Jottage from Lancaster - Blue Monday and Pinto Bean Chilli

It's apparently blue Monday. The day that people are most depressed. And I am. It's only the nitpickers amongst you that would point out a) that it's Sunday and b) blue Monday is at the end of January not the beginning. However, I am blue and so it is with a heavy heart (but strong arms) that I picked up Hugh's weighty River Cottage Veg that Heather gave me for Christmas. But the prose and the lovely pictures soon made me forget (to some extent) my Blue-Monday/Sunday-ness and just reading his section on Comfort Food made me realise that if I picked myself up and did a bit of cooking then I might feel a whole lot better. 


The chosen pick-me-up recipe was Pinto Bean Chilli - which looked warming, comforting, just the thing. I had all the ingredients (well, I didn't have courgettes but that didn't seem important and I'm not that keen on them anyway) and so I have been cutting up veg, opening a couple of tins and mixing, gently frying, and pestling and mortaring myself into calmness. 


I hauled out the last couple of peppers from the fridge and used the second as a substitute for the missing courgettes. It's after Christmas and I couldn't divulge the sell-by date on the packet but let's just say they needed finishing. I am doing some buttery leeks and cabbage with it (River Cottage Everyday), which is one of my favourite recipes. 


Out of the oven it comes...

                                                  ...and after lunch the verdict.


This really is comfort food. I wanted to serve it up in nice rustic bowls but I didn't have anything like that, and maybe a nice chunk of home made bread to mop up the juices - but the cabbage/leek combo was lovely. I am very pleased that I only added about half a little red chili rather than 2-3 green chilies (to taste), as it is very hot. What is striking is that it seems to be a very versatile recipe. Hugh recommends serving it up with a lot of little accompaniments, and I think that would work really well. Or adding a poached egg would be really nice (Hugh says that a poached egg would go well with practically anything), but you could add chorizo or a bit of pork or even chicken and it would be lovely for meat eaters too. 


So the blues are now chased away and I still have enough in the pot to make at least another full meal for 2 of us. From now on I will make sure I have a tin of pinto beans in the cupboard if they strike on the last Monday of January!