Best Ever Vegetarian Chilli

Provided you've got some dried ancho and chipotle chillis in your store cupboad (you can order them from the cool chile co) you should ignore the three bean chilli I made on the night of England's defeat against Croatia. This, with melting aubergines, black beans and smoky chipotles and ancho paste has a depth of flavour that makes it far superior. I was going to top it with sliced aubergines and bake it in the oven but it was late and I couldn't be bothered.

Black Bean and Aubergine chilli (serves 3-4)

1 large aubergine
2 tbsp sunflower oil
5 ancho chillies
3 chipotle chillies
2 tsp paprika
2 tsp ground cumin seeds
2 red onions
2 garlic cloves
1 can of chopped tomatoes
1 can of black beans
15g ((or three squares) dark chocolate, grated
salt and pepper

1) Put the chillies in a bowl and cover with boiling water. Leave to soak for half an hour. Remove the chillis and keep the soaking liquid. Then leave to cool, remove the stalks and put them in a blender with the cumin seeds, paprika and enough of the sokaing water to loosen and form a paste.
2) Meanwhile cut the aubergines into cubes, put them in a collander, sprionkle with salt and leave for 20 minutes. Fry in the oil until soft. This should take around four to five minutes. Remove the aubergines from the pan and set aside.
3) Fry the onions in the same pan you cooked the aubergines in. Cook for 15 minutes until soft and light brown. Now add the garlic to the middle of the pan, cooking until the raw aroma has gone (about two minutes).
4) Now add the chilli paste to the pan and cook for a few minutes before adding the beans, tomatoes and aubergines. Add a little more of that soaking water to loosen the sauce again and simmer for 15 minutes. At the end, grate the chocolate into the chilli and stir around. Serve with plain boiled rice.

This vegetarian chilli is probably the finest I've ever made but I'd still like to try it slow cooked in the oven with stewing beef and dried black beans. Chilli really isn't a good sporting omen for me though. I made this one the night of another English defeat. This time it was Ricky Hatton against Floyd Mayweather. At least his defeat wasn't embarrassing. Unlike the England football team's.