green chili

method

This green chili is so delicious, simple to make and a total pleasure to eat. In England, we’re sort of brainwashed into thinking of chile as just being chile con carne, but this is completely different and I absolutely love it. I think it’s cleaner, braver and fresher than your average chile. You can make your own flatbreads or use tortillas, or you can even serve with chapattis or naans instead.

Put a large pan on a high heat and add a little olive oil. Add the pork mince, dried sage and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Use a wooden spoon to break the meat up a bit and stir it about, then cook for a few minutes, stirring occasionally. Add your onions, garlic, bell peppers and chilies, stir everything together, then fry for 15 minutes on a high heat until any liquid from the pork has evaporated and everything is starting to turn golden. When it looks good, stir in your chopped tomatoes and half a glass of water. Remember that it’s supposed to be quite dry (in a really wholesome and nice way), not stewy and wet, so don’t add too much water.

Turn the heat down to medium and let it tick away for 10 minutes or so while you wash and roughly chop up the lettuce. Pick the leaves from the bunch of mint and roughly chop them. Trim and finely slice your scallions.

When you’re ready to serve your chili, warm your tortillas for a few minutes in the oven or on the grill. Taste your dense chili. More than likely it will need another good pinch of salt and pepper. If you want to give it a nice fresh edge, you can squeeze in the juice of a lime. Stir in half your chopped mint.

Push a warm tortilla or flatbread into each of your little bowls and spoon some delicious green chile on top of each one. Top with your chopped lettuce and a dollop of yoghurt. Sprinkle over the rest of your mint and scallions and serve right away with some cold beers.

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serves: 4

ingredients

• Olive oil
• 1 3/4 lbs ground pork, the best quality you can afford
• 1 teaspoon dried sage
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 onions, peeled and roughly chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, peeled and finely sliced
• 2 green bell peppers, deseeded and roughly chopped
• 6 small green chilies, roughly chopped
• 4 large ripe red tomatoes, chopped into small chunks
• 1 romaine lettuce, leaves washed and spun dry
• A small bunch of fresh mint
• 4 scallions
• 1 packed of flour tortillas
• Optional: 1 lime
• Soured cream or natural yoghurt, to serve