Welcome to Newsletter #14.

This week it's all food related. If you were hoping for a review of a cutting edge sci-fi movie or the lowdown on the expected budget cuts and tax rises, I'm so sorry.

A few of you have been recommending things for me to watch and I love that. They're all being added to the list (there's an actual list too, don't worry).

Food

Chili con Carne

This is one of those dishes my mum used to make at least once a fortnight although I never once thought to ask how. As a child (and young adult if I'm being honest) I would pick out the kidney beans; at the end of the meal my plate had what looked like a pile of elongated purple Skittles. However I've learned to love them and a couple of years ago decided it was time to demystify and learn to cook this meal.

It's very easy, making use of store cupboard staples and the spices do all the work for you: as soon as you add them it immediately smells like chili and you know you're on the right path. I like to make a big batch, freeze half and eat the remaining portions over a few nights.

I pretty much follow this BBC good food recipe. My one recommendation would be to let the sauce reduce for a little longer than the 10 minutes it recommends. I find the sauce hasn't quite thickened up enough by the time I want to eat. I like to serve over rice, weirdly adding some cold tinned sweetcorn and grated cheddar cheese.

I've also done a vegan version a few times, using my good friend Quorn mince. It's not quite the same, but 90% of the way there and once you add cheese, or dip some tortilla chips in it with sour cream, guac etc, you won't be able to tell the difference.

Brownies

The baking in this house is done by my partner and her squidgy chocolate raspberry brownies are always good. A newly gifted stand mixer was a good enough reason for her to make them this week and they're so good I thought I'd share the recipe.

You will need:

• 200g dark cooking chocolate

• 100g milk cooking chocolate

• 250g salted butter

• 400g soft light brown sugar

• 4 large eggs

• 140g plain flour

• 50g cocoa powder

• 200g raspberries

• 1/2 tsp salt (optional)

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 160°C (fan). Line a 20x30cm baking tray with baking paper.

2. Put the chocolate, butter and sugar in a pan and gently melt, stirring occasionally. Remove from the heat.

3. Stir the eggs, one by one, into the melted chocolate mixture.

4. Add flour and cocoa and stir in (and the sale if you want)

5. Add half the raspberries and stir in.

6. Put the mixture in the tray, sprinkle over raspberries and bake for 30 minutes.

7. Cool before slicing (if you can wait)

Enjoy!

Film

I wouldn't have dreamed of watching The Great British Bake Off back when the first episodes aired in 2010. I'd never baked, had far better things to spend my time doing and let's face it, it wouldn't have been good for my street cred. Fast forward 12 years and not much has changed: I've still never baked, my list of things to watch has grown exponentially and my street cred is at an all-time high. Except now I'm an avid watcher of GBBO, have joined a work group chat to discuss the episodes each week and compete in three separate Fantasy Bake Off mini leagues.

Now in its 13th season, this week saw the semi final and the final will be aired this coming Tuesday 15th November. It's been a controversial series with some odd themes including Bread week (featuring pizzas and smörgåstårta Swedish sandwich-cakes), Mexican week (featuring tacos), Halloween week (aired mid-October??) and Custard week. Not a lot of traditional baking and a lot more cooking than you might expect. Perhaps not representative of the entire nation, it has at the very least seemed to anger colleagues in the group chat as the weeks have ticked along.

I won't name who's made it to the final in case anyone is still catching up and wants to avoid spoilers. I refuse to be the guy who ruins Bake Off for you. Good luck to all the finalists and depending on how many straws I'm grasping at next week, may include a review of the final too!

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If you have any feedback, please get in touch and I hope to see you again for next week’s newsletter.

Thanks for reading and have a great week.

Adam