I've been looking at the suggestions for party food and most mention a big bowl of chilli with crusty bed. Anyone got any good recipes?

Jamie Oliver makes a nice one, he uses chunks of braing steak, rather than beef thats already minced,sorry can't give you the exact recipe as its a copyrite rule, you could look it up in the library though,
When i make it i add a teaspoon of cinnamon at the frying the onions stage, a bit different but tastes nice, then you can play guess the secret ingreadiant!

You will find Jamie's chilli recipe at the undernoted BBC site.

[link]

If you want it special how about

The Greatest Chilli con Carne
by Paul Bloxham

on this site.

Oh like the sound of a crusty bed girl racer.

Hmmm, pseudo name, not sure I would like to be in a crusty bed, but it does say a lot about you LOL :D

Well in my youth eating in bed certainly helped make it crusty,Rustie.

LOL

Hi girl racer, don't have a recipe for crusty bed, but my 15 year old cousin might have some knowledge of the subject.
But chili is a recipe that I struggled with for years, never knowing why my chili never tasted like the chili in the American restaurants, but finally sussed it and it's so simple to do, here you go:

Pack of fresh mince
large onion (chopped)
2 cloves of garlic (minced down)
tin of tomatoes
250 ml of beef stock
3 tsp of cumin seeds
3 tsp of white pepper
chili’s (you decide how hot)
salt to taste
corn flour to thicken

Optional ingredients:
Kidney beans
Coriander

Fry the onion in a little oil, once translucent add the meat and brown.
Then add garlic and cumin seeds and white pepper, chilli and lightly fry, add tomatoes and beef stock (and if desired kidney beans) and simmer till reduces (avg 30 to 45 mins) but tends to go softer the longer you leave it, thicken with corn flour
Salt to taste and coriander (optional)

Just multiply the ingredients to make larger amounts

forgot to mention crush the cumin seeds in a pestle and mortar before you add it, and it is around 500 to 750 grams of mince beef.

Hi Girl Racer...If you get The Mail on Sunday today there is a section in the magazine about "Retro" dishes. There is a decent Chilli recipe along with others given a modern touch. Quite a good article from Alistair Hendry, and a reference to the book.
Worth a look anyway

Hi there. I am making my chilli recipe at the moment!

I have a quick method for great chilli. Dead easy, and mostly using jars, so not at all complicated!

You need:

500g of lean steak mince
1 jar Uncle Ben's Medium Chilli
1 tin of Discovery Refried Beans
1 tin of red kidney beans
about half a dozen dried bird-eye chillis
HP sauce
500g brown rice (dried)

This is what you do:

Brown the mince in a wok or other deep frying pan and drain. Add the red kidney beans, the refried beans and the chilli sauce to the pan. Fill up the jar with boiling water to the top of the label. Replace the lid and shake, then add the chilli-water to the mix. Set the heat to medium, then fill up a big pan with boiling water and add your rice to this pan.

Cook the rice for about 20 - 30 mins, stiring both the rice and the chilli regularly.

Crush the bird-eye chillis with a mortar & pestle. Add to taste. For mild, dont use them. For medium, add half, and for hot add them all. I always cook them like this as I like medium, the wife likes mild, and her father (who is always present when I cook chilli) likes it hot.

Then serve, and add brown sauce (trust me!!) to taste.