#readcookeat recipe : Nachos (A Family Recipe)

I was very excited to read Veronica Henry's latest book, A Family Recipe (click through for my review), because with a title like that, I knew it would have at least a few potential candidates for a #readcookeat post. Well, it turns out that it provided most of my inspiration for this week's menu plan and the kids have been gobbling everything up ! The first thing that I spotted was sure to be a crowd-pleaser : nachos.

p21 Willow had asked for nachos for her farewell supper.

Laura was pathologically incapable of doing what most normal people would have done : plonked a saucepan of chilli on the table with a packet of tortilla chips and got everyone to help themselves.

Instead, by five o' clock the evening before Willow was due to go to university for the first time, a huge cauldron on the hot-pink Aga belted out a cloud of steam scented with cumin and cinnamon and chilli. On the worktop were bowls filled with grated cheese, soured cream, guacamole, jalapeños, spicy beans, finely chopped coriander and chargrilled sweetcorn salsa. Wedges of lime were waiting to be stuffed into bottles of beer - 'cerveza', Laura teased herself with a Spanish lisp.

Well, I'll be the first to admit that I'm much less of a domestic goddess than Laura, so I went for a compromise between her gourmet version and the "most normal people" option. I made chilli and guacamole from scratch but pared back the accompaniments and threw a couple of bags of tortilla chips on the table for everyone to dig into.

As I've mentioned before, since Madhouse Daddy died earlier in the year and we've been reduced to shopping without a car in the local shops, I've been pleasantly surprised by the choice (and the prices) at Lidl. They did let me down this week though, as they apparently don't sell red kidney beans, and you can't make a decent chilli without beans. I added carrots and sweetcorn instead and it was surprisingly tasty - I would have preferred some beans in there though.

Nachos

ingredients :

for the chilli :

1 onion

1/2 a yellow pepper

2 carrots

450g minced beef

tin of sweetcorn

sachet of tacos seasoning

2tbsp water

squeeze of tomato puree

for the guacamole :

2 ripe avocados

generous squeeze of mayonnaise

squirt of lemon juice

pinch of salt

1/2tsp chilli powder

1/2tsp garlic powder

accompaniments :

tortilla chips

diced cherry tomatoes

grated cheese

sour cream

mini Boursin

Gently fry the onions, peppers and carrots in a drizzle of olive oil until soft.

Add the mince and cook, chopping with a wooden spoon to break it up, until it is completely brown.

Add the sweetcorn (plus red kidney beans, if you are lucky enough to have them) and the taco seasoning. (You could also just use cumin, paprika and chilli powder, if you prefer but I had a seasoning sachet in the cupboard.) Add the water and tomato puree, stir and leave to simmer while you get on with the rest.

Scoop the flesh of two ripe avocados into a bowl and blitz with a hand blender. Stir through mayonnaise, salt, garlic pepper, chilli and lemon juice. Taste and adjust the seasoning.

  

Lay everything on the table and let everyone serve themselves for a fun, midweek, family feast. 

Alternatively, scatter some tortilla chips on a plate, scoop some chilli on top and add some tomatoes, cheese and, if you like, cream on top, as well as a dollop of guacamole on the side.

 The kids thought it was great fun having a meal based on crisps and have asked for this to be added to our regular Sunday evening meal slot.

Adding to the #readcookeat linky over at Chez Maximka.

Also adding to #KitchenClearout as it used up some cherry tomatoes and avocadoes that were getting over-ripe in the fridge.