Food

The Single Best Chilli Recipe

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I like making chilli in my slow cooker. And as I currently have a batch cooking, I thought I would share the recipe with you.

A slow cooker bowl filled with cooking chilli

Spices

  • Cumin
  • Chilli Pepper
  • Coriander
  • Garlic Powder
  • Bay Leaves

Seasoning

  • Stock cubes (beef or vegetarian, depending on what you’re doing)
  • Mole sauce (I use Doña María’s, which I get from Mexgrocer.co.uk, or the local grocery store when I visit L.A.)

Fresh Vegetables

  • Onion
  • Garlic
  • Bell pepper

Canned Vegetables

  • Diced tomatoes
  • Tomato paste

Canned Beans

  • Kidney beans
  • Garbanzo beans/chickpeas
  • Haricot beans
  • Butter beans
  • Or the bean of your choice

Meat (optional)

  • Stewing beef

Amounts

  • Beans and meat – as much as fits into your slow cooker
  • Vegetables (fresh and canned) – one each
  • Garlic and tomato paste – As much as you want
  • Seasonings and spices – as much as you want

(Keep in mind that things in the slow cooker tend to cook a bit blander, so chuck in plenty.)

Cooking

  • Drain and rinse all the beans (unless they’re in chilli sauce)
  • Chop up the fresh vegetables
  • Throw everything into the slow cooker
  • Turn on the Low setting
  • Keep it going for 7 hours, stirring occasionally

Serving

  • Spoon into bowls, add sour cream and cheese
  • Eat to your heart’s content
  • Put leftovers into containers and put into the freezer for even more delicious later chilli

God’s gift to the candy industry

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When I got my first dose of the COVID vaccine this week, I was sad because I didn’t get a sticker or a lollipop afterwards.

So I bought myself a box of 50 Dum-Dums.

A collection of Dum-Dum Lollipops, scattered in a box, with a couple of rolls of Love Hearts hiding among them.
Ignore the Love Hearts – they came with the order

Dum-Dum Lollipops are an American wonder. In production since 1924, they are small hard candies on a stick, around 2cm in diameter, and come in a wild variety of flavours.

In the box I bought on eBay (and, by the way, will probably be buying again, because I love Dum-Dums), I received 50 in a range of flavours, including Root Beer, Hawaiian Punch, Mango-Peach, Lemon-Lime, Watermelon, Butterscotch, Cotton Candy, and Mystery Flavour.

Dum-Dum Lollipops organised by flavour, in order of preference.

Yeah, you read that last one correctly. Mystery Flavour.

See, the factory does something that makes Dum-Dums unlike any other lollipop out there. When it comes to the end of a flavour run, rather than let it just run out and then replace it with a new flavour, they put the next flavour in, and then whatever mis-mash you get is the Mystery Flavour. Is it Orange-Lemon-Lime? Maybe. Is it Cotton-Candy-Watermelon? Possibly.

Are you going to get lucky and have the flavours work perfectly in a blend that you never thought was possible? Hopefully. Are you going to be unfortunate and have flavours that are just weird together? Probably.

I have seven Mystery Flavour lollipops waiting for me. While I might go straight for the Hawaiian Punch, Mango-Peach, and Root Beer (because the Root Beer Dum-Dums are absolutely the best), I will also savour those Mystery Flavours.

Because the mystery is what makes everything better.