Ok basically tomorrow I’m holding an iftar dinner TOMORROW at my house… whilst my mother is not in the country.. and just three weeks ago I hadn’t cooked a Pakistani dish before in my life…
It’s my closest friends who I’ve invited so it’s not the end of the world if it all goes wrong - they’ll just laugh it off. BUT I don’t want to be in that position!
I made a decision against the typical fried appetizers (pakoras, samosas etc) and to go heavy on the dinner instead. That’s just the way I personally like it and I think it’s probably healthier too.
Dinner:
lasagne cooked by my little sister - with qeema and vegatble filling
rice: either pilau by me or biryani cooked by my father. I’m unsure about this..
Chicken karahi - this is a dish I know for sure that I can make well but it doesn’t really go with rice does it?
Some type of vegeatble dish. I don’t know what yet Any suggestions?
Perhaps mixed daal with chicken?
Bread rolls by my sister
Store bought naan bread
Salad in yoghurt for the rice
Normal salad
And for dessert: banoffee pie, and perhapss apple crumble with custard
AHHHHHHHHH!!
Please please please can I have suggestions, recipes and/ or advice on how to manage this all. I haven’t prepared anything yet as we’ll be going shopping for ingredients later this evening inshallah. I’m quite worried about the number of baked items I have and how I’m going to manage it time wise in the oven…
How about you make koftay ka salan to go with Pulao? Thats really easy to make ..
Or option number two is your dad makes biryani ... and you can manage keema alooo + What ever vegetable dish as two salans to go with naan? What vegies do you get in the market these days?
I've never made koftay before CB.. I'm quite scared I'll mess it up especially the making of the meat balls.. Do you have a simple recipe for it? I could add boiled eggs to it too right?
We have courgettes in the garden and also fresh peas from our garden. I could get pretty much any vegetable from the supermarket I just need to decide what dish to make first
Dear Mirch, it is quite overwhelming isn't it but the thing is, I have 8 - 10 people coming down not inclusing myself and my sister.. and I'm not confident cooking fewer dishes in larger quantities.. Ahh this is stressful!
Dear Mirch, it is quite overwhelming isn't it but the thing is, I have 8 - 10 people coming down not inclusing myself and my sister.. and I'm not confident cooking fewer dishes in larger quantities.. Ahh this is stressful!
You are right , if you are comfortable by cooking many good dishes in small quantities for that number of guests then it is fine. Everybody is not master at cooking in large quantities , I can relate to that.
^ That's true but we have a lot of apples at home that need to be used up. That's why I was thinking of making an apple crumble, but do you guys think that's too heavy as a dessert for iftar?
Mixed vegetable salan is a good idea - thankyou! Would it be ok to eat with rice though..? Or is it ok because I have naan bread anyway..
In-terms of managing the oven, I would cook the lasagna, than bread rolls. This should be done about 1 hour before the party. Depending on the cooking time on the puff pastries, throw them in so they come out as roza opens. And lower the oven and place the lasagna and bread rolls back to keep warm.
Do you have chafing dishes, those are helpful.
Apple crumble sounds great. The browning will only happen if the apples are cut and left in a platter.
I wouldn't make kofte. You hadn't make them before so its kinda risky. They are easy to fall apart if not made right.
I like your menu. Why make biryani and still make karhai that people can enjoy with naan/roti? I make biryani with karhai since I make both very good. Biryani is served with salad, raita and all. Karhai with naan.
I think the menu is fine, as Spiral says the pilau or biryani can be eaten with salad and raita and the karhai with naan. Alternatively you could swap the pilau/biryani for peas pilau and make use of the peas in your garden.
I'd do a mixed veg.
You can cook the lasagne beforehand, and reheat it in the microwave.
Cook pastries so they come out of the oven a few mins before the iftaari.
Also, prepare the apple crumble beforehand so its ready to go in the oven, and just put it in the oven straight after you take the pastries out. It should only take about 40 mins to cook/brown so it should have plenty of time, given peeople will eat iftaari, pray and eat dinner.
I'm sure it'll turn out fine. I think that you've got your hands ful you don't need banoffee pie. Just stick with apple crumble and custard . Personally i find banoffee way too heavy. Or, if you want to make 2 desserts how about jelly as well so pple can either choose between jelly and custard or apple crumble and custard?
The iftar turned out to be really lovely - thankyou everyone for their advice!
My father decided he wanted to do the chicken so he made a really yummy version of chicken jalfrezi. I made yakhni pilau rice, using a recipe I got from this site. It was the first time I’d ever made lamb yakhni pilau and I have to give major kudos to the recipe giver because it turned out quite good! It was from post #17 from this thread http://www.paklinks.com/gs/household-affairs-and-cuisine-corner/330868-yakhni-pulao-experts.html I think I messed up the quantities of things but it still turned out ok!
I also made a corguette salan, using the corguettes from our garden, and a mixed daal salan using chicken broth. My sister made vegetable lasagne and bread rolls. I made puff pastries with vegetable filling and for the actual iftar we had a lovely fruit platter of melon, strawberries, oranges, grapes and dates. For dessert I made banoffee pie and decided to leave the apple crumble because it was just too much effort at that point. @msis - omygoodness you’re right the banoffee pie was reallyyy heavy and wayyy too sweet. I put in two tins of condensed milk to make the caramel (normally only use one) but alhamdulillah, the crowd I was feeding had very sweet teeth anyway and finished it!
On top of this, my friends made mixed salad, raita, pakoras, noodles and tuna pasta! I forced everyone to take a a container of food home with them, so it wouldn’t go to waste!
But alhamdulillah I’m happy The food was good, the atmosphere was lovely - we had a halaqa (islamic study circle) and prayed together in jamaat. Everyone was laughing and in a jolly mood. I didn’t feel stressed throughout the day, although I spend over 8 hours cooking and preparing.. My poor sister only just finished with the washing up today. It was a long haul but man was it fun! Thankyou everyone for the suggestions
