I have some family friends coming over this weekend and my parents are telling me there is also one girl coming who is my age and are saying i should make a good impression. They told them i like to cook so now i have to do something impressive.
The girl likes chicken and lamb. However she is more vegetarian these days. She also likes bhindi and has a sweet tooth with liking for more watery desserts. With deserts she likes ras gulla type of dessert.
I’ve always loved cooking and helping my parents out. Now they said its up to me to organise the foods and they will just help. so I told them fine i will organise the food for the dinner. So with the above info what dishes should i cook? I’m pretty familiar with cooking so suggestions can be challenging. I will take all suggestions on board and report back on how the recipes went.
kulfi, gajar ka halwa, ras gulla
naan, rice, daal makhni
any suggestions welcome from wise people here. thanks in advance.
if you think some of it is odd combo let me know as i am new to cooking for a whole dinner.
Re: Cooking for a large dinner plus potential rishta. help me with ideas. thanks
What acrobatics is the girl going to perform to impress you? What I mean is that why worry about how she and her family feels about you? Don’t you also have to determine if she meets your criteria and if you find her compatible? Cook because you enjoy it and not with the goal to win the girl over because cooking, too, is not a defining factor. Girl in question might love the meal you prepare from start to finish, but still not feel a connection with you for one reason or another and that connection/chemistry/attraction/whatever you wanna call it is a complex matter. Moreover, even if she and her folks do approve of you…YOU might find that you’re not into her. Basically put the cooking in a reasonable perspective…do it because you’re good at it and enjoy it…don’t do it to get the girl…and don’t base your self worth on the cooking and outcome of the event. If delicious meals were guarantees for winning rishtas…then so many families who go above and beyond in with the meal…would not be turned down. So, chill.
Re: Cooking for a large dinner plus potential rishta. help me with ideas. thanks
Suggestions:
Get rid of the meats from the entree section because you already have meat dishes in the main course…so it’s an excess of meat. And it tends to heavy…you want the guests to have room for dinner. At the risk of sounding anal…it drives me batty when I see people on here say they make chops and tikkas for appetizers as those aren’t light dishes especially if they’re not bite-sized portions…which is what apps should be. That said…keep it light. Even two items such as cocktail samosas and a well-made chana chaat will suffice. You can even serve a refreshing mocktail…as a starter…and that would be different from the redundant pepsi/sprite/juice, etc. You can move the shami kababs to the main course and it’ll be a dry meat component. If you must have three apps…you can do something simple like take good quality pitted dates and and stuff them with whipped cream or mascarpone cheese and a nut like pecans or almonds. It’s different from the stuffed and fried apps…and guests will have a mix of sweet and salty for apps.
I prefer the creaminess of chicken tikka masala to chicken jalfrezi…it just as a richer texture to it. How about chanay instead if daal as the latter is more of a ordinary/mundane dish? Plus it will elininate the need to cook plain white chawal to go along with the daal…so scratch the daal. How about palak paneer instead of mattar paneer? The bhindi is fine…or you can replace it with bagharay baingan. So you’d be showing that you’re culinary skills can handle tricky veggies like soinach, okra, and eggplant…as a frozen bag of peas (mattar) is easy. If you’ve got the skills…then you can handle tougher than mattar.
Dessert …I see it as an overload of sugar. If this were a party, I can understand three desserts. But it’s only one family that’s coming over…so 2 desserts is sufficient. If you had to remove one…scratch the halwa and go with kulfi and rasgullay. Reason being that girl likes rasgullay…and one dish is cold whereas the other isn’t. Both items are of contrasting textures that will complement each other.
Re: Cooking for a large dinner plus potential rishta. help me with ideas. thanks
It’s more my parents teasing me about my cooking and challenging me. I find cooking relaxing and a hobby. I always did it when i was growing up. She is also a guest coming from overseas so i am not expecting her to do anything. I want to be a good host and if nothing else she remembers her time here as a good one. The criteria and compatibility thing will also come but first i’d like to be friends with her. It is not just her but a few others as well so the focus isn’t strictly on the rishta aspect of it. It would give good conversation to break the ice as well i think. Well maybe. You’re right main thing is enjoying the experience.
