I love chili, but surprisingly I only had it a few times in my life. I am not a chili aficionado or purist, I don't have a favourite recipe, I don't have any rules about only eating it the next day and/or cooking it in a certain way. It was my first time making chili and I loved it. It was savoury, spicy and, oh, so satisfying. At the beginning I felt like the cornbread topping was overpowering chili, but then after microwaving (yes, I do use microwave from time to time and I am not ashamed to admit it) one of the little pots, the cornbread got steamed a little bit and the combination of soft and a little bit bland cornbread soaked in flavourful chili was excellent. However, the topping can be omitted or even baked separately.

recipe adapted from Nigella Lawson Feast

For about 8-10 servings

Chili

• Onion - 2 medium
• Garlic - 3 cloves
• Olive oil - 1.5 tablespoons
• Red chili flakes - 1 tablespoon (more or less depending on how spicy you want the final product to be)
• Ground coriander - 1 teaspoon
• Cardamom pods, crushed - 3
• Red pepper - 1
• Ground beef - 700 g
• Chopped tomatoes - 1 can (540 ml)
• Ketchup - 4 tablespoons
• Tomato paste - 4 tablespoons
• Water - 125 ml
• Kidney beans - 1/2 can (200-250 ml)
• Refried Beans with Chipotle - 2 cans (455 ml each can)
• Cocoa powder - 1 tablespoon
• Salt, pepper to taste

Cornbread

• Salt - 3/4 teaspoons
• Cornmeal - 325 g
• All-purpose flour - 2 tablespoons
• Baking powder - 3 teaspoons
• Kefir or Buttermilk - 375 ml
• Eggs - 2 
• Maple syrup - 1 tablespoon
• Vegetable oil - 2tablespoons 
• Cheddar, grated - 75 g

For chili
- In a processor, finely mince the onion and garlic. Or mince it by hand.
- Heat the olive oil in a very large pan.
- Fry the onion and garlic until they begin to soften.
- Add the red chili flakes, ground coriander and crushed cardamom pods to the pan, stir.
- Deseed and finely dice the red pepper. Add to the pan.
- Break up the ground beef into the pan and brown it well. Keep turning it to separate while it browns.
- Add the chopped tomatoes, both types of bean, ketchup, tomato paste and water to the meat and onion mixture. Mix well.
- Bring the chili to boil, sprinkle the cocoa powder and stir.
- Reduce the heat and simmer it partially covered for  1.5 hours.
- Careful not to let the chili burn. The mixture has a lot of sugar from tomatoes and ketchup and it tends to burn a little.
- After 1.5 hours the chili can be cooled and frozen or kept in the fridge overnight.
- Preheat the oven to 220C (430F).
- If chili was chilled, then warm it on the stove.
- Pour the chili into a large ovenproof dish.
- Top the chili with cornbread and sprinkle with grated cheddar.
- Bake for 30 minutes or until the cornbread is risen and golden brown.
- Let cool for a few minutes, serve with sour cream, cilantro and avocado.

For cornbread
- Combine the salt, cornmeal, flour and baking powder in a bowl.
- In another large bowl, whisk together the buttermilk/kefir, eggs, maple syrup and vegetable oil.
- Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients and stir to combine to get a wet batter.

This is the Refried Beans that I used. I really liked them in the chili as they were mostly mashed but still some of the beans were whole. The texture worked really well for this recipe.

Cabbage Rolls are a very typical Russian dish, although there are a lot of variations of it in different countries like Poland, Ukraine, Bulgaria, etc. I don't remember having them at home when I was a child, but I had them at my friends' houses and restaurants. It's not an easy food to make. Well, it's not difficult, but really tedious. First, the cabbage leaves need to be separated, then they need to be boiled for a couple of minutes until they are soft and pliable, but not too mushy. That process takes time since the leaves can only be boiled a few at a time. A filling needs to be made out of ground meat and cooled par-boiled rice. Then the rolls are assembled and baked in creamy tomato sauce. You see, it's a long process which I never attempted, although I really love Cabbage Rolls. So, when I saw a recipe for "Lazy Cabbage Rolls", I was intrigued. It was indeed very lazy - cabbage is shredded and mixed with ground meat and uncooked rice, then the meatballs are formed and baked - easy. The result was great, I really loved the simplicity and the taste. I'll make these again and again for sure.

