Many years ago I bought a recipe book from Hotel Chocolate for my then boyfriend and now husband. It was my first Christmas/birthday present for him (his birthday and Christmas are 4 days apart so they are all one present really!) it has been sitting on his bookshelf in our flat for the past 4 years, gathering some dust. To be fair to him, two years ago, he did make one chocolate mousse recipe. However, since then, nada! So I flipped through the book on Saturday and found a few recipes of interest. One which caught my attention was chilli con carne with chocolate. This was a new one for me as I don’t think I have ever mixed savoury and sweet in this way. I do vaguely recall seeing something like this in a documentary on Mexican food.

The final product was an interesting gustatory experience!

I think I liked it, once I got used to the taste.

Ingredients

2 tbsp oil

2 onions

450g lean mince beef

1tsp dried oregano

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 small green chilli

1 tbsp molasses sugar

400g can tomatoes

400g canned kidney beans

55g dark chocolate

salt

Method

1. Heat the oil in a large heavy-based pan.

2. Add the chopped onions and cook over a medium heat for 5 minutes or so until soft.

3. Increase the heat, add the minced beff and cook, stirring for a few minutes until evenly browned. Reduce the heat and add the oregano and cinnamon.

4. Cut open the chilli and crape out the seeds under running water, then chop finely.

5. Add to the pan with the molasses sugar, tomatoes and kidney beans. Stir in the chocolate and season well with salt.

6. Cover and simmer gently for 1 hour, striking from time to time to prevent sticky and adding a little water if necessary.

7. Serve garnished with coriander or parsley, if liked and aboomapied by boiled rice or crusty bread and a green salad.