Indian Dinner Party - help please ?

[Sonan]

HI everyone !

My DH is turning 40 and asked for an Indian dinner party as celebrations. We will probably have 8 adults and 6 children. I was just wondering if anyone has done a whole Indian meal with thermomix and if you could pass along any tips/recipes/ideas? I know there are lots of recipes out there, it's quite overwhelming. We try to eat healthy, so lots of cream/butter etc is out.

I am thinking I should start a few days ahead.... with some sort of icecream and the curries. I am wondering about the logistics of everything with the thermomix. I think I need much more than 1 bowl and 1 thermoserver !!
Also I was going to make it a bit more special and try to add some nice touches like decorations etc.... any thoughts?

Thanks in advance

[Yvette]

Sonan the butter chicken in the Indian Cookbook is really nice you could make that up the day before and just put in a casserole dish and reheat in the oven

[achookwoman]

Sonan,  I gave an Indian Party some time back.  Here are some of the recipes that i used.  All are on my Blog and most should be on the Forum.  Dhal
                  Naan
                  Chicken Korma
                  Indian Patties
                  Coconut Sorbet.. Lellyj has made this and says it is good.
                  I also made a beef curry from EDC

Hope this helps.

[trudy]

Sonan,  The great thing about having an Indian Dinner Party is that you can make curries ahead.  Even two days as the flavour gets better with keeping.  You could also make them and freeze them way ahead of time.  Have you tried my Coconut & Coriander Chicken Skewers?  They make a great starter and makes a change to another curry dish.  With your curries I would also serve a couple of vegetable dishes.  A nice Salad to go with the skewers is a Watermelon & Red Onion Salad.

WATERMELON & RED ONION SALAD
2Kg piece of seedless watermelon
2 small red chillies
2 limes
100ml olive oil
1 small red onion
2 cups of rocket leaves
1 cup parsley leaves
sea salt & pepper

1.  Cut the flesh into bite sized pieces.
2.  Finely chop the chillies, then zest and juice the limes.  Place the chillies, zest & oil into a jar, seal and shake to combine.
3.  Peel and thinly slice the onion.  Combine the watermelon, onion, rocket and parsley into a bowl.
4.  Pour the dresing over salad and season.  Serve immediately the dressing has been poured.

This Carrot & Pea dish is served regularly in India and everyone loves it.  You can make it ahead of time and then reheat it.

CARROTS & PEAS

Heat some oil in a pan.  Drop into the oil some cummin seeds (the amount depend on how much you are making.  For 4 people use about 1/2 teaspoon).  When the seeds start to splutter add a chopped onion and fry till golden.  Add about 1/4 teaspoon turmeric,  add about 4 chopped carrots (dice into small pieces).  Stir fry on low heat and when about half done add some salt and about three chopped tomatoes plus some frozen peas.  Place a lid on pan or cover tightly with foil and simmer until tender.

This is a rice dish that has potatoes with it - the great thing about it is that it cooks in the oven allowing you time to do something else.

YELLOW RICE WITH POTATOES AND GARLIC (SERVES 4)

1 cup peeled, diced potatoes
225g basmati rice
60mls oil
4 green cardamon pods
3 cloves
2.5 cm  cinnamon stick
salt to taste
pinch turmeric
1 teaspoon garlic (chopped fine or paste)
1 teaspoon cumin powder (dry roast it till it becomes fragrant-takes seconds)

Heat oil in your baking dish.
Add whole spices and the rice
Stir then pour in 1 and a half times water in proportion to the rice.  Add salt, turmeric and peas if you wish.
Bring the water to a boil on top of stove.  Cover and then finish cooking in a 200C oven for about 25 mins.

You can double this.


You could finish off with Kulfi (Indian ice cream) or cheat and fold some mango (fresh or tinned) and chopped roasted almonds & raw pistachios through some softened vanilla icecream.   Place into a loaf tin that has been lined with gladwrap and reffreeze.  Serve in slices with some fresh mango on the side.
Hope this helps you and that you have a great night

[Sonan]

hey guys, thanks heaps ... a great help... there are so many nice recipes, it's hard to narrow it down !

[Lellyj]

Hi Sonan

I totally agree that an Indian banquet style meal is the way to go, it is easy because you can have all the curries cooked before--they will actually taste better on the day.  Chookie is right I made two batches of the coconut sorbet and it was lovely.  I churned it in an icecream maker, but I think you could freeze it in icecubes and whip it in the tmx.

A couple of weeks ago I cooked an Indian meal for a group of teenagers that my son went to India with.  There were 14 including the teacher who came.  I made tarka dal, butter chicken, balti vegetable curry, rice pilau,Chookie's coconut sorbet & mango kulfti, and served this with the cardamom biscuits which are in the Indian cookbook (can't remember the proper name at the minute).  I also made chappatis while the kids were here, but I think that Naan bread would be better to reheat.  For that number I made 3 quantities of butter chicken but I put more like 800g of chicken in each batch, a big pot of balti curry, a large rice cooker full of rice pilau and just one quantity of dahl. 

