I planted these about 2 weeks ago or so from a chilli bought from a supermarket. Hopefully I’ll get a few nice strong seedlings to concentrate on.

I’ve also recently planted some coriander and basil but nothing has sprouted yet.

Not only am I a chilli fiend, but also definitely a chocolate fiend. So, I spent a good while looking for a nice cake to bake for Easter. I considered trying my Mum’s recipe for a beetroot chocolate cake - she promises that it tastes far better than it sounds - or a carrot cake. Instead I went with what I really wanted: a big, fat chocolate cake. After all, it is Easter - a time for indulgence after 40 days of giving things up for Lent (I gave up giving things up).

Anyway, I found a recipe for an Ultimate Chocolate Cake by Angela Nilsen but reduced the amount of sugar and butter because after weighing up the ingredients, I decided that I didn’t want this cake to be the single reason for giving myself and my housemates heart attacks and diabetes. Here’s what I did:

Ingredients

The Cake
200g dark chocolate (I used Lindt’s 85% cocoa bar)
150g unsalted butter
85g self raising flour
85g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda
100g muscovado sugar
150g caster sugar
3 medium eggs
75ml buttermilk

The Icing
200g dark chocolate (I used Lindt’s dark cherry chocolate but any will do)
260ml double cream
1 tablespoon of caster sugar

I used two round cake tins, 7 inches diameter.

Method

Butter the cake tins and pre-heat the oven to gas mark 3 or 160 degrees.

Melt 200g of the chocolate. You could do this by boiling a saucepan of water, then placing a heatproof bowl over the saucepan and put the broken up chocolate squares into the bowl. When the chocolate is melting, add the butter and stir until it’s all melted together.

Put the self raising and plain flour into a mixing bowl, along with the bicarb of soda and the sugars. Mix these ingredients together with your hands, removing any lumps that you feel.

Beat the eggs in a bowl and add the buttermilk to them. Add the egg mixture and the melted chocolate to the flour and sugar. Stir the mixture until smooth. It won’t be very runny, but nor should it be too tough so add a drop more of buttermilk if you think it needs it.

Pour into your tin or tins, whack it in the oven and bake for about 1 hour 25 minutes. When cooked, you should be able to stab a skewer through the cake without it leaving any cake mixture on it. If it does, just cook it for a few more minutes and check again.

Let the cake cool down completely before you add any icing to it, otherwise the chocolate in the icing will melt while you try to get it to stay on the cake.

If you made the cake in one tin, you might want to cut it into two pieces, or not - it’s your choice! I made two sections so that I could add some of the icing in the middle.

To make the icing - warm up the cream in a saucepan but don’t boil or burn it! When it’s very warm add the sugar then break up the chocolate and stir it in until melted and smooth.

Let the icing cool a little then spread a bit on the top of the bottom layer. Sandwich the layers together. Pour the rest of the icing over the top of the cake and spread it around the sides.

As you can see from the photos, I’m terrible at icing cakes but the mess doesn’t bother me - it’s the taste that matters! I added some Mini Eggs, as it’s Easter, and some chocolate sprinkles.

You can now access Cooking With A Chilli Fiend at www.chillifiend.com

Yay!

Butternut squash (along with the good old pumpkin) is such an unappreciated vegetable; most people will, at best, only ever eat it around Halloween time, but it’s in season all through the Winter so there’s no reason not to make much more of it.

Ingredients

1 butternut squash
1 large brown onion
2 large potatoes
3 cloves of garlic
around 1 pint of chicken stock
1 teaspoon ground cumin (optional)
a generous pinch of salt and pepper
olive oil

Makes around 4 portions

Method

Chop the squash in half, lengthways. Remove the seeds then chop the squash into chunks, leaving the skin on. Peel the potatoes and the onion, then chop these into chunks as well.

Put the squash, potatoes, onion and garlic (with skin on) into a large roasting tin. Drizzle oil over the vegetables and sprinkle the cumin, salt and pepper all over. Roast for around 25 minutes at about 200 degrees.

The vegetables should have softened up in the oven. Take out the garlic cloves and remove their skins.

Place the roasted veg (and skinless garlic) into a food processor and whizz them up while gradually adding the chicken stock, until you get a tasty mush of vegetables.

Transfer the puree to a saucepan and warm it through. You can add more stock/water if you like a runny soup, or you can boil off some of the stock already added if you like it thicker.

You could serve this with a small amount of creme fraiche, some chopped spring onions and a sprinkle of salt and pepper.

Tasty, warming Winter food. Delicious!

Leeks are a favourite of mine; not only do I think they taste great but they’re a national symbol of Wales. I have to admit that on St David’s Day I tend to wear a daffodil instead but I do eat my fair share of leeks!

They’re a really versatile vegetable and carry other flavours well, such as chilli. I usually steam leeks and have them as part of a roast dinner but in this recipe I stir fry them to add colour and flavour to a pasta dish.

Ingredients

4 Lincolnshire sausages
1 large leek
1 red pepper
1/2 an onion
2 cloves of garlic
2 red chillis
a pinch of dried thyme
a knob of butter
a small bit of grated cheese
pasta shapes

Serves 2-3 people

Method

Begin by cooking the sausages under the grill. They’ll take around 20 minutes so you can stir fry the other ingredients while they’re cooking. You could also begin to boil your pasta too.

