Cooking For A Crowd

Discussion in 'Recipe Central' started by Angela123, Oct 16, 2019.

  1. Angela123

    Angela123 Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    655
    Likes Received:
    829
    Trophy Points:
    188
    Gender:
    Female
    I am planning to invite some of our neighbors to my house for dinner. This time I have a little over 20 people (23 so far) and I think the number will stay within 25. I want to do all cooking by myself (with help from husband in vegetable/meat cutting and prep) but mostly it will be a one woman army. Can someone give me some advice on how much to make the items?
    My menu is as following:
    Appetizer (Kids wont eat this usually, so I am thinking just for adults)
    Biriyani (how many servings?)
    Plain Rice (plan to use as a back up and also for kids)
    Egg curry (how many servings?)
    Paneer Butter masala (how many servings?)
    Butter chicken(how many servings?)
    Dessert (This one I got the servings and quantities)
    Appam (I got this one too)
    Of the 23, 11 are kids.

    this is probably the biggest crowd I will ever cook for. Any help is appreciated!
     
    Vaikuntha likes this.
    Loading...

  2. virtualkv2020

    virtualkv2020 Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    818
    Likes Received:
    1,158
    Trophy Points:
    295
    Gender:
    Female
    is it for Americans or Indians? Are you expecting both vegetarians and non vegetarians? If it’s for Americans whatever you make, make it less spicy and they will love it.

    appetizer - you can serve samosas with some ketchup.Get the frozen deep bite sized potato samosas from the Indian stores, each packet has 50, just deep fry them. You can make 1 or 2 packets.
    Or
    You can make easy corn chaat (you can find 1 lb frozen sweet corn in grocery stores). Mix boiled sweet corn,chopped veggies like tomatoes, onions, cucumber, green capsicum with salt, lemon juice, chilli powder, little chaat masala,mint chutney (mint-cilantro-Thai chili paste),add few chopped dates. Finally crush some corn chips and mix. Top it off with some more corn chips. This is a hit with both Indians and Americans.

    A tray of chicken/veg biryani will do.Americans don’t eat a lot of rice, make sure to use boneless chicken if you are expecting American guests. Raita and some salad with onion cucumber lemon is good with biryani to beat the spice.

    If you are serving a North Indian gravy you can get some frozen haldiram pulkas from the Indian stores, roast on the pan and serve in hot box.One roti per guest is enough. You can skip the aapam if you are serving roti.I feel there’s no need of 3 curries, instead of 2 curries you can add a simple dal tadka/dal fry. Tastes good with roti n rice.

    Instead of butter chicken and paneer butter masala you can try making Chicken or paneer tikka masala using parampara chicken tikka masala paste.It tastes awesome.

    Incase you want to make egg curry instead, for 24 guests use 12 eggs, slice each egg into half and add to the gravy. Here’s the recipe

    Just cook a cup of rice, if needed later for the kids. Also include some plain curds on the side for the kids. Make it simple and sweet.

    Appetizer - samosa or corn chaat

    Main course:
    Rice/bread
    - veg or chicken biryani, white rice,roti
    Salad - onion rings, carrot and cucumber slices with lemon wedges to go with the biryani.
    Dal - Dal tadka/dal fry
    Curry - Egg curry or Paneer/chicken tikka masala
    Yoghurt - Raita, plain curds
    Desert
    I hope this helps.
     
    Last edited: Oct 16, 2019
    Vaikuntha, Angela123 and Thoughtful like this.
  3. Angela123

    Angela123 Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    655
    Likes Received:
    829
    Trophy Points:
    188
    Gender:
    Female

    Thank you for the detailed reply.
    Sorry that I didnt mention about the type of crowd. All are Indians - specifically south Indians - some telugu, kerala and karnataka.

    I do not use store bought stuff, I intend to make everything my own. No frozen stuff either. I will not be serving roti or dal. but i might try paneer tikka masala. All kids like butter chicken, my recipe is less spicy (in terms of hotness) and easy for parents to feed them with rice. I will add the salad to the list.

    Thanks again!
     
    virtualkv2020 likes this.
  4. SinghManisha

    SinghManisha Platinum IL'ite

    Messages:
    1,011
    Likes Received:
    2,683
    Trophy Points:
    283
    Gender:
    Female
    No advice, but can I invite myself ( family of 4 :wink:) ?
     
    Vaikuntha, Angela123 and Amica like this.
  5. Angela123

    Angela123 Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    655
    Likes Received:
    829
    Trophy Points:
    188
    Gender:
    Female
    haha. Please come.
     
    SinghManisha likes this.
  6. shalini79

    shalini79 Senior IL'ite

    Messages:
    20
    Likes Received:
    19
    Trophy Points:
    18
    Gender:
    Female
    For kids, for starters, fry a pkt or 2 of Fryums. They will love it.
    I am vegetarian, so cant comment on how much non veg to cook. For your paneer curry, you can cook assuming head count as 20 (counting 11 kids as 5 adults) plus you have 2 other curries also..so prepare for 10-12 people. 200 gms of paneer is good enough for group of 5 adult vegetarians. For your head count, you may go with 600-700 gms of paneer.
     
    Angela123 likes this.
  7. Angela123

    Angela123 Gold IL'ite

    Messages:
    655
    Likes Received:
    829
    Trophy Points:
    188
    Gender:
    Female
    Thank you!
     

Share This Page