Here I am again, no Telecom or sleepiness getting in my way….in fact, for those of your interested, I actually managed to get 7 hours sleep last night without my 2, 4 or 9 year old disturbing me! Historic moment!

So what was on the menu today? I think lamb chops actually, but given that Dal Makhani was next on the list, that’s what we had (oh, and I hadn’t got the lamb out of the freezer!). Adrian and I particularly love Indian food, and have it at any opportunity, so it’s always been a goal to produce really good homemade Indian. There is an Indian restaurant (or two) in Dannevirke, but that is 35 minutes away! So, home made it is. Dal Makhani, or Dal Maharani (not sure if they are actually the same thing, but recipes I’ve seen appear to be fairly similar) is a particular favourite at restaurants, but I’ve never been able to make it nearly as good at home until I discovered a packet of masala exactly for this dish. Those who know me well will be shocked and stunned that I bought a mixed up thing, because I am seriously into cooking from scratch. But seriously, this makes a REALLY good curry, and that’s what I’m after!

The recipe I use then is that which is on the back of the masala packet and goes something like this:

Soak 110g whole black lentils (urid dal) and 30g red kidney beans overnight. I forgot this bit, so moved onto the cooking of the pulses. Cook them in 1.5L of water until they’re soft, adding more water as necessary (they obviously take a lot less time to cook if you have remembered to soak them). Meanwhile, cook up 120g tomato puree with 1 tbsp of the masala, and cook for about 10 minutes. When the pulses are cooked, add the tomato mix and simmer for another 10 minutes. Add cream and butter to taste, and some salt usually, and voila (don’t know the Indian for voila), you have a fab vegetarian dinner. I think you’re supposed to use 30ml of cream and 30g of butter, but that’s just not enough for us, and while it decreases the healthiness of the dish, we only have it once in a while so I figure a bit of indulgence is OK now and then. I served the dal with rice (love my rice cooker) and some flat breads:

2 1/2c flour mixed with about a cup of water to make a dough, leave for an hour or so, roll out pieces into circles (you might have to experiment with the thickness) and then cook in an unoiled frying pan at reasonably high temperature. I cook them for a minute or so on one side, then the other then flip them back onto the first side again. You’ll see air bubbles coming up from inside after the first turn but when you turn them again, they (usually) balloon up. The kids love these flat breads.

Fruit salad and home made (from scratch, not from a Yogit sachet or anything!) yoghurt for dessert. I did add a touch of yumminess (extra yumminess that is) to the yoghurt as the kids are a wee bit sick of the plain stuff…a bit of vanilla paste and some runny hunny did the trick!

More bread rolls today as gave the others away to the neighbours. Replaced half a cup of the white flour with wholemeal today for a touch of healthiness…Miss 9 quite likes it but you can’t push the boat too far!

And cheese…another colby today as I figured I was playing around a bit much rather than settling with perfecting one thing. Currently in the press for it’s second to last time. In an hour it will come out and go back under 25kgs for 12 hours.

But all this really doesn’t explain the rather strange title for today’s post, does it? Well, my menu posting seems very organised and under control but unfortunately my morning was anything but…it started by being surprised that the neighbour had a cattle beast in the paddock next to us. That shouldn’t be too surprising, but they did move them OUT of there only yesterday. On further thoughtfulness, it seemed a bit small for one of his….oh, that’s because it’s mine!!!! NO!!!!!!!!!!! Take Emily to the bus and return to find two of my heifers in there, then 5 (that’s all of them!). Drop children at the lovely Wendy, and go home to discover that the sneaky little beasties had opened the gate from their paddock into the neighbours. Apparently they like to lick the metal latch and sometimes if it doesn’t have a locking thing-a-me-bobby it just miraculously opens! They’re pretty friendly so they’re not a problem to move…except when the neighbour has inadvertently left a 2 year old bull in the paddock. I’ve had a run in (literally) with these guys before and that has taught me not to put myself too far away from a fence to dive over, and given that one of my girls wouldn’t come the short way (next to the fence!) I was a bit stymied. And then along came my knight in shining armour swandri on his trusty steed quad bike with his faithful companion (well that’s true, the dog was on the back). While I tended my distressed damsels (the four who’d come with me and were happily munching grass on the verge), Simon bravely entered the dragon’s lair (believe me they’re just about as nasty those Friesian bulls), and rescued my last damsel. The ladies were happily reunited and chewed their cud contentedly as they wandered up our driveway. I swooned appropriately (yeah right…anybody imagine ME swooning?!?!?!) as my hero emerged from the lair victorious. He went his way (to the sheep he was on his way to in the first place) and I wistfully went mine (whilst swearing in a most unladylike manner at my bovines).

All’s well that ends well don’t you think?