Meal Eleven - Chilli Beef Shepherd's Pie with Chunky Cajun Wedges

I don't know about you, but I'm getting mightily peeved with this weather.

Yet more snow this morning. Okay, not the flourish that we had the other week, but I could really do with some sunshine in my life around about now.

Feeling cold, and miserable, especially with our boiler (and now gas fire) playing up, I wanted a dish that was going to warm up my weary bones. Hence, the reason why I went for nature's radiator - chilli.

The parsnip mash on top really does make a change from the usual pastry or potato topping.

Sweeter to the taste, the flavours within the chilli itself utterly compliment one another, though next time, I wouldn't mind adding a sprinkling of mature cheese.

The chilli was easy and less fussy than my usual attempts. Occasionally I like to add a touch of dark chocolate to give a velvet like texture, but I thought that if I stuck to the recipe, I could be sitting down and eating it, unusually before 7pm.

The cajun style wedges are a family favourite and go with a lot of meals I cook. The trick is to cut them extra chunky so they don't soak up to much of the olive oil.

Ingredients:

Shepherd's Pie

500g lean steak mince

400g chopped tomatoes

1 onion, finely chopped

2 garlic cloves, finely chopped

410g red kidney beans

1tsp hot chilli powder

1/2 tsp smoked paprika

4 dashes tabasco sauce

1tbsp Worcestershire sauce

1/2 can water

1kg parsnips, peeled and chopped, then mashed

2tsps cumin seeds

Wedges

4-5 large maris piper potatoes, cut into thick wedges

1tsp smoked paprika

1tsp garlic salt

cracked black pepper

olive oil