Spinach and chicken korma, bag of baby spinach

Given that I had around 30 people yesterday and had cooked enough for 300, I am now left with gallons of cooked lemon chicken, and trying to think of ways to use it.

Tonight have made a spinach and chicken korma for us all - a mild, creamy curry that am hoping the children eat. For adults I would add pine nuts perhaps, and a handful of chopped cilantro at the end.

It's super-quick and smells delicious, and I'll serve it with plain basmati rice.

Spinach and chicken korma (adapted from Nigel Slater's mushroom and spinach korma from Real Food)

2 tablespoons butter
2 medium onions, peeled and sliced
knob of ginger, about size of a thumb, peeled and grated
teapspoon of ground cumin
15 cardamom pods, seeds removed and crushed
1/2 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
2 bay leaves
1/4 cup pine nuts (optional, and I would use toasted) and handful of golden sultanas

bag of baby spinach
2 cooked chicken breasts, diced. (or, in my case, leftover kebabs...)
1 cup greek yoghurt
1 cup creme fraiche
2 tablespoons chopped cilantro (optional)

Melt butter, add dash of oil to stop butter burning, add onions, garlic and ginger and cook until golden.
Add spices and bay leaves (I didn't have any though), continue frying, stirring regularly, for 2 or 3 minutes.
Add spinach and stir so it wilts and cooks, add pine nuts if using.
Mix yoghurt and creme fraiche together and stir in, add chicken, salt and pepper.

Am keeping my fingers crossed the Smalls will eat it. You never can tell. The Maniac will probably not, but that's mostly because it's not pizza or chicken nuggets. Although, I did put him off chicken nuggets by telling him they use the whole chicken. I think that's true.

I once saw a TV show where Jamie Oliver was showing kids what goes into chicken nuggets, and he stuffed an entire chicken, beak, eyes, feet, bones, everything, into a blender, and pressed Start. You can imagine the shouts of disgust. When those kids were next presented with a choice of chicken nuggets or grilled chicken breast, every single one chose the chicken breast.

I wonder whether it's the association as well. Most kids don't tend to think of chicken as, well, chickens, until they see a whole one stuffed into a blender.

Mine of course would be the exception. A couple of years ago, after the Republican went hunting one day, the Brainiac asked me when he could go out and shoot a chicken to eat for dinner. I didn't bother responding never. I would adore chickens, but to collect the eggs, not to chase them round the garden with a rifle.

Actually, when I had the farm, I did want to do the whole self-sufficiency thing, but I'm sure I couldn't actually have ever gone through with killing anything. I once went fishing with my family in the Bahamas, this was a couple of years ago, and we used tiny fish as bait, and had to thread the hook through the fish's eyes to keep them on.

It was disgusting.

And they were already dead.

My parents spent the entire time roaring with laughter at my face, and taking lots of pictures of me grimacing with horror as I attempted to do this without throwing up.

I didn't catch anything.

I kill nothing. Except mosquitos and flies. Everything else I catch and let free, including spiders. Last Halloween the dog woke me up at midnight by barking at something in the corner of the bedroom. When I went to investigate I found a bat, scuttling in the corner. I swear this is true. On Halloween there truly was a bat in our bedroom. I was too tired to deal with it so I stuck a bucket over it and went back to sleep. In the morning I thought it was dead, so very gingerly I put it in a baggie. A friend came over, who happens to be the daughter of a vet.

'It's alive!' she said, in horror, noticing, I presume, the baggie steaming up from the bats breathing. 'Get it out the baggie!'

So we tipped the bat into a cardboard box where it yawned and stretched, showing us its quite impressive wingspan, then it hung upside down in the box and went to sleep. It was actually extraordinary, and I felt privileged to see a bat that close. The next morning it had gone.

Good job the Brainiac didn't see it or we would doubtless have been sitting down to Bat Bolognese.