Our Kitchen

A couple of favourite recipes.

Hindin Bagels

  1. Dissolve yeast in water and sit for 5 mins
  2. Stir in sugar, salt and enough flour to make a soft dough. Knead for 15 mins adding flour until enough.
  3. Divide dough into 10. Roll each bit into a long sausage and twist into a ring.
  4. Leave on an oiled tray for 20 mins to prove.
  5. Preheat oven to 200 c
  6. Bring large pot of water to the boil. Add bagels and simmer for 15 seconds. Remove and put on a tray and top with seeds (sesame, poppy or whatever).
  7. Bake in hot oven for about 30 mins. Cool on rack (but serve before completely cool).

Chocolate dipped almond toffees

Great for Christmas nibbles

  1. Over a gentle heat cook the almonds and sugar until the sugar melts and darkens. You will know that its ready when a drop sropped into cold water hardens
  2. Drop spoonfuls onto and oiled tray - the toffee should harden rapdily (if it doesn't you can scrape it back into the pot and cook a bit more).
  3. Once its cool, melt the chocolate in a double boiler and dip one end of each toffee into it and put back on the tray to cool (refrigeration will speed this up although in the current weather probably not necessary)

As you like it chilli

One of the beauties of the dish widely known as chilli is its variability as really its nothing more than a stew with chillies added. This then is more a guideline than an actual recipe.

Chillis have three essential components:

  1. Meat stuff (yes I know that some people make vegetable chillis but we're not going there)
  2. Wet stuff
  3. Chillis
And three optional components:
  1. Herbs and spices - to some extent this is optional but you'll probably want to put at least some in.
  2. Green stuff aka vegetables of some type.
  3. Beans.

Step One: start well in advance:

Possibly even the day before but at least 4 hours before you want to eat.

Step Two: identify your ingredients:

  1. Meat stuff: beef is traditional but other red and white meats are useable (not fish - at least you can use fish but like vegetables it will require a different cooking method from that outlined here). Mixed meats are quite good and meats in different forms is interesting. I like combining steak of whatever cut into 2cm cubes with mince or sausage. Aim for at least 500gms of meat total.
  2. Wet Stuff: the traditional here is beef stock but you can also use tomatoes in juice / tomato puree if you like a tomato based chilli and/or beer. Note: adding beer will NOT make this alcoholic as all the alcohol will cook off. I don't recommend using all beer though, but about half a stubby does add to the richness of the chilli. You'll need a couple of cups of liquid probably - you can always top it up with water.
  3. Chillis: there are literally hundreds of options here. Chillis come in lots of varieties and can be processed in different ways e.g. smoking, drying, powdered. There is also chilli powder and paprika, both of which have chillis blended with other spices. Buy fresh chillis from the supermarket. Dried varieties can be bought from gourmet food stores of in Chch go to Aji on Manchester St. With dried chillis pour boiling water over them, just enough to cover them and let them sit for 10 minutes before blending them well to make a chilli puree. Know your chillis and if using hot ones take precautions and WASH YOUR HANDS WITH SOAP - just water won't remove the hot stuff.
  4. Herbs and Spices: Cumin is practically required, but coriander, cinnamon, cocoa, aniseed and really any spice will add something different. If you don't know your spices just add a Tb of cumin and one other dried powdered spice having sniffed it first - if you like the smell then give it a go. Marjoram, oregano and coriander (cilantro) are all good herbs to have in chillis.
  5. Most chillis will start with an onion/garlic base so expect to have a couple of onions and cloves of garlic. You may also want tomatoes. Other veges are a bit suspicious but if you like them then go for it.
  6. Beans are an optional extra in a standard meat chilli. Pinto and kidney beans are fine. Either give them the 24 hour soaking in water and boil them until soft treatment or use canned ones. Don't expect the chilli to cook them - they need to be pretty much ready to eat when they go in the chilli.

Step three: ready to cook

  1. Take a large, heavy bottomed saucepan: cast iron is excellent but will become tainted with chilli and henceforth called the chilli-pot.
  2. Cook your onions and garlic in a bit of oil until soft
  3. Add the meat and brown it. If you're doing a large chilli then cook it in stages, removing the contents of the chill-pot before putting the next batch in.
  4. With all the meat and onions/garlic in the pot add enough liquid to cover it, the herbs and spices, the chillies and the beans and give it a good stir.
  5. Bring the whole lot to a gentle bubble and pop the lid on and turn it down.
  6. After ½ hour check it, stir it, adjust the heat and have a quick taste. Add anything you like and put the lid back on. Repeat this a few times until its been cooking for 2-3 hours - the meat should be getting nice and soft now (depending on the meat).
  7. If you've got a bit too much liquid you can leave the lid off for a while to let some of it boil off.
  8. Finally eat and enjoy. I like my chilli with a nice Montieths Dark, lettuce, tomato, grated tasty cheese, sour cream and home-made tortillas.