tumblr.ocell

foodwechew:

I had a small dinner party last night at my house. It was a LOT of fun. I love getting everybody together in my kitchen and cooking and laughing and entertaining. This was my first ‘event’ in my new house, which I was excited about because I have an enormous kitchen and living room. 

Every Tuesday night, we pick a loose theme and usually do a potluck-style group dinner at someone’s house. Since we chose indian food for this week, I kind of took over because I had a bunch of dishes I wanted everyone to try. 

We ate: 

• Cucumber-Mint Raita (not pictured)
• Saffron Rice with Almonds and Raisins
• Coconut Curry Mussels
• Murgh Makhani 
• Saag Aloo
• Veggie Samosas
• Naan

Tyler, a friend, made the absurdly delicious pear and basil cocktail. What an awesome combination. I have some leftover mint and mango that I REALLY want to muddle into something tasty, but that will be a post for another time. 

Also, full disclosure: I did not make the samosas or naan—trader joe’s makes a really great frozen samosa that you can pop into the oven for 15 minutes, and naan as well! Yum. 

Raita, as a yogurt based sauce, is traditionally used to cool your mouth down after fiery curry dishes. I was a little heavy on the paprika with this go round, but I liked the little bite that it added to everything. 

The rice is my mom’s recipe—but it’s really easy. A couple threads of saffron make plain basmati rice fragrant and turn it a lovely pale yellow color. Do NOT go over board on the saffron, you really don’t want it to be too strong. But the almonds add a great crunch and the raisins, a bit of sweetness. 

The Butter Chicken—the recipe I used was pretty good. It didn’t taste like Makhani I’ve had in restaurants, it was milder and tasted similar to Tikka Masala. I’m interested to see if the flavors have developed more today; indian food usually tastes better the day after. 

I wanted to serve a vegetable that complimented the meal—and spinach tossed with a little bit of spices, garlic, and cream seemed like it would work out well. I fried the potatoes before hand, but by the time I served them, the steam had softened them and they were less crunchy—but still quite good. Definitely a dish I’d make again. 

And my wild card! When I was in Chicago last month, I had some of the most phenomenal food at Vermilion Restaurant in Chicago. The food I had was amazing, but my favorite dish was their Coconut Curry mussels. I tried to replicate the dish last night. The recipe I used to approximate the dish from Vermilion was good—not as great as I’d had before, but was still a hit at dinner. It was a little heavy on the curry powder—and maybe the shallots too. But all in all, everyone seemed to really like the food and that’s what is important!