6 March - slow-cook chilli

I recently got round to getting Thomasina Miers' book Mexican Food Made Simple. I'd already made a few recipes from it, including this one, using a combination of her website and recipes copied onto scraps of paper in Smiths! So it was nice to be able to try this one out properly using almost all the right ingredients, including chiles de arbol from Otomi our local Mexican shop in Clifton. It's a chile con carne made with big chunks of stewing steak instead of mince, which you slow cook along with a load of spices, tomatoes, chorizo and borlotti beans, then pull into shreds with a fork. It takes a bit of time to get the ingredients together, but then you just pop the whole thing in the oven for 3 hours and leave it to do its thing. I was a bit wary about how spicy it would come out and went easy on the chilli, but the result was spot on - hot enough to have a kick, but just within my tolerance levels with a bit of creme fraiche (a substitute for sour cream as I already had some in the fridge).

I'd intended to make some guacamole to go with it, but cut into the avocado to find it'd gone brown. I managed to salvage a few chunks and mixed it up with some tomatoes, fresh coriander, lime juice, olive oil, sugar and salt to make a kind of salsa instead. Together with some simple boiled rice, the whole thing made a great meal.

25 January - warm squash and chorizo salad

I really must get round to buying Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food Made Simple ... I found myself in Smiths again today trying to memorise a recipe! In the end, I actually picked a recipe from the Channel 5 website instead for hot chorizo and squash salad. I pretty much followed the recipe, with spiced roast squash, red onion and cherry tomatoes, mixed with cooked pinto beans, chorizo and spinach leaves, then coriander dressing and a few slivers of parmesan on the top. I did a few cubes of sauted potato too, but to be honest, the salad would have been substantial enough without them. A really tasty, filling, but healthy-feeling supper - yum!

31 October - cheese on toast and beef chilli

With fresh Turkish figs still in season, I bought a lovely crusty sourdough loaf from Hart's this morning to make some goats cheese on toast with figs on the side for lunch.

There was a chunk of beef from yesterday in the fridge which I somehow fancied slow cooking. I stopped in Smith's on my way to the supermarket to flick through Thomasina Miers' Mexican Food Made Simple. I really ought to buy a copy, but for today, I settled for just memorising a recipe for beef chilli. It's a pretty long list of ingredients, but I think I managed to get home with them all still in my head it more or less the right proportions and order!

• Blend an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic.
• Brown a chunk of beef on all sides in a pan- I used about 150g topside - and remove.
• Fry some chopped cooking chorizo in the same pan, then add the onion and garlic mix.
• Add a tsp cumin and a tsp allspice, a few cloves, a cinnamon stick and a bay leaf.
• Stir in a couple of chopped red chillis, a few bits of jalapeno (from a jar), a splash of balsamic vinegar, a squirt of tomato ketchup, some dried oregano and half a tin of tomatoes. Stir it all around to cook for a while, then return the beef and top up with about 150ml water.
• I transferred the whole lot to a casserole, covered it with foil and popped it in a low oven (150C) for a couple of hours.
• Towards the end, stir in half a tin of borlotti beans.
• When you take it out, break up the beef with a fork into shreds.

The result wasn't particularly photogenic, but it tasted absolutely fantastic! All the flavours came together wonderfully to create a real 'surround-sound' kind of taste that lingered long after the last mouthful! Rather than rice or tortillas, I served it with some cubes of roast sweet potato and a blob of guacamole.

12 July - chickpea salad and a fruity chilli

Lunch today was a chickpea salad with goats cheese. I mixed half a tin of chickpeas with a grilled pepper cut into thin strips and a dressing of olive oil, lemon juice, crushed garlic and chopped parsley ... oh yes, and a few more tomatoes from the garden.

For dinner I was going to try out a recipe I saw on a TV cookery programme the other day. It was a version of chilli con carne on Channel 5's Mexican Food Made Simple. I checked the Channel 5 website - I found the episode which included the recipe, but not a list of exact ingredients or quantities. So when I went out to the supermarket, I dropped into Smiths and found the book to go with the series by Thomasina Miers. I had a flick through, but rather oddly, it contains a completely different chilli con carne recipe. Anyway, I gave it a go roughly based on the programme with a few changes:

• Roast a couple of whole tomatoes, a whole green chilli and a chopped onion, then whizz them together in a blender to make the base of the sauce.
• Brown about 100g each of beef and pork mince in a pan, then add the sauce.
• Stir in a teaspoon of cumin and a pinch of cinnamon, plus some fresh chopped oregano.
• Add about 250ml chicken stock, then throw in a chopped banana (yes, a banana!) and the corn from a fresh corn cob.
• Simmer for 20 mins, then add a teaspoon of smoked paprika and a little chilli powder (it could have done with a bit more).
• Simmer a bit longer, season and serve with rice.

The result was quite good, with some nice flavours, but not enough kick for a chilli.