So , living in cold countries means Food even if kept on the table as burning hot , will cool down within minutes ! My home is a bit too cool generally due to its direction.
I have tried most of the stuff, like warming the serving bowl first before pouring in the salan, keeping the khana covered so the steam doesnt escape, etc etc .. but sometimes these can become hard to tackle with guests around .. you cant just keep covering the bowl every two minutes ! Despite doing all that food still goes Thanda within 5-8 minutes.
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So what I do now works for me but husband thinks its not a good idea .. so i wanted to ask your opinion. Here’s what I do : **
I bought a set of 6 smaller serving bowls .. Each contains a maximum of 3-4 servings. I fill up two bowls each of the same salan. So that when the first one heats up, the guests starts serving themselves meanwhile the other one is getting heated in the microwave and will be replaced with the first one as soon as its heated. I then refill the first one and start heating it once again.
Keep the rotation going with each salan, until the first round of serving is done. Then for the second round, I refill and heat it and join the guests on the table to engage with the guests.
We have an open plan kitchen so its not too hard to keep the rotation going. I have noticed that Food stays much more warmer that way , coz often times previously I had seen someone or the other stand up with their plate and ask me if they can heat it in the microwave and I had to explain to them that the plate is not microwavable so I will transfer the food to another plate and after heating it transfer it back to the original plate .. too much work for me !
Khair, husband thinks this is not the right technique, coz it can be really confusing for the guests that there’s so many of them while such little bowls on the table ! I told him, I do mention all along that I am heating more of it and they should help themselves comfortably .. but husband says , impression theek nai perta hai ..
try these warming dishes…i think AFayiz posted somewhere of good quality dishes…
i went to a dawat for 10 people n host was serving dinner in these four dishes…she made haleem,pasta,pulao and qorma and all of them were fresh n warm in these dishes…
Akmoti, I tried , but they take too much space on the table and they are so big that I realized guests found it difficult to pour food out of them easily ..
I have two of those but I use them when I have a buffet style dawat hosted .. but for the dining table .. We dont have large dining tables here in the UK ..
Ive these dishes but i agree they take so much table space and its not always easy to move them from one corner to another. They look so good but once in a dawat in my house i tried serving rice and other salan in them but i ended up filling everyones plate myself because it was hard to move them. But your idea of serving food in small bowls is food enough unless you are comfortable with it. Nothing wrong with it
Mary, its just that , my comfort is in the comfort of the guests.. I want them to be comfortable and enjoy the dawat. At the end of the day, every host's key reward is that the guests felt so loved and special.
So I really need to know from a guests perspective .. Would people feel awkward being served in smaller bowls ?
If I was your guest, I wouldn't want you to go crazy over keeping the food streaming hot. Once it has made its way to the table, I would be fine if it gets cold after 10 mins or so. :)
we live in one of the coldest countries but our home is always adequately warm even in the dead of the winter. if you worry about food getting less hot/warm...you may use pots with candle stands which will keep it war/hot.
This Connoisseur Console , I had it when I got married , but hated using it .. coz firstly the dishes are so hard to take out they kept getting stuck .. even the guests had issues pouring out the food properly .. secondly the height is really low and you end up almost kneeling to get the food !
I sold it ultimately .. it just took too much space :no:
That is a tricky thing keeping food hot. The truth is any food taste best if you follow the rule hot food should be hot, cold food should be cold. In USA lot of people use aluminum pans on burners....it keeps food hot.
Cn you remind me a lot of what I used to do....sometimes it is impossible to keep things piping hot. If guests want to heat in a microwave let them do so. Why don't keep corningware dishes all in the oven on low temp....tell guests are ready to eat. Keep rotis or naan wrapped in aluminum pans.
I've noticed that food heated in the microwave tends to cool off more quickly than food heated conventionally on a stove-top. I also find that while one dish is being heated in the microwave, then previous one is getting cold already......
My solution is to heat food on the stove-top and then put them in oven-safe serving dishes in the big oven. This keeps them in a warm environment without direct heat being applied. It does become a bit of a challenge to transfer these serving bowls from the oven to the table but that is less of a worry then the food getting cold.
For larger dawats we do the same thing but use chafing dishes as well.
I've noticed that food heated in the microwave tends to cool off more quickly than food heated conventionally on a stove-top. I also find that while one dish is being heated in the microwave, then previous one is getting cold already......
This is so true Muzna ..
I have Induction stove , it comes really handy and acts like a hot plate .. if I leave the salans in the pots on the lowest heat setting they keep warm .. I have tried doing that too specially when I have a buffet setting and I cant use the smaller serving bowls .. I just use the stove heated khana in serving and it stays warmer for longer ..
Cant just leave it there like that …