The big chilli

The big chilli. Photo / Doug Sherring

This is all about help yourself. Set up a self-serve area with a big pan of chilli, a big bowl of plain rice, sour cream, grated cheese, chopped red or spring onions, corn chips, greens, lemon or lime wedges, bowls, forks, and paper napkins. Then score the best seat in the house while your guests make their own combos.

Makes enough for 20

1 In a large pot cook 6 finely chopped medium onions in ½ cup of olive oil.

2 Take the skin off 1 kilo of beef sausages ( I used Angus Pure), crumble this into the onions, add 3 kilos of beef mince and brown off the mixture. A potato masher can be useful here to break up the sausage meat.

3 Turn down the heat. Stir in 1 tbsp ground black pepper, 400g tomato paste, 3 tbsp minced garlic, 5 tbsp ground cumin, 6 tbsp med chilli powder, ¼ cup Dijon mustard, 2 tbsp salt, 3 tbsp dried basil and 3 tbsp dried oregano.

4 Add 4 cans of drained chopped tomatoes, 3 cans of drained kidney beans, the zest and juice of 2 lemons, ½ cup chopped parsley and ½ cup of red wine (optional). Stir well and cook uncovered for 30 minutes.

5 Taste to check seasoning. If you like, you can add chopped pitted black olives at the end. Keep warm until ready to serve but this can easily be made ahead of time and reheated.

Sweet Cheats

Allow at least 2 per person - these will disappear quickly.

1 Buy packets of pre-made, unfilled brandy snaps from the supermarket.

2 Whip up some cream, icing sugar and real vanilla essence.

3 Pipe the cream into the snaps or use a teaspoon to fill in each end. 4. Serve.