Weekday Dinner Party
Indian Dinner Menu for 4 and Prep plan
I have friends coming over on Thursday for dinner. This is the first time I am cooking for them and they love Indian food. First time guests are the most difficult to plan a meal for, especially if they have any dietary restrictions. I wouldn’t say I don’t know them, but I haven’t had enough food outings with them to get an idea of what they will like. This is easy with close friends. e.g. I know Jon loves coconut because he told me at least 10 times while eating a coconut-cream cake one day. Since then, I make sure to add one coconut dish to the menu when we’re hosting him.
For the first-time guests like these, make sure you add your most-made, most-loved dish to the menu. I make my mom’s recipe of chicken biryani which I have made for everyone I have cooked for at least once and they all love it! Hosting a party on a weekday can be stressful for you, so you don’t want the added stress of trying out a new recipe.
Starter - Aloo Tikki Chaat
Biryani is all spicy so this dish will be everything Biryani isn’t - sour, sweet and just delicious. Dairy-free option for this will be to not add the topping of sweet-yoghurt.
Main dish - Chicken Biryani
This is a main course item and the highlight of my dinner party, so I will try to prepare the menu around this item. One of the friends coming over is lactose-intolerant, but she doesn’t mind ghee. I will subtract yoghurt from the recipe to make it dairy-free. I will also use boneless chicken this time so they can use silver and feel more comfortable.
Sides - Mix Vegetable Raita or Pickle
This is a side for biryani. Raita nicely compliments the spiciness of the biryani. If your guest’s spice tolerance is too low; beer, white wine or rosé will work as well, any beverage that is served chill. I wouldn’t recommend soda*. I plan to serve the same raita in a salad form, without the yoghurt as a DF option. You can replace this with Mix Vegetable Pickle as well.
Dessert - Gajar ka Halwa
It is winter and I haven’t made gajar ka halwa yet. Special red carrots are harvested in India during winters and this halwa is a popular pudding they make from it. I made this with the regular orange carrots we get in the US last year and the result was as yummy as the original version. I found a vegan halwa with cashew-milk recipe as well.
Preparation Plan
Here is a small prep-ahead plan for this party:
Freeze the chutneys and refrigerate everything else.
You can prepare the aloo tikkis a few hours ahead of time and move them to the oven for keeping warm. 170 degrees F is the lowest setting on my oven, so I pre-heat the oven on 170 and transfer the food to it to keep warm.
*It kills.