recipe from carina-forum

for about 4 servings (16 meatballs)

• Ground meat - 500 g
• Cabbage, finely shredded and cut into short pieces - 500 g
• Rice - 1/2 cup
• Onion, finelly chopped - 1 medium
• Eggs - 2
• Salt, pepper to taste

For the sauce

• Sour cream - 1/2 cup
• Tomato sauce or simple ketchup - 1/4 cup
• Salt, pepper

• sour cream for serving

- First step is optional: saute the onion in a little bit of oil until the onion is soft and caramelized; alternatively, for an even lazier version, raw onion can be used.
- Mix the ground meat, shredded cabbage, uncooked rice, onion and eggs together.
- Add salt and pepper to the meatball mixture.
- Form the meatballs with your hands and place them in a baking dish.
- Bake for about 35 minutes at 375F.
- Make the sauce by mixing the sour cream with the tomato sauce (or ketchup) and pour the sauce of the meatballs. Bake for another 20 minutes.
- Serve with sour cream.

Comments
- By mistake I put all the sauce in the beginning of the baking and it got absorbed into the meatballs, so I covered each meatball with a dollop of sour cream about 10 minutes before the end of the baking.
- I think you can use your favourite tomato sauce here instead of this version and you might want to use more of it.
- The cabbage in the meatballs makes them flavourful and juicy.

This dish seems complicated and difficult to prepare, but it's not. It's actually quite easy once you have all of the ingredients ready. It's creamy, hearty and comforting. It's one of the first recipes that I've ever tried and I keep going back to it time and time again.

recipe adapted from Fast Family Meals

for 4 portions

Beef strips - 500 g Plain flour - 2 tablespoons Butter - 25 g Olive oil - 1 tablespoon Onion, sliced - 1 large Garlic, crushed - 3 cloves Mushrooms sliced - 150 g Stock (beef or any other) - 3/4 cup Tomato paste - 1 tablespoon Sour cream - 1 cup (or more) Parsley, finely chopped - 2 tablespoons Salt, pepper

- Place he beef strips and flour in a plastic bag and toss to coat, shaking off any excess.
- Heat half the butter and half the oil in a large frying pan and cook the onion and garlic for 2 minutes or until golden.
- Add the mushrooms and cook for another 3 minutes, then remove from the pan.
- Heat the remaining butter and oil in the same frying plan, add the beef strips in batches and cook over medium-high heat for 3-4 minutes, or until browned.
- Return the onion mixture to the pan with any juices.
- Stir in the stock and tomato paste, bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for 2-3 minutes.
- Add the sour cream and half the chopped parsley.
- Season to taste with salt and pepper.
- Mix together well then serve with egg noodles or mashed potatoes.
- Garnish with remaining parsley.

I love my meat and especially I love minced meat. Is it something from my childhood when "grownup" meat just wasn't fun? I like meatloaf, but I don't like all the bits of vegetables in it. I just don't think it's right to mix them. Vegetables are vegetables and meat is meat and the two shouldn't mingle together. It's the texture I think... I understand them separately but mixed together? Why? So, when I saw this recipe I knew right away that I have to (no, must) make it since the vegetables and pureed and only then mixed into the meat. This is meal turned out absolutely wonderful with nice smokey BBQ sauce, moist fluffy meatloaf and tangy mashed potatoes.

adapted from Everyday Food magazine

• Carrots, chopped - 3
• Onion, chopped - 1 small
• Panco breadcrumbs - 1/4 cup + 1 tablespoon
• Eggwhite - 1
• Ground sirloin - 1 pound
• BBQ sauce - 1/4 cup
• Salt - 1 teaspoon
• pepper - 1/8 teaspoon

- Preheat the oven to 450F (230C).
- In a food processor blend the vegetables, eggwhite and breadcrumbs until the mixture is very smooth.
- In a big bowl combine the ground meat, salt, pepper and vegetable puree. Mix until it's all combined.
- Put the meat into a loaf pan.
- Brush with half of the BBQ sauce.
- Bake for about 25-35 minutes until the internal temperature of the meatloaf reaches 160F (71C).
- Brush the meatloaf with the rest of the sauce.

- For the mashed potatoes: boil the potatoed until tender, mash them, add plain yogurt to get them to the desired consistency, season to taste.