Cooking large quantities, and menu suitability for large group?!

[Twinklestar]

@Bint_e_Naeem

Thank you Apple

I feel like I took over OP’s thread. Sorry.

There is no harm in getting food catered. After all hey if we have that benefit why not use it.

Twinklestar you are absolutely right. Planning first & then organizing. Also being realistic & sometimes being rational & smart can help a lot. Last Eid dawat I made Chinese food & 3 hours before the dawat my daughter started acting up. That put me 2 hours behind schedule & although I had almost prepared one dish (frying was the only thing left) I completely skipped the dish & never told my guests that there was supposed to be another dish on the menu.

At that point I could have either fussed & went ahead with it & dinner would have been late or skip it & just serve other things I had made. People were still happy. I ended up freezing that meat & used it 2 weeks later for a one dish party & that crowd loved what I had made.

I might actually open up another thread sometime later & share all the things that help me host successful dawats.

You can do it too. It does take time & practice but its doable

You are so right about being rational and realistic! In many dawats I have found that I wouldn’t be realistic everything would be behind schedule and I would literally look flustered and couldn’t be as calm as I would have liked. For example for Iftar parties I have learned the hard way that I should limit fried items. These can only be made an 1 hr in advance or become soggy so now I dont mak pakoras for a substantial crowd. Instead I do foods that I can make ahead of time. Pakoras taste horrible from catered place because they need to be fried and consumed right away. They have a very short shelf life just like french fries.

Please please do open dawat thhread. It will help a lot of immensely!