Prepare your vegetables. Chop your onion into small dice, about 5mm square. Cut your pepper in half lengthways, remove stalk and wash the seeds away, then chop.

Start cooking. Put your pan on the hob over a medium heat. Add the oil and leave it for 1-2 minutes until hot (little longer for electric hob).Add the onions and cook, stirring fairly frequently for about 5 minutes, or until the onions are soft, squidgy and slightly translucent. Tip in the garlic,red pepper, chilli, paprika and cumin. Give it a good stir, then leave it to cook for another 5minutes, stirring occasionally.

Brown the mince. Turn the heat up a little, add the meat to the pan and break it up with your spoon or spatula. The mix should sizzle a bit when you add the mince. Keep stirring and prodding for at least 5minutes, until all the mince is in uniform, mince sized lumps and there are no more pink bits. Make sure you keep the heat hot enough for the meat to fry and become brown, rather than just stew.

Making the sauce. Crumble your stock cube into 300ml/1/2 pint of hot water. Pour this into the pan with the mince mixture. Add the can of chopped tomatoes . Tip in the marjoram and the sugar, add a good shake of salt and pepper. Suit in about 2tbsp of tomato puree and stir the sauce well.

Simmer it gently. Bring the whole thing to the boil, give it a good stir and put the lid on the pan. Turn down the heat, until it is gently bubbling and leave it for 20 minutes. (checking occasionally) to stir it and make sure the sauce doesn't catch on the bottom of the pan or it isn't drying out. If it is, add a couple of tablespoons of water and make sure the heat is low enough. After simmering gently, the saucy mince mixture should look thick, moist and juicy.

Bring on the beans. Drain and rinse the beans in a sieve and stir them into the chilli pot. Bring to the boil again, and gently bubble without the lid for 10 minutes, adding a little more water if it looks dry. Taste a bit of the chilli and season. It will probably take a lot more seasoning than you think. Now replace the lid, turn off the heat and leave your chilli to stand for 10 minutes before serving and relax. Leaving the chilli to stand is really important as it allows the flavours to mingle.

XXXXXXXX

Mexican twist: Rather than add the sugar, you can stir in a small piece of plain dark chocolate will do (about the size of your thumbnail). Be careful not to ad too much - you do not want to be able to identify the flavour of the chocolate..