You might have noticed that there has been a break of several months between this post and the last, this is due in no small part to the fact that we have started fostering and now have a total of 11 (yes eleven) children. Stictly speaking this site should now be called cooking413, but what the hell.

Since I last posted I have often taken pictures of meals I have cooked with the intention of posting at a later date, but you look back at the photos and tend to think "What was that?". Also having a backlog you intend to get around to someday means that you put off any new posts until you are up to date (like that's ever gonna happen).

So here's what we had tonight. I only cooked for 10 as th'spouse and I had eaten out at lunchtime (so had number one but that was never going to stop him having another meal). Not really home cooking as the main ingredient was minted lamb kebabs from one of those butchers that has a shop front bulging with marinated meat packs. To accompany it we had a rice dish as follows.

Fry a chopped onion, a tablespoon of Garam Massala, some garlic, a little curry powder a teaspoon of sugar and a crushed Cardomon pod in a good couple of tablespoons of one of those I can't believe it's not butter type spreads (these make an excellent substitue for Vegetable Ghee, as long as you're not feeding any vegans). Then add two mug fulls of basmati rice and fry for a short while before adding a couple of tablespoons of yoghurt and and four mugs full of water along with a pinch of salt and a vegetable stock cube. Bring to the boil then reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes, then add a couple of mugs full of peas and simmer for a further 4 minutes.

I served the lot with raita made with the rest of the yoghurt and a bag of reduced salad with some chopped onions in mint sauce.

Over the last couple of months we have had between one and three of the kids vegetarian at any one time so tonights veggy option was a type of veggy shami kebab made by using sos mix with yoghurt instead of water and a teaspoon of tandoori spice mix, this was rolled in sausages and fried while the lamb kebabs were cooking under the grill.

One piece of kitchen equipment I've bought since the foster kids arrived was the
Kenwood Smoothie Maker, yes I know it's just a blender with a tap on the bottom, but that does mean you can make and modify drinks with a lot less mess. My favourite recipe is a handfull of frozen strawberries, (but them when the're cheap) a banana, a tub of youhurt and plenty of healthy sugar (remamber to brush your teeth afterwards kids). I can just imagine what fun it would be with a bottle of Mailbu.