Food for thought
9 medium onions
10 tins chopped tomatoes
6 tins kidney beans
4 large carrots
10 mushrooms
4 kilos minced beef
12 beef stock cubes
1 refill packet of coriander
1 refill packet of mixed herbs
1 refill packet of cumin
½ jar of chilli powder
¾ bottle of Worcester sauce
2 tubes of tomato puree
1 tube garlic puree
2 packets of frozen peppers
1 spoonful of sugar

4 kilos couscous

No, not my normal between meals snack, but rather that's all it took for me to feed over 40 people chilli on Friday night.

By some margin (36 more than my previous record), the largest number I've ever catered for single-handedly, it was a challenge of both my organisational and physical cooking skills, and I'm delighted to say it was one I rose to spectacularly.

Having agreed to provide one hot meal a month for the homeless people of Nottingham a while ago, it was with a fair degree of trepidation that I actually found myself piling up a supermarket trolley with the above ingredients. With two massive stockpots already procured it was then simply a case of prepping everything before chucking it all on to cook.

Several hours, a mountain of washing up, and one minor crisis (involving my needing to find another large vessel to transport all the couscous) later, I was gleefully handing over the bowls of still warm food to the people charged with distributing it to the waiting throng.

Only four weeks to go until I have to do it all over again – does anyone know any other good recipes for 40?

Oh, and in case you are wondering – less than £1 per head. Bargain.
- posted by Paul @ 4:36 pm