To make the balti curry I used the paste from the Indian cookbook, sauted the paste, added a tin of chopped tomatos and some vegie stock paste and water and boiled that together for a while then topped with veg--I used cauli, carrot, capsicum, zuccini, and stirred some spinach leaves through at the end. The butter chicken recipe is on this forum, I put a heap more chicken in as I said.  It has lots of cream in it, but I have used the "cooking cream " from Philadelphia successfully in this recie. The mango kulfti from the Indian cookbook was easy and quite nice, raher tart as it's made with yougurt, but it froze REALLY hard and I had to have it out of the freezer for at least half an hour before serving.

The rice pialu I made in the rice cooker--it is an easy and fancy way to cook rice which a Sri Lankan friend showed me.  It is great in a rice cooker if you have one.  Finely chop a couple of tomatoes and saute in some oil on the bottom of your rice cooker.  Add the rice, 1/2 tsp of tumeric, a few cloves, a cinnamon stick, a few cardamom pods and a few bay leaves in the rice cooker then fill with water and basmati  rice as usual and let cook, fluff with a fork before serving.

I really found it quite easy to prepare this dinner as I made the curry pastes one day, the icecreams another, the cookies another and then the curries the day before.  The rice and the chappatis are the only thing I cooked on the day.  I served some yogurt, and some bought pickles and chutney.  If I had have had more time, I would have liked to make those too.

If you don't have the Indian cookbook (I highly reccomend it!) I could pm you some of the recipes if you're interested in any of them.  Enjoy the party!

[meganjane]

Pretty much every time I have a lot of people for a meal, I do a Curry Night. Not all Indian, I like a mix of Malay, Thai and Indian.

Dessert needs to be light. I made a coconut panacotta with mango and raspberry sauce last time and it went down a treat.

Favourites are:
Chicken Tikka (p 89 Fast and Easy Indian)
Prawn Masala (p100 F & E Indian)
Beef Vindaloo (p84 F & E)
Aloo Curry (p 38)
Vegetable Curry with Coconut Sauce (p 104)

Everyone loves a good Thai Green or Red Curry, so I always have some home made paste on hand.

I also make a yummy Basmati Rice where I cook the rice in the TMX with a cinnamon quill and 4 cardamom pods. When it's cooked, place some ghee in the Thermoserver and add the rice, stir around and keep warm.

Have fun!!

[Sonan]

thank you ladies....great ideas !!!!  I have left it too late to get the Indian book now, but I think I will have to get it at some stage for all the yummy recipes ! Oh well, I will do the bulk of the work in the thermy though and I think that coconut sorbet sounds delicious !
this is what I am thinking so far:

Spiced Pineapple Juice (with and without Vodka!)
Spicy Roasted Chickpeas and Cashews (for nibblies)
Butter Chicken
Lamb Rogan Josh or Korma
Cardamom and Coconut Rice
Yoghurt and Carrot Salad
Tomato and Cucumber Salad
Chutneys and Raita
Naan or other Indian bread
Pappudums
Coconut Sorbet/ Chai Icecream or a Kulfi (Tenina has a great recipe)

Do you think I need another curry ... a vege one ?? I do also have a lovley roasted cauliflower with creamy peanut sauce recipe.    All the leftovers will be lovely !!! I am thinking I should borrow a rice cooker and some slow cookers to help with the serving ..

[Sonan]

oh and LellyJ.... I would love the recipe for the cardamom biccies if you don't mind or anyone else that has it .... think that would be a lovley finish with some coffee or chai tea for the end of the meal !

[Yvette]

Sonan if you have  another curry and you have too much, don't worry cause everything will freeze and you can have a night or two off cooking another time yay

[Lellyj]

Hi Sonan

I notice you are on line now.  Will send the recipe tonight when I have got dinner out of the way! 

[Sonan]

thanks muchly ... I still have a little time

[Lellyj]

Sonan

Have sent the recipe.  Hope it helps!

[Jamberie]

I love this forum! I was about to ask if anyone had any ideas to share for an indian Dinner party, and the answer is (of course) here!We are hosting an Indian dinner party for 12 in just a couple of weeks...Thank you for all the ideas you have all so generously given...if anyone has any more ideas, I would be very grateful! It's on a Friday night so I am planning on making a lot the weekend before hand and freezing. There are a number of guests who will be keen to compete in the Vindaloo stakes, and another guest who doesn't like curries...so I'm thinking of something that they might like (that's not too much more effort!)

So far am thinking...
Entrée: Samosas
           
Main: Butter Chicken
         Beef Vindaloo
         
         ???Vegetarian
         Cumin Rice
         Indian flatbreads
Dessert: Mango Kulfi and coconut sorbet

[Cuilidh]

Here is my Cashew Nut Curry recipe.  It's very easy and non TMX so it frees up your TMX to make other things.

Another nice recipe is the Bombay Potatoes in the Indian book, my only reservation with this is that I find that potatoes don't freeze well - for me thay always seem to have a grainy texture so if you went with Bombay Potatoes it might be one to make the day before.  Both this recipe and the Cashew Curry are vegetarian and I am pretty sure nearly all dahls are too so that would solve the vegetarian option for you.

Dahls are always great comfort food as well and there are so many lovely recipes out there you would probably be safe to go with any one of them.