang kept eating them. If I had given them free-reign, how quickly they did or did not go stale would not have been an issue, because there would have been none left!

 

I was nervous about poaching the bagels, thinking that they would deflate on being scooped out of the water and set aside whilst I got on with poaching the others, but they didn’t. These are really far easier to make than I imagined and I am so thrilled with the results. I now feel enthused and excited about developing new flavour combinations and already have a few ideas of some that I would like to try out. I shall of course keep you updated!

Bagels are ring shaped yeasted breads about the size of a ring doughnut, which are boiled for a short time before being baked in the oven. The boiling of the bagels produces the chewy crumb characteristic of the bagel. Bagels gained widespread popularity in the United States and they are now commonly eaten in many countries. Bagels may be savoury, topped with seeds and/or flavoured with onions or spices or may be sweet like the recipe that I give here.

 

Ingredients:

500g strong white flour, plus a little extra for kneading

2 heaped tblsp caster sugar
1tsp salt
2 heaped tsp ground cinnamon

1 x 7g sachet of fast action yeast

125g raisins

300ml warm water

1tblsp bicarbonate of soda

A little beaten egg for glazing
 

Method:

1. Put the flour, sugar, salt , cinnamon, yeast and raisins into a large bowl. Add the warm water and mix to a rough dough using your hands or a wooden spoon.

2. Tip out the dough onto a lightly floured work surface and knead the dough for about ten minutes until it is smooth and elastic.
3. Line two baking trays with non-stick baking parchment and set aside.
4. Place the dough on a lightly oiled bowl and cover with some cling film. Leave in a warm place for about an hour to prove by which time it should have doubled in size.

5. Tip the dough out onto the work surface and shape into ten evenly sized balls.  Place on the prepared baking trays and cover again with lightly oiled cling film. Allow to rise again for about 30 minutes. Remove the cling film and using your forefinger or the handle of a wooden spoon make a hole in the centre of each bagel. I swirl the dough around my finger to create a hole about 4cms in diameter.

6. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4.

7. Meanwhile, bring a large saucepan of water to the boil. When it is bubbling away, add the bicarbonate of soda. Carefully pop a couple of bagels at a time into the water and allow to bubble away for about 90 seconds – they will puff up! Turn them over in the water after about 45 seconds.

8. Carefully remove and drain well on some absorbent kitchen roll and then place bake onto the lined baking trays. Repeat this process for the remaining bagels.
9. Brush the boiled bagels with a little beaten egg. Bake in the preheated oven for 25 minutes by which time they should be a rich golden brown colour. 

  

Makes 10.

Boiled Fruitcake with Guinness & Marmalade - A Cake for Nollaig na mBan

The Feast of Epiphany or Little Christmas as it was colloquially known was traditionally celebrated in a unique way in Ireland. The 6^th January was known as Nollaig na mBan or Women’s Christmas and was a day when Irish men took on all the household duties for the day, giving the women a chance to rest presumably after all the hard work they did for the other 364 days of the year. Although this tradition has largely died out, you sometimes hear it referred to and it is still practiced in some parts of Ireland, particularly south-west Munster.

In the past, women would get together on this day and would have delicious things to eat and perhaps a few drinks. I think that it is a lovely tradition and whilst it may not be widely celebrated anymore, it is something peculiarly Irish and something that we should not forget. Many countries have special foods that they serve at Epiphany, so I started thinking about what I would make to serve at Nollaig na mBan.

I love a rich fruit cake, but they can be time-consuming to make with all the weighing of ingredients, the soaking of fruit and the long time it takes to bake them slowly in the oven and then mature them, feeding them every few days with alcohol. However, I decided that I did want to make a fruit cake and one that tasted rich and fruity but just didn’t take quite so long to produce.

A boiled fruitcake seemed like a good option. For this cake the fruit, sugar and butter are simmered in liquid. This can be tea, orange juice or even water but I decided to use Guinness. I love the slightly bitter taste that the stout lends to the finished cake and the way that the fruit plumps as it simmers away in the beer.

I had run out of citrus peel when making this cake and didn’t fancy going to the supermarket just to get a tub of “mixed peel”, so ever experimental, I added two tablespoons of marmalade with coarse cut peel in it and this was a revelation. It added a lovely citrus fruity element to the cake.

Like most fruit cakes, this one benefits from being wrapped in greaseproof paper and tin foil and being stored for a couple of days before being consumed, but it still tasted delicious if eaten once it has cooled after baking. As with so many things that I like to eat, I think that this cake is lovely spread with butter and served with a good cup of tea.
 

