Plan Ahead Chilli

Cooking something fresh every day is a great aspiration, however life invariably gets in the way.  When you have small kids - as I did in the long distant past, I used this method, and even now when I live mostly on my own it works as well.

It means that when there are times you don't feel like cooking, you can't be bothered driving for a takeaway or just when you are in a rush, you always have something at hand in your freezer take away.

The essentials are a freezer and a microwave because, unless you are super-organised you will forget to take your food out of the freezer on time.

Another essential is labelling.  Sounds obvious but I have lost count of how many times I have taken out a curry, because I felt like curry (my mother used to kill us for saying this) only to discover it was beef stew or a pasta sauce.

The way to do it is to always cook more than you need.  Always!

And then to save those great plastic takeaway containers and use them to freeze your extra into individual portions.  Luckily I have friends who seem to live on takeaways and they save the containers for me.  Incidentally, they think I am mad!

Lots of meals work for this - chilli being one. I also cook extra rice and freeze it so I don't even have to go to the trouble of cooking it.

Chilli is one of those dishes everyone has a different way of cooking and I have heard arguments about whether it should contain beans or even meat.  I spent a year and a half in California and during that time I dipped into Mexico - okay it was Tijuana , but still Mexico.  My recipe has developed over years of experimentation and it is the one I am happy with.

Chilli con Carne

2 medium onions diced
2 cloves of garlic crushed
1 carrot diced
1 stick celery diced (if you want to conceal the carrot and celery from small kids or big ones grate them)
454g mince beef or diced rib beef
1 tin kidney beans
1 tin mixed beans or broad beans (as with celery and carrot - mash if you want to conceal them)
2 tins chopped tomatoes
1 tablespoon hot chilli powder
2 heaped teaspoons ground cumin
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
1 teaspoon turmeric.


Fry the onion and garlic until soft and just coloured.  Add in spices and cook for a few minutes.  Add in the celery and carrot.  Add beef, beans, tomatoes and cook over a low heat for at least an hour.  The longer it's cooked the nicer it is.  It is also much nicer a day or two after cooking.

Serve with rice.

When my kids were small I used to disguise all sorts of vegetables in dishes like this either grating them or chopping them very finely.  My son hated beans so I used to mash one tin and then allow him to pick out the ones he could see.  He was happy as he thought he had got away without eating them - little did he know! I also add the turmeric as it apparently has all sorts of anti-inflammatory properties and you don't taste it. 

Freeze the leftovers in Chinese takeaway plastic lidded containers.

The above recipe makes enough for 6-8 servings.

I freeze curries, stews, lasagne, pasta sauces and fish pie using this method of always cooking extra.  It's so much easier to cook extra than trying to batch cook on your day off.

Côtes du Meath - Part 1

This year will be remembered in my garden as the year of the blackcurrant. I planted blackcurrants, redcurrants, raspberries and gooseberries about 3 years ago and it has taken until now to get any sort of a crop.

I had masses of blackcurrants and I am not a huge fan of them sadly, so jam was out.  I had picked a kilo last year and froze them and only got around recently to making Creme de Cassis.  So what to do with this year's crop?

Googling recipes I found all the predictables - jam, ice cream, sorbet, tarts etc.  Then I discovered a recipe for wine (Blackcurrant wine recipe).  Sadly they all seem to advise adding copious amounts of sugar and sweet wine is not what I want to make. 

I have had great success in the last couple of years making cider from my cooking apples and also apple beer.  I made elderflower champagne last year.  These all worked without the addition of yeast (using the natural yeasts present on the fruit and flowers).  Then last year I got completely carried away and tried to make dandelion wine.  Unfortunately, without any yeast it just went mouldy. I ordered some wine yeast on line intending on making more this year but never got around to it.

I ordered both yeast and bottles from The Home Brew Company and have been very happy with the service.

For both my cider and the wine I have used plastic buckets with lids that I sterilised first.

