As regular readers know, I am a massive Diana Dors fan and have written lots about the recipes in the Diana Dors X-Cel Diet book.
I am so lucky to work in a film archive and have the TV-am collection at my fingertips – well, I did before lockdown! Diana regularly appeared on the show in a “Diet With Diana” spot in the 1980s. She and her “Dors Dozen” weighed in on a regular basis and Diana shared diet recipes with the nation. Here she is demonstrating how she likes to make chilli. This is a priceless piece of footage for me and I just love sticking my nosey beak into Diana’s very own kitchen.
The recipe is in the X-cel cookbook too and I finally got around to making it.
It’s been fun trying to get hold of a green pepper during the pandemic…
When I told Mr Rathbone they were impossible to get he said, “I have a source” like he was Flash Harry from St Trinian’s…
But I decided to chance my luck and stuck a bag of mixed peppers on my grocery order. I scored a green pepper, hurrah! But it was TINY! Haha!
Although I do love me a recipe that serves one, it seemed a bit daft to make one serving of chilli, so I multiplied everything except the tomato juice by 6. I thought 450ml would be too much so I just used 200ml. Here’s the recipe for one portion in the X-cel Diet book.
I used a yellow pepper as well as my miniature green one and the chilli was mighty fine.
I will admit to a couple of additions though. I probably didn’t add enough chilli powder so it did need a little something. I popped in my default “this could do with something extra” standby – some Worcestershire sauce. Plus, as I am taking GREAT JOY in using up bits and bobs of sauces during lockdown, the last of my Heinz 57 Sauce, bought (at great expense) via the interweb for my Robert Quarry Cajun Meatloaf went in too. Why can’t we get this in the UK? It’s delicious!
I am beginning to see the wood for the trees in the condiment cupboard!
It was, as Diana said it would be “a super delicious chilli con carne!”
As I have written quite a lot about Diana and her recipes (with due credit to Carol Bowen Ball who really should get the kudos as she created them) I thought I would collate some links in one HUGE post. So here we go.
Here’s a link to a post that contains a fabulous story that one of the Dors’ Dozen sent in to me about appearing on TV-am with Diana. It involves a cameraman climbing through a window.
Here’s a link to whole piece I wrote for the lovely Eat, Drink, Films website about the Diana Dors diet
and there follows links to all the Diana dishes I have cooked.
Diana Dors’ Cheese and Sweetcorn Pasta
Diana Dors’ Artichoke Bean Bowl
Diana Dors’ Flageolet Beans With Tuna
Diana Dors’ Easy Fruit Cake (bad photo, good cake!)
I really can’t post the picture of the Diana Dors’ Cheese Moussaka I made way back in 2011, it’s shocking! The Diana Dors Bhuma Ghosht was made in the days where I didn’t even take photos of dishes I made to pop in the blog posts. I didn’t put the recipes in either, having no idea what food blogs would become. So I pledge to go back to the Fruit Cake, Moussaka and Bhuma Ghosht posts and make sure they all have the relevant recipes at some point in the near future.
Phew. That was a loooooooonnnnnng post, but I hope that any Diana Dors fan landing here will find something they fancy cooking. Can’t be bothered to cook? Well, you could always have a box of Black Magic (Diana’s requested luxury on Desert Island Discs) or some popcorn!
Diana made Chili .. This I did not know . Only just finished Vincent’s yesterday and as you know I eat it without rice ! I vaguely remember Diana’s cooking slots as I vaguely remember go to TV-AM for interviews for various writing gigs for comic inserts which I never got – thank god. the place was toxic.
Will investigate and let you know !
Hooray for Mr R .. The capsicum exporter !
‘Hasty, but tasty’ basic chili in a hurry . This is more like a chili I would have cooked 10/15 years ago myself before graduating to Chasen’s/Vincent P, J. Cash, J. Garner, etc, etc, but maybe with some coriander, garlic and or cumin . This is almost a Chili-lite, it has a fresh tomatoey zing to it as it’s not being simmered for any length of time in a shopping list of other herbs and spices . Not one for the chili cognoscenti but a great quick supper version. I would have supped this with DD any day.
Ahhh, yes! I love your verdict that this is a Chili-lite and I agree, it’s a good quick basic chilli. Thanks for sending me photos, your chilli looked sooooooo good. I am like Pavlov’s dog whenever chilli is mentioned – I want some IMMEDIATELY so I might have to look at the spreadsheet to see which movie star chilli recipe I’ll try next…