We’re having a dinner party for a few of my husband’s colleagues, who are eagerly looking forward to some desi food. There will be 8 guests in total plus the two of us. Three of them can’t handle spices at all, and one is a vegetarian. I’m having a hard time coming up with a decent menu to accommodate everyone. Please help!
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
hehe… its such a sad standard according to desi standards, but when inviting goray dost of my husband, i have made the following in the past (most of these dishes i would never make for a proper desi dawat 
)
they love chicken pulao, matar chawal, chicken ginger, butter chicken, tikka (though i make a mixed grill with diff kebabs and botis), and with diff raitas and chutneys
they are all pure danes meaning spices for them is salt and pepper.. thats it! ofcourse i add a whole lot more than just that.. but according to my desi tongue its BLAND.. but for them its wow.
i would never make matar pulao or dal chawal for a dawat but for his goray friends, its like amazing food one of the few dawats you dont have to think that much about 
oh and if i do serve daal chawal, i make some kebabs and poppadums. they love it!
teh vegetarians like lentils … they say otherwise they get tired of eating all veggy dishes
are they purely vegetarians or can they have fish? you could do a garden salad with fish and pumpkin or sunflower seeds.. mmmm…
oh oh.. allo ki tayari (potato and rice made in tomato paste)..
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
Bless you, khawa. You make it sound so easy! I don't think I've ever had a desi menu for non desi friends, so I'm kinda dreading it.
For chicken pulao, do you use bone-in or boneless chicken? The vegetarian is purely vegetarian. No fish. All I can think of is daal chawal for her. She and her husband are avid daal eaters.
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
Oh and for mixed grill, do you bbq or make it in the oven? Chicken tikka, seekh kebab, and what else?
And what's allo ki tayari? Recipe?
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
lol at dal chawal well if they love it so much.. give it.. they will be looking fwd to eating it desi style!
i shall get back to you on teh recipe for tayari.. let me find it..
woman i live in iceland, there is no sun for bbqing for 10 months of the yr. its all oven made.. or grilled on teh GF grill. or cook until tender on stove top.. and then put in oven in a dish with coal and leave it on broil.. just to give it the coal smoke.
i leave the bone in.. they dont mind… you just dont get the taste in puloa otherwise.. i mean ok they are goray and wouldnt know the diff, but still.. lets not forget they are humans haha
dont dread it.. its really the easiest dawat you will have thrown! its so exotic to them.. even daal chawal .. and it takes u like 2 mins to make it and its so easy.
last week i did a dawat for 2 couple friends of my husband’s.. they got married so i wanted to invite them over and say congrats (since we couldnt go to the wedding)
my menu was (there was no vegetarian but i always make a vegetarian dish cuz its just in my desi blood, to always have such a dish, desi dawat or not)
-matar chawal with raita (yoghurt with some paprika salt, chopped onions, cucumber and tomatoes.) and green chutney (this was for me cuz i was gonna be having bland food with the rest of them! ) though they also tasted it and went nuts
(i would ahve done the daal chawal but i was out of daal… anotehr thing.. if you do daal chawal, they can always eat the rice with anotehr dish you may have made.. liek a salan, so 2 birds one stone
-mixed grill with all desi spices but kept at the absolute minimum. they LOVED the seekh kebab! (i put achar out with this and they did taste it though ate it SPARINGLY)
- maash ki daal with chapati (one thing i have noticed with goray, you gotta put some kinda bread out there!.. so if you have a dry dish , put some pita bread or nan etc). and put those small butter packages you find at restaurants. they were so funny, they put the butter on teh bread and then ate the daal liek that.. haha… butter was runing down their fingers and they got SO confused
-smoked salmon in garden salad with sunflower seeds.. add whatever dressing you want.
-butter chicken (which they put in teh rice and ate ) .. this is a great dish if you want to keep things not so spicy!
it was great… just keep the spices at a minimum and they will be fine… offer chutneys and raitay and whatnot on the side just incase they wanna try (they will be there more for you so you dont have to eat the bland food pretneding its awesome )
oh and how bout makign bean salad or somethign with lobia for the vegans? though the daal chawal is a winner hands down!
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
chicken tikka boti ( i dont use the whole leg, dont have that much space), seekh kebab, and meat boti (this was a biaatch to tenderize and i will never do it again.. seekh kebab and chicken tika boti was enough).. once i also added shami kebabs to it but it loked like an adoptive child compared to the boti and seekh... so none of that anymore
my mom addds kalegi and god knows what else into a mixed grill... so if they are into that.. go ahead :D
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
oh oh.. and i just thought bout this other vegan friend i have.. she makes awesome cabbage cutlets.. or kebabs if you wanna call it that... i dont have the recipe and she doesnt share.. but an idea.. look it up online.. they would lvoe that too... i think she had lentils (ground) and cabbage (shredded) and then made into kebabs.
oh oh... make the vegans a heavy chickpea and potato cocktail? u know.. chana chaat.. pass it off as a dinner dish. you an also make fried arvi... or fried aloo... (they turn out great too), mix veggy bhujia,
dosa?! hmm?! dosa is amazing too..
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
Ideas galore. I likes.
