Apologies for my recent absence, a few unexpected things happened and it really knocked me for six, which also shoved paleo straight out of the window; this didn’t help my state of mind much. However I am now pulling myself back up and have a few new recipes and tips for you all, starting with this amazing chilli recipe.

Full credit for this recipe goes to Thomasina Miers, this is her recipe from her program ‘Mexican Food Made Simple’. I bought her recipe book (would recommend it) but was very sad to not find this particular recipe in there. I looked back at the program, wrote down what Thomasina did and have copied her recipe, as best I can, based on the program and tips about Mexican cooking from her book. If you want to see her making this recipe herself then click here.

After making this recipe I will personally think twice before making chilli the old fashioned way with tins of tomatoes and minced beef. This chilli is smoky, spicy and full of flavour, plus it goes perfectly with Cauliflower Rice.

Proper Mexican Chilli

Preparation to Plate: 35 Minutes

Serves 2-4

Consume within 3 Days

Ingredients:

250g Minced Pork

250g Minced Beef

1 Large White Onion, chopped

4 Large Red Tomatoes

2 Large Green Chillies

1 Apple, cubed

1 Banana, cubed

Handful of Pimiento Olives, chopped

300mL Chicken Stock

Lots of Fresh Oregano, chopped

Olive Oil

1 tsp Ground Cumin

1 tsp Ground Cinnamon

Small Pinch of Ground Cloves

1 tsp Smoked Paprika

1½ tsp Dried Chilli Flakes

Recipe:

Place the tomatoes and green peppers in a frying pan (with no oil in it) and dry roast them. Once the tomatoes start to split and blacken, add the onions with a very small amount of olive oil. Cook all of these for about 5-10 minutes until the onions are browned (or even a bit black around the edges) and the tomatoes and chillies are blackened.

Place the blackened vegetables in a food processor and blitz until smooth. In a separate pan add the pork and beef mince with some olive oil and cook until most of the meat is browned. Now add the tomato sauce to the meat and stir in.

Add the chicken stock, cumin, cloves and cinnamon and stir in. Now add the chopped banana and apples; these will give it a slightly caramel flavour which works well with the smokiness of the dish as well. Finally add the chilli flakes and smoked paprika, you can adjust the quantity of these to taste, I personally like my chilli hot but not burn-your-whole-mouth hot. In the original recipe Thomasina used Chipotle which are dried smoked chillies however if you, like me, can’t find these she recommends using this as an alternative.

Now simmer for 20 minutes stirring occasionally, serve and enjoy.

P.S. I know that in her recipe online Thomasina also uses raisins in the chilli, I didn’t have any so I couldn’t add them and can’t comment how much of a difference they made. Without them though it’s still a great tasting chilli.