Happy Muslim Mama: July 2009

It probably sounds a bit pathetic, but neither my family, nor my in-laws, nor my parents family have ever had a barbeque before, so we thought we would start a tradition. Also, noticing the fun we seem to have at our ladies only Eid parties, my husband has been threatening for ages to have a barbeque for the boys.So I thought it would be nice to celebrate my brother-in-laws graduation from his MBA course and decided to throw a barbeque. I reminded my husband last week to buy a barbeque, then again six days ago, then again fice days ago…you get the picture. This afternoon he turned up with one at last, just when I thought I’d have to put everything on the cooker grill.

I marinated the lamb chops (recipe to follow) and chicken tikka pieces (using this recipe) the (mid)night before, and also prepared the mince for seekh kebabs (using the same recipe as for these).

The bunting I made earlier in the week came in useful again.

Neither I nor my husband were expecting the food to turn out that well. It was my first attempt at many of the things and also we assumed this whole barbeque thing would take practice (some burnt, some raw in the middle). Surprisingly though, everything tasted good.

Lamb Chops

This was the first time I had tried making naan (I used this recipe), and the turned out okay.

Ended up with a good meal overall, which we shared with my parents and sisters.

I tried to order a fresh cream cake and left it too late, so cheated by buying a tray bake cake and writing on it with icing pens.

Mum saved the day though, by turning up with a proper cake. Of course, the barbeque took a traditional English turn when it drizzled on us through most of the afternoon. My favourite were the sweetcorn, which we left at the end, whilst we ate, to slow cook. They were delicious and I cleared up and waited for everyone to go in before sneaking back out with my sweetcorn to sit on my little bench in the rain and savour it. I managed three before my mother-in-law warned me to stop or I’d get stomach-ache.

We had great fun, I gave the kids bubbles to keep them busy and there are plenty of left-overs to take to work tomorrow. It’s true though, what they say about barbeques, the woman does all the work and the man stands by the barbeque and gets all the credit