I was thinking samosay, and chana chaat as appetizers -- combine to make samosa chaat if they want with sweet/tangy imli chutney.
I usually do a bean salad with most of my dinner dawats, so that's already on the list. I also have potatoe cutlets on the list as a veggie item.
I think it's starting to come together:
Chicken pulao, mixed grill with seekh kebab and chicken tikka, daal or a veggie dish, potatoe cutlets, raita, garden salad, bean salad, and pita bread w/ butter.
If I make daal, should I do boiled rice, or would it be ok with pita bread? Is arvi the slimey stuff that kinda resembles potatoes, but cannot be compared in taste? If so, I've probably only had it once in my life, and hated it.
Judging from this thread, I could've just PM'ed you instead of opening a thread. :D
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
I have made different types of pulao, chicken curry, and palak chicken for my non desi coworkers and they loved it. Yup tikkah goes very well too. For appetizer go for samosas.
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
whenver we have non desis over, I usually make mattar pulao, or chicken pullao, daal, shami kabab, roasted chicken and always make samosas for appetizers. I have seen gora ppl LOVE samosas. i try to stay way from saalans coz first of all they are uncomfrtable eating it, and its hard to make a bland saalan. with pulaao you an add alot of flavors without adding any red chilllis but u cant do that with saalan.
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
actually if you use good amount of tomatoes and onions, it will taste pretty good.
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
Yeah, I've been a little hesitant about salans too. I don't know how to make it bland without it tasting like sick ppl food.
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
How about bigharay baingan?
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
Ideas galore. I likes.
I was thinking samosay, and chana chaat as appetizers -- combine to make samosa chaat if they want with sweet/tangy imli chutney. I usually do a bean salad with most of my dinner dawats, so that's already on the list. I also have potatoe cutlets on the list as a veggie item. I think it's starting to come together: Chicken pulao, mixed grill with seekh kebab and chicken tikka, daal or a veggie dish, potatoe cutlets, raita, garden salad, bean salad, and pita bread w/ butter. If I make daal, should I do boiled rice, or would it be ok with pita bread? Is arvi the slimey stuff that kinda resembles potatoes, but cannot be compared in taste? If so, I've probably only had it once in my life, and hated it.
Judging from this thread, I could've just PM'ed you instead of opening a thread. :D
haha.. you should have... i miss talking to u :(
ya arvi is indeed the slimey crap.. but doesnt have to be... just add salt once you are done cooking and the pot is off the stove. voila.. no slime... also ... boil the arvi with skin on... when its tender, THEN peel and slice. cook... add salt once done cooking.. you shall never have to deal with slime again.. same with bhindi (though you skip teh boiling part.. just cook and add salt right at the end).
your menu is great....
if you are making dry daal, then pita is fine.. otehrwise save them the horror of having to eat a watery soup by serving rice :D they will even use the rice to eat the chicken! but also put in the pita bread just incase.. like i said.. they need their bread! also put in poppadums.. they can break it up and put it on top of the lentils. give it some bite.
the shorba thing you were worried bout.. thats why make thick curry dishes.. like butter chicken is thick curry.. so is ginger chicken. sure they break the nan up , dip it into the curry and eat with a fork.. but they love it still :D
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
- Sabzi pulao
- Paneer jalfrezi
- Alu mattar, paneer
- Peas/potato's in green masala
- Raajma
- Palak paneer
- Achari alu
- Dum alu
- Baigan raita
- Fried eggplant
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
Yeah, I've been a little hesitant about salans too. I don't know how to make it bland without it tasting like sick ppl food.
Ok you mentioned they look forward to having desi food. Find out if they like spicy food. Most people I work with actually like to try indian/paki food and they actually love the taste/spices. Obviously not super hot mirch, but they are very much open to trying the semi spicy stuff....especially the roasted/grilled items like khawa mentioned. Actually many LIKE the fact that its spicy but also tastes good, not like the super hot sauce at mexican places that has no taste......
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
I would also suggest a chick pea salan with thick gravy, my friends tend to love that with naan/salad/raita.
Kidney beans are also another option, again add tons of tomatoes for thick/rich gravy....hmm.
You also can't go wrong with Chicken Karahi, not a lot of spices (garam masala stuff) go into that, and in terms of spice just tone it down but dont make it bland. No one likes bland food. Serve that with naan/pita/salad etc.
If you have the time, a nice biriyani would probably work out well, as it is a meal in itself, and if u have the grilled items, it's pretty safe, with accompaniments. Or you can even do veggie biriyani and serve the meats on the side....so everyone can have it. Make it with a lot of aloo/gobi/ i also add broccoli in the "dumm" period....
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
always win with a light not so spicy chicken biryani, naan with chickpeas or okra and samosays
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
for your vegtarian guests, you can make paneer makhani (which I believe is just like butter chicken, but with paneer instead of chicken). also, I once had Paneer Jalfrezi, which was really good. And pakoras and aloo samosas are good for your vegetarians as well, and the rest of your guests can eat this stuff as well.
Re: Desi menu for non desi guests
I always make kabobs for goras.. they love it because it is not messy like most desi salans and stuff. And offcourse they loveee biryani.. its a classic item in a dawaat. :)