green chilli

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 chili as just being chili con carne, but this is
completely different and I absolutely love it. I think it’s cleaner, braver, and fresher than your average chili. You can make your own flatbreads (see page 139) or use tortillas, or you can even serve with chapatis or naans instead.

Put a large saucepan on a high heat and add a little olive oil. Add the ground pork, 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 chiles, 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 thinly slice your scallions.

When you’re ready to serve your chili, warm your tortillas in the oven at 350°F for a few minutes or in a dry pan for 30 seconds. 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 of your chopped mint.

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

serves: 4

ingredients

• olive oil
• 1ľ 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 garlic, peeled and thinly sliced
• 2 green bell peppers, seeded
and roughly chopped
• 6 small green chiles, 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 package flour tortillas
• optional: 1 lime
• sour cream or natural yogurt, to serve