• Brown Mince - preheat the pan over medium heat. Increase the heat to max, add the oil and brown the mince, breaking up lumps with a flat-ended wooden spatula. The meat doesn’t have to be fully browned.
  Tablespoon olive oil

  1 kg beef mince
• Chilli, Coriander & Cumin - sprinkle over and stir through until fragrant, a couple of minutes.
  teaspoon dried chilli flakes

  teaspoon ground coriander

  teaspoon ground cumin
• Tomato Paste – add to the pan and stir through the mince for a few minutes until well mixed in and dried out slightly.
  60 g tomato paste
• Liquid - in a deep bowl, crush up the canned tomatoes with your hands – slowly and one at a time. Add this to the pot, along with 400ml water; you can use some to ‘rinse’ out the cans of tomatoes to get every drop of tomato juice out. Add the salt, tomato ketchup and Tabasco. Stir to combine.
  800 g canned whole tomatoes

  400 ml water

  60 g tomato sauce/ketchup

  2 teaspoons salt

  2 teaspoons Tabasco
• Cocoa – sift over and stir through.
  Tablespoon cocoa powder
• Cardamon – split open the cardamon pods by crushing under the flat edge of a large knife blade. You can also bash with a rolling pin or pestle. Put the pods with any seeds that may have escaped into a spice bag (note). Press this into the centre of the chilli.
  2 cardamom pods
• Simmer - (without a lid) for about an hour, stirring occasionally. This time is needed to thicken the sauce, tenderise the meat and develop flavour.
• Lentils – tip the canned lentils into a sieve under running water. Rinse them well and drain. Add these to the chilli and stir through well.
  425 g canned lentils (no added salt)
• Capsicum –chop into small cubes. Stir and and simmer gently (covered) until the capsicum is softened, about 15 minutes.
  1 -2 green bell pepper/capsicum

To Serve:

• (optional) top servings with -
  Soured cream

  chopped coriander leaves

  extra Tabasco