chili sin carne

I told my doctor a Picasso story today, but not about the painting above. About one he had hanging over his treatment table. Anyway, he appreciated the story, but that was not what I was going to say. Last night I promised Michele I would blog the recipes of the food I fed her. And I am such a people pleaser, so I do. Warning, this is not food of the christmassy kind, I had had enough of that. Michele too, she is playing the Nutcracker... This is just honest straightforward and wholesome food. Fits the weather. Now Michele is a vegetarian, so I had to turn my chili con carne into something vegetarian, and it didn't even turn out too bad. Which is not to say I don't prefer the meaty version myself. It's a Jamie Oliver recipe, I have to admit. I got it off the BBC food website years ago, and I must have made it a hundred times. I tried other recipes, but always returned to this one:

2 medium onions
1 garlic clove
olive oil
2 tsp chili powder
1 fresh chili, deseeded and finely chopped
1 tsp ground cumin (or crushed cumin seeds)
sea salt and freshly ground pepper
450g /1lb chuck steak, or ground beef, which I replaced by a handful of soaked gray lentils, a handful of chopped mushrooms and a block of extra firm tofu
a jar of sun-dried tomatoes
a big can of diced tomatoes
1 cinnamon stick
2 cans of red kidney beans, drained

Preheat the oven to 150C/300F. Chop the onions and the garlic, then fry in a little olive oil until softened. Add the chili powder, fresh chili, cumin and a little seasoning. Then add the meat or the veggie mix and continue to cook until it has sort of browned. Blitz the sun-dried tomatoes in the food processor with enough oil from the jar to loosen in a paste. Throw in the pan with the chopped tomatoes, cinnamon stick and a wine glass of water. Season some more. Bring to a boil, put a lid on and transfer to oven. After an hour, add the beans. Leave in the oven another half hour. Eat with crusty bread, salad and a blob of yoghurt or guacamole. Lovely!

For desert, Dutch apple pie. A recipe from a Canadian website, mind you. You have to be in Canada for the real traditional Dutch stuff. Never goes wrong, this pie, and it's not a lot of work.