 So my version of the above recipe is:


3kg of blackcurrants (remove any leaves or twigs and general debris but do not wash the fruit)
5 litres of boiled and cooled water (30 deg C)
One fifth of a sachet of red wine yeast (a sachet is 5g)
2 tablespoons sugar
I clean bucket with lid

Crush the fruit with a potato masher. Initially the fruit will sink to the bottom.  However as the yeast starts to act it will begin to rise and will float on the top of the bucket.  You need to stir twice a day. This is to prevent the fruit drying out so it is essential for the first 6 days at least.

When you stir it you will hear a fizzing noise.  This is normal and is the action of the yeast working away to convert the natural sugars in the fruit and in the added sugar to alcohol.

I am following this process loosely (wine from grapes). 

When the fizzing has ceased at approximately day 6-8 I will strain the liquid off through muslin and filter into flip top bottles.  




Part two of this post will demonstrate and explain the rest of the process as I complete it and hopefully this time next year part three will yield a few bottles of Côtes du Meath 2012.

Growing my Own

Blackcurrants about ready

I am almost ashamed to admit it but I only started gardening as such about three years ago.  I say ashamed because I have a degree in horticulture (in landscape design).  For years I said I hated gardening and would never, ever get the bug.  It's a past time for old women right?  At least that was what I told myself.

When we lived in England my 3 year old son saw a woman across the road cutting her grass and said to his dad, "daddy, ladies don't cut grass do they"?  I laugh to myself now when I think of it because I cut my grass with a kind of frenetic zeal every week.

When I lost my job I had to find something to keep me busy or I would have gone crazy, so I started tentatively growing some vegetables.  I went out and bought seeds, lots and lots of seeds and a small cheap propagator.  I had seed trays spread everywhere and when I transferred them outside, most of them died or got eaten.  I then sowed some seed directly outside and had more mixed success.  The most success I had was when I blagged some seedling plugs from a friend with a poly tunnel.  This was because she had bought good quality seed, good quality compost and had the icing on the cake - a poly tunnel.

Our weather here this summer has been a disaster and I have heard many gardeners saying they will have to admit defeat and put in a tunnel.  We have had nothing but rain and temperatures have been well below normal.  I heard the met office saying the last 4 summers have been bad but this summer has been the worst by a mile.  

Chickens can only look

I discovered the hard way that when you have poultry, as I do, that they are not compatible with seedlings or newly sown potato drills.  Now they are fenced out of a raised area.  In winter I let them in to clear out bugs and slugs and to fertilise it.  If I ever forget to close the gate they are in like a shot.

The problem with a small raised area is that it is necessary to practice crop rotation and to incorporate plenty of compost at the start of every growing season.  The compost is not a problem as I compost all my suitable household waste and chicken pooh is even better.


The chicken wire around the raised bed also doubles as support for peas and beans.  This year my peas are really, really late as you can see here to the left.  Normally this would be the stage a second crop would be at.

Each year I have differing levels of success with different species.  This year has been the year of the rhubarb, raspberry and blackcurrants.  But all the different Brassicas have done well including purple sprouting broccoli, cauliflower and cabbage.  Two years ago I had a fantastic crop of courgettes but last year and this year they have been really disappointing. My sole surviving courgette plant has finally got some flowers so I am hopeful that at least a few brave courgettes will make it.

I only "discovered" this magnificent cauliflower yesterday and got a bit of a shock when I saw it.  This is because every plant I have grown up to this has failed to form a nice cohesive head, as in the picture and instead looked like a big lacy flower, still edible, but wouldn't win a prize in the local agricultural show.

I have read and can confirm it is true, that if you have poor soil, plant potatoes.

The soil I have had potatoes in, is now dark, crumbly and friable.  I have dug a few rows of this years crop and have now planted more salad, rocket, beetroot and purple sprouting broccoli in it. 

The best thing by a mile about growing your own is the almost smug satisfaction you get from going out and digging or picking what you want to cook for dinner.  Knowing that it is truly organic, fresh and above all tastes amazing.  And for a confirmed non-gardener like me it really is not a huge amount of work.