Chop the vegetables then melt the butter in a warmed frying pan or wok. Add the onion and red pepper. Cook until the onions begin to brown then add the dried thyme, garlic, chillis and leek.

When the vegetables have softened take the cooked sausages and chop them into small chunks. Stir them into the veggie mixture and cook for a further two-ish minutes.

Just before serving, stir a small amount of cheese into the sausages and vegetables.

Enjoy your tasty and colourful pasta meal!

Washing up is probably nobody’s favourite after-dinner activity (incidently mine is to slump on the sofa and finish off a glass of wine) but it needs to be done eventually. One pot meals are great for those of us who just can’t be bothered!

This spicy rice dish makes a great lunchtime snack (make it the night before then heat it up in a microwave when you’re hungry) or can be an accompaniment to something meaty - I had this with leftover chicken drumsticks.

Ingredients

basmati rice
boiling water
2 teaspoons turmeric
1/2 teaspoon garam masala (optional)
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper (chilli powder)
1/2 red onion
1/2 green pepper
1 or 2 red chillis
a handful of peas

Method

Chop the onion, green pepper and chilli. In a large, deep frying pan or wok, fry these ingredients for a few minutes until they soften.

Add the rice into the pan, followed by the water. I used 1/2 a mug of rice (enough for two people, feel free to use more if you want more) and roughly 1 1/4 mugs of boiling water. Stir the rice, making sure it doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan.
Tip: You may want to add the water in bit by bit as it gets absorbed. This will make sure you don’t use too much water and get soggy rice.

Stir in the turmeric, chilli powder and garam masala (if using). Bring the rice to the boil and add the peas.

Simmer until the rice has absorbed the water and serve (then wash up!).

I recently picked up one of these bad boys from Jamie Oliver’s cookware range.

Basically it’s a bit like a pestle and mortar but instead of beating the living daylights out of whatever you’re making, you shake the ingredients inside the shaker and a ceramic ball smashes it all up for you.

It seems to mix herbs, peppercorns, chillis, etc. together really well and is fabulous for making dressings. Unfortunately it doesn’t bash up cloves of garlic or other largish bits and bobs very well, so I won’t be getting rid of the old pestle and mortar for a while.

My other half, Jimmy, loves pasta and curry. Being the genius he is, he combined the two to make curried pasta!

This pasta dish is great hot or cold and goes well with almost everything!

Ingredients

pasta shapes
a large dollop of mayonnaise
a dollop of curry paste (we used Rogon Josh in this example)
a handful of fresh coriander, chopped
the juice from half a lemon

Method

Cook and drain the pasta. If you want to make this as a cold side dish (great for BBQs and parties) run cold water over the cooked pasta.

Place pasta in a large bowl and add the mayonnaise and curry paste. Mix together well then stir in the coriander and lemon juice. Done!

I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmas and New Year celebrations. It’s such a fantastic time of the year for foodies and I certainly had a great time cooking and eating!

It’s been a while since I made a post but I’m back with a super tasty treat which is easy and quick to cook: chicken!

These chicken pieces taste great and you can vary the spices and herbs each time you cook them. I can say with some certainty that they’re better and more enjoyable to eat than any of that junk you get from fast food stores.

Ingredients

6 chicken drumsticks (with skin on)
around 80g of breadcrumbs (whizz some slices in a food processor)
1/2 teaspoon of chilli powder
1 teaspoon of dried oregano
1 teaspoon of dried thyme
ground salt and pepper
1 large egg, beaten
2 tablespoons of milk
2 tablespoons of plain flour
a few drops of vegetable oil

Method

Coat the chicken pieces in the flour by shaking them in a freezer bag or rolling them around.

Mix together the breadcrumbs with the herbs and chilli powder and season with salt and pepper. Place the mixture onto a plate.

Put the beaten egg into a bowl then stir in the milk and oil.

Take a flour-coated piece of chicken and dip it into the egg mixture first, followed by the breadcrumbs. Coat each piece of chicken in this way.

Bake in the oven for 25 minutes at 190 degrees (gas mark 5). Alternatively, you could fry the chicken gently in butter for around 20 minutes.

- Rub some vegetable oil into your fingers before chopping chilli peppers to avoid stinging or burning feelings (or just wear gloves!).

- To keep the chilli flavour but reduce the spicy heat, slice the chilli from top to bottom then scoop out and discard the white-ish membrane and the seeds.

- To rescue food which is too spicy, try adding natural yoghurt, mayonnaise or sugar to your dish.

- Don’t drink water to cool your mouth when you take a bite of something too spicy - try milky drinks instead.

-  As a general rule, smaller chillis are hotter than larger ones.

- You can keep dried chillis for around a year if kept in an air-tight box.

-  If you’re unsure how much chilli you should put in a recipe then add it in small amounts until you get the taste you want - remember it’s easier to add more than to take it away.

- Add finely chopped chilli to steamed vegetables for a spicy change.