Hi I am planning some guests for dinner and do not have any thing fixed yet. Just thinking and may end up ordreing everything. We do not have good restaurants in the area. So I am confused half cook, half order or full order. Last time I got catered, it was worst idea.We had so many items on menu and nothing came out good. So I thought slowly I will cook and start freezing some of the things like in restaurant nothing is spot on fresh. So what are suggestions if I have 30 guests? Suggestions for easy menu, storing everything. We will have non veg options too and might barbeque so thinking to make veg/non veg both on barbeque. For appetizers - pakodas are easy. For main course - rice and 1 daal, 1 curry and rotis/naan Party is in the evening. If I cook myself, thats the plan -- 1. daal 2. and curry : may b will make a day or 2 ahead and freeze. But I want to know the quantity for 30 people ?? With lot of items, I think I should cook for 15. what curry? dry or liquidy? mixed veggies or spinach etc. 2. rotis/naan: I can order naans (~40 naans) from restaurant OR Make aata night ahead, cook roti in the morning itself / store and warm later. For 30 guests, 2 each??? My guests do not eat much and with other items and may take 1 max. 3.Burgers with veggie patties - same day 4. Chicken Barbeque - same day 5. Cold drinks/ juices/ other beverages 6. appetizers - pakoras/frozen samosa same day just couple hours ahead. Chips and dips. I want to be over with cooking stuff in the morning so I can washup and set up home. What do you think, any suggestions in menu? You think it is too much. Also I want to feel fresh when people start coming. With kid and cooking, I usually get tired easily and do not even find time to change clothes. My kitchen will be closed an hour before guests arrive and no cooking smells to make me more tiring.
Hi made these for my kid's birthday. Similar guest count 30. Same story only I cooked... May you can get an idea 1. Gulab jamun (MTR one) 2. Veg biryani 3.Raitha 4. Pav bhaji 5. Home made pizza 6. Chips ( store bought) 7. Ice cream (store bought) 8. Samosa (Frozen) ✓The previous day I made the gulab jamun and refrigerated. Made 50 count. ✓Chopped veggies for pav bhaji. Bought pav from Indian store. Each 2 pav, so bought 60. ✓Made pasta sauce, grated cheese, made dough for pizza. Semi cooked pizza in oven with veggies. Made pizza size as medium.so 2 kg of all purpose flour. ✓2 days ahead made ginger garlic green chilli paste. I prefer home made for health and taste reasons. Refrigerated. ✓bought frozen chopped veggies for veg biryani. ✓peel onion, puree tomato refrigerate. ✓ wash cilantro, curry leaves, mint etc. With vinegar n water. ✓boil potatoes and cauliflower for bhaji The party day Soak rice for biryani. Chopped onions and made Raita. 30 min. Made bhaji first, 8 potatoes and 1/2 cauliflower and 3 cups for carrot beans, 1 cup green peas and 1 cup bell pepper. 20 min. Made pav roast with butter in oven for 10 min. 30 min. Had to butter 60 count. Made veg biryani - 1 hour. Made in 2 cookers pararelly. Then made pizza with grater cheese on oven in. Kept them in lower heat. So it will be hot Fried samosas. I could finish in first half the day. It all needs planning and someone to baby sit kiddo. 1)Dal you can make previous day. 2)Curry you can make a mix veggies semi gravy. Chop all veggies and make tomato puree. Previous day 3)Nan your count is correct 40 enough 4) make veggie patties and freeze. Thaw in hot oil or pan fry. Won't take more than 30 min. 5) fry Frozen samosa or pakoda. Just get up lil early that day. Happy partying!
I am thinking 1 - 2 days ahead will not be sufficient for me , I do not have any one to attend to my kid and I can not do much on weekdays so may be some pre-preparation and freezing a weekend ahead. I can have some of the items frozen or semi cooked for ease. I will not cook any daals/curries etc same day as I already have lot of other stuff like frying stuff and roti/rice etc ( if I plan to cook those).
Yes pls try to freeze dals or curries Even rotis you can prepare just one side cooking and freeze. Then you can thaw on the party day and cook the other side.
I never tried that. Long back, I was making rotis (with oil in dough), not cooking on heat but covering in plastic sheets and freezing. But time to cook, it was not easy. Not much difference in taste but heating was pain. They were frozen and thawed for some time still very cold right? so putting on hot tawa dough was becoming super soft and flipping was hard. I will try 1 side heating now. Do they come same as fresh?? Problem is my H does not like freezing things. I tell him that we will get same from restaurant, we can not burn out ourselves on party day, day ahead or 2 days ahead. We have to take care of kid too and clean/decorate at the same time. We are not 100% cooking, Some food will be catered anyways. How do you keep food out for big party? chaffing dishes? How do you store/freeze bulks in fridge? Aah .. Sorry for so many questions. I am kind of try to assess if its even possible for me else just split the party and have people over in groups.
Hi @sanjuruby3 this was the thing I did for my sis kid Birthday. Since Iam a pure veggie, I don't have non veg knowledge. We bought frozen flour for puffs which will be available in Costco or target. We just prepared aloo masala only. Stuffed and baked in oven. Was good for starter. Then we prepared rajma gravy and Punjabi chole masala( both easy to prepare in less time) then we bought frozen paratha(we cut each paratha into four quarter pieces) so we heated those with Lil ghee in Tawa just before 1 hour. Then I prep. Fