Spicy chorizo and tomato scrambled eggs

There are so many things that don't quite work out in life, and this is okay. There are lessons to be learnt, compromises to be made, battles to be lost as well won, things given up on completely and things deemed worthy of being worked on gradually. Yet yet... when there is a success, no matter how minor, I am of the opinion that it should be celebrated. I am my father's daughter in this way - any excuse to open a bottle of champagne. While for my dad this is literally the case, for me, the champagne is more of a metaphor. It's a part of the reason why I write this blog, in celebration of the little things. Today I am celebrating this spicy chorizo and tomato scrambled eggs that was made in celebration of my brother's birthday

You need to pour boiling water over the tomatoes first, then peel and chop them. Melt some butter on a frying pan and add small cubes of chorizo sausage and some red chilli slices. Once the butter has turned red in colour, add the tomatoes and continue to fry until the tomatoes have almost disintegrated. Meanwhile beat the eggs and season with salt, pepper and a dash of paprika. Add them to the pan and continue to stir gently as they cook. We ate these with toasted crusty bread and sauteed spinach, slices of avocado and Bloody Marys (with the obligatory celery stick) on the side

La Bodega Negra, Soho, London

Life changes suddenly. Just a month ago I was waking up some time before midday, working at a lazy pace for a couple of hours on whatever I felt like working on and mostly had no idea which day of the week it was. Now I wake up at 7, commute to Paddington and have no time to do my laundry. I'm tired and a little stressed, yet I'm enjoying the change of pace. Many people are frightened of change, but for some reason I enjoy it. Even when it's crazy, scary, destabilising change, there is still a part of me that thrives on it. So now that I'm working flat out I'm predictably going out much more, consuming more.  I can even go to places like La Bodega Negra on a Monday night if I feel like it...

With a cancellation policy of £25 per head if we fail to cancel by 5pm, this is not somewhere I'd go when strapped for cash. I thought this was a bit harsh and off-putting until my friend pointed out that since it looks like a sex shop from the outside, people aren't just going to drop in. Nevertheless, for somewhere so well hidden and so early in the week, it was heaving. This also explained the slightly unattentive service and lack of the tap water I asked for. The sexy waitress explained later that they weren't expecting so many people and were short-staffed, so I'll give them a break.

The food was absolutely delicious. We had a few different tacos, corn salad, beans, guacamole and quesadilla. I have two favourites: soft shell crab tacos and and the massive, crunchy corn salad. I can't fault my spiced pear margarita either. The atmosphere was great - buzzing yet romantic, full of life, glamorous. Kind of what I like to imagine Mexico itself feels like. We all paid under £40 per head with drinks, which is less than I was expecting after the scary cancellation policy.

Chocolate Chlli Con Carne

I've had some kind of awful throat infection the past week, so I haven't been able to get much food down me, yet I've been craving Chilli Con Carne - melt-in-the-mouth beef and vegetables filling me with warm, spicy goodness. The Chilli that I make is always vegetable-rich and always cooked for as long as possible - usually between 2 and 3 hours. P loved it, and I asked him about Chilli Con Carne in Mexico, where he has spent a lot of time. He told me that they often add chocolate, an idea that I fell in love with immediately. So the next day I added some Green&Blacks dark chocolate to the Chilli that I'd made and it really has elevated it to a whole new level for me

I love chilli, and each time I cook it I feel like it tastes just that little bit better than the last time. This is because I have picked up many little "chilli secrets" along the way, and found some things out through the repetitive cooking of this dish over the years. Adding plenty of vegetables is one of these little secrets - they really do add so much flavour - yet they must be chopped as finely as possible for maximum effect. For some reason, this makes a big difference. So once chopped, fry the onion with the grated carrot and celery in plenty of olive oil for about 5 minutes, add the beef and chopped chillies and fry while stirring and breaking up the mince for another 5 min. Add the paprika and ginger, add the wine, keep stirring. Add the chopped tomatoes, crushed garlic, plop the whole chilli in the pan, some salt and pepper and bring to the boil, then turn the heat down and simmer for about 2 hours, stirring occasionally. Add more wine if at any point it seems a bit dry in there - we want enough extra liquid for there to be bubbles. After two hours, taste it and season to your taste, add more paprika if required. Add the chocolate, kidney beans and most of the chopped coriander, reserve some for garnish. Allow the chilli to simmer for another 20min or so like this, then serve on top of rice, with fresh coriander on top and, if you fancy, some sour cream on the side. It's easy to make a good chilli, but to make a really excellent one, you really must put a bit of love and care into it, don't just cook it automatically, but strive to improve and perfect it. Perhaps sometime in the future I will learn a few more secrets and make a better chilli than this, but at the moment, this is the pinnacle 