I think that it is a very fitting cake for Nollaig na mBan!

Ingredients:

200g sultanas
175g raisins
100g glacé cherries, halved
100g dark brown muscovado sugar

75g caster sugar

125g butter

2tblsp marmalade (with coarse cut peel)

1 egg

300ml Guinness

350g plain flour

1tsp mixed spice

1tsp bicarbonate of soda
 

Method:

1. Put the Guinness, dried fruit, glacé cherries, sugars and butter into a medium sized saucepan and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes stirring regularly and then remove from the heat and allow to cool.
2. Pre-heat the oven to 160C/Fan Oven 140C/Gas Mark 3. Line a deep, round 23cm cake tin with a double thickness of non-stick baking paper and set aside.
3. Sieve the flour, mixed spice and bicarbonate of soda together and add to the cooled boiled fruit mixture. Mix with a wooden spoon ensuring that there are no little pockets of flour. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and level the surface with the back of a spoon. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 1½ hours covering the top of the tin with tin foil for the final half hour of baking to ensure that the cake does not burn. Test the cake by inserting a thin skewer into the centre of the cake after 1¼ to see whether it is cooked. If the skewer comes out clean it is ready, if it doesn’t, give it a further 15 minutes in the oven.
4. Remove from the oven and let cool in the tin for ten minutes, before removing from the tin and allow to cool completely on a wire rack.

Serves 10-12.

Galette des Rois - A Cake for Epiphany

Galette de Rois or King Cake, as it is sometimes known, is traditionally made to celebrate the Feast of Epiphany on 6^th January each year. The cake which originally hails from France, is made up of a frangipane-like almond cream sandwiched between two layers of buttery puff pastry.  Given my love of all things almondy, I am surprised that I have never actually made a Galette de Rois before… but I will definitely be baking it again.

It is surprisingly easy to make, which is another plus point with me because although I love spending time in the kitchen cooking, baking and developing new recipes, the reality is that life with three children is hectic and it is often difficult to find the time to indulge my culinary passions.

There are many customs associated with Galette de Rois; in France a small figurine or trinket is often baked inside the cake and whoever finds it is declared “king” for the day. Traditionally, a dried broad bean or le feve was used but over time the use of specially made porcelain trinkets became popular. Convention has it that the Galette is apportioned according to the number of people who are going to eat it, plus one extra slice which was given to the first peasant or poor person who passed by on the Feast of Epiphany.

 

This is a really lovely cake cum pastry. The filling is moist and sweet and the pastry is flaky and buttery – what more could you ask for?

 

Some recipes suggest adding dark rum to the almond cream, but I used Amaretto instead to really emphasize the almond flavour. Partly because I was stuck for time but mainly because I wasn’t in the humour for the whole palaver associated with making a homemade version, I used shop-bought all-butter puff pastry.

I was really delighted with how the Galette turned out and not for the first time in my gastronomic adventures I marvelled at how something so simple, could just taste so good!

Ingredients:

125g caster sugar
125g butter, softened
125g ground almonds
1 level tblsp plain flour
3 large eggs

1tblsp Amaretto

500g puff pastry

Egg wash:

1 egg yolk

1 tblsp milk
 

Method:

1. Line a large baking tray with some non-stick baking parchment.
2. Place the sugar and butter in a mixing bowl and using a hand-held electric mixer cream together until light and fluffy. Add the ground almonds and flour and beat to fully incorporate. Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well before adding the next. Finally mix in the Amaretto. Set aside.
Egg wash:
3. Mix the egg yolk and milk together in a small bowl.
To finish:

4. Divide the puff pastry in half and using a rolling pin, roll out each piece until it is about ½cm thick. From each piece cut out a circle approximately 25cms in diameter.

5. Place one circle on the prepared baking tray. Spoon the almond cream into the centre of the circle and using the back of a spoon, spread out evenly, leaving a 5cm border clear around the edge of the circle.

6. Brush some egg wash on the pastry border and carefully lift the other pastry circle on top. Seal the edges of the two circles together to fully enclose the filling.

7. Chill the Galette by refrigerating it for an hour.

8. Preheat the oven to 180C/Fan Oven 160C/Gas Mark 4.

9. Remove the Galette from the fridge and brush with the top with the remaining egg wash. Using a small, sharp knife cut the edges into a scallop pattern. Then, using the tip of the knife, score the top of the pastry into a sunray type pattern.

10. Bake in the preheated oven for 40 minutes until a rich, golden colour.

11. Remove from the oven and allow to cool before serving.
 

Serves 8.