Re: Cooking for a large dinner plus potential rishta. help me with ideas. thanks
Thanks for the amazing suggestions. I really appreciate it. I agree i had too many meats in the entree. Wish i had such a friend to give cooking suggestions in real life. Your friends are very lucky. I am liking the chanay chaat. I was thinking fruit chaat or papri chaat in the beginning. Or even go the gol gappa route. But i think chanay chaat is nice and simple. I like the sweet and salty combination. I like the pitted dates suggestion. I’ve never tried it before in this way so it will be good. Fingers crossed i don’t make a complete mess. Love the mocktails idea. I was going to put some ideas up earlier. Which ones do you like? I like this one called pussyfoot mocktail which has mix of apple, pineapple and orange juice, grenadine syrup and strawberries along with crushed ice.
I am partial to chicken tikka myself so i think i would rather go for that. Creamier feel of it is better. I think you are right with the chanay instead of daal. Although i was thinking daal makhni could be good to have with naan. I think palak paneer would be a great addition. I like the baingan idea. Bagharay baingan. I should do more complex things. also there is bhartay wala qeema. I wish i had friends as knowledgable as you in cooking. This is more entree but hve you ever heard of eggplant and coconut pakora
I think you are right. There is too much sugar. There is actually more than 1 family coming over and they are coming with them. but i think 2 dishes are ample. I like the kulfi and rasgulla idea. it would be nice contrast in colour if she liked gulab jamun. but maybe next time. im thinking pistachio kulfi rather than mango. I think it has better taste.
Re: Cooking for a large dinner plus potential rishta. help me with ideas. thanks
Yes…why can’t guys cook? Girls do all sorts of work and we can’t even help them with this. Lot of chefs are guys and i always had interest. If you want to make someone feel special what better way then cooking for them with your own hands. If you have any suggestions please let me know
Re: Cooking for a large dinner plus potential rishta. help me with ideas. thanks
Impress se zyaada i want to make them feel special. I want the girl and her family to feel special. They are also coming from overseas so I am a host. If we do get married then her parents wont be larki wale they will be ghar wale and give us their blessings so they should always feel welcome. Life should be about enjoying good foods and all guys should know how to cook. It is a life skill. What happens if one day wife is not well or busy and can’t cook, the husband should be able to make a tasty meal yehi iraada tha. I know i am first but i hope im not last time you hear this.
Re: Cooking for a large dinner plus potential rishta. help me with ideas. thanks
Noo way. Were you the first rishta who turned me down because her parents found someone else. It was the food wasn’t it? I didn’t let you cook as much for me as I did for you. This is what you are missing out on. Awesome lunch and dinner every night. I hope you are happy. You were my first real and only pyar which is now incomplete. How could you leave me for HIM? HIM. Took me more than 2 years to get over you. Now Z will come into my life on Sunday and i won’t have those memories haunt me anymore.
…ok that was random but feels good to get it off my chest. I feel good now.
Re: Cooking for a large dinner plus potential rishta. help me with ideas. thanks
Oye get a grip! Some scenarios are more twisted than a jalebi.
This girl isn’t even here yet and already you think you think that she will be so wonderful and that you both will click at a level that would make you move on from you ex for once and for all. And that may very well indeed happen, but at this point nobody knows how things will turn out. Tone it down and toughen up some.
Re: Cooking for a large dinner plus potential rishta. help me with ideas. thanks
Yes, men cook, but just not for rishtas in our desi community. Well, even if the roles were reversed, I wouldn’t see a girl nowadays cooking a full fledged meal for a prospective rishta in an arranged setting. Of course things are different when rishtas have progressed further.
Go ahead and cook if you want to, just don’t cook too much stuff. It may be viewed as trying too hard.
yehi iraada tha. I know i am first but i hope im not last time you hear this.
This is what you are missing out on. Awesome lunch and dinner every night. I hope you are happy. You were my first real and only pyar which is now incomplete. How could you leave me for HIM? HIM. Took me more than 2 years to get over you. Now Z will come into my life on Sunday and i won’t have those memories haunt me anymore.