Ingredients

500g organic minced beef

3 red chillies, 2 chopped finely, 1 whole

2 garlic cloves, chopped and pressed with the back of a knife

2 carrots, grated

1 onion, chopped finely

2 celery sticks, chopped

1 tin of chopped tomatoes

2 glasses of red wine

1 tin of red kidney beans (the ones in chilli sauce work especially well)

Olive oil

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon paprika

1 teaspoon ground ginger

50g good quality dark chocolate

Large handful fresh, chopped coriander

Yucatecan Chicken Soup to make you feel better

All around the world, when ill, people eat chicken soup. One of the best is a really simple Polish/Jewish- style one called rosol. My mum and gran used to make it all the time when I was little. Once I was so ill that it was the only thing I was allowed to eat for three days. Since then, rosol has been a no-go for me. However, I have been feeling unwell for a day and a bit now, which has left me both starving and feeling a bit frightened of food, so chicken soup it is. I dug out a recipe that I found in the metro about two years ago - yes, I keep all the good ones - for a Yucatecan one (that's sort of Mexican, if you have no idea what I'm talking about). It's a bit like rosol, but tangy and spicy - my kind of thing. I went and bought myself a nice, free range chicken thigh from Ginger Pig (of course) , and then nearly burned the house down. I decided to make the stock while running a few errands, but I forgot to cover the chicken with water. As I said, I've been really out of it. Luckily, when I came back about an hour later, the chicken skin was brown on one side and the flat smelled really strongly of roast chicken but was all in one piece

As you can see, I was so hungry that I imagined myself capable of eating a whole salad-bowl of soup. In fact, my stomach has shrunk and I was full after just a few mouthfuls, but that's not a reflection on its deliciousness. I will now happily eat it for the next three days

Ingredients

1 chicken thigh

1 medium onion

2 carrots

1 celery stick

1 orange

3 limes

1 red chilli

1 garlic clove

Fresh coriander

All purpose seasoning/Allspice

Salt and pepper

Olive oil

So, what I was supposed to do was to boil the chicken thigh, along with a carrot, a celery stick, half an onion and a bit of the coriander for about half an hour. On the side, you make a sofrito - chop and fry the following: the other half of the onion, the other carrot, a garlic clove, the chilli and the tomatoes with a teaspoon of allspice or all purpose seasoning. Then, take all the stuff out of the stock and mix the two (you may want to a ladle-full of stock to the sofrito first, to catch all the flavours). Simmer for another 20 minutes, and while that's happening, take the skin off the chicken, and flake all the meat off, adding it back into the soup. Squeeze the orange and limes in, add the coriander, season and serve

Strangely, I've found that being ill can give you clarity. Having some time just lying on your bed with nothing to do but reflect on yourself and your life is clearly good thing

Mexican bbq for Halloween

For Halloween, a small group of us left London for the village of Syston (though I called it Cistern for most of the time I was there) in the East Midlands...this is where our mate, Ed, is living before he makes the permanent move to Australia, like so many people seem to be at the moment

Ed is one of those spectacular transformations - he's gone from vegging on the couch throughout most of his twenties, to married "uncle Ed" who made us pancakes for breakfast, and prepared a Mexican bbq for dinner. It was delicious, so I thought I'd share his secrets with you

He marinated the meat for 24 hours. This is the marinade as per 1kg of meat:

4 limes

half a bunch of coriander

4 tsp olive oil

2 tsp white wine vinegar

splash of balsamic

1 tsp cayenne pepper

tiny bit of salt

The chicken was pre-cooked in the microwave for 15min, then we barbequed it on 5min each side. The beef was not pre-cooked (obviously) and after the same amount of time it was perfect, medium rare

This is the black bean salsa we made. You want to let this stand for a few hours before eating...

Ingredients:

390g black beans

Same amount of sweetcorn (approximately)

Same amount of tomatoes

2 bunches spring onions

2 tbsp coriander

Juice of 1 lime

2 chopped chillies (or add according to taste)

salt and pepper

We also made a simple guacamole with avocados, lime juice and chopped tomatoes

We ate the whole thing with sour cream, wrapped up in tortillas, and washed down with Mexican beer, preceded by margaritas, and followed by tequila shots (of course). The weekend was fantastic - we went for walks, played massive jenga and watched films. Toy Story 3 was the most traumatic experience of the whole trip. I can't believe that's actually a kids' film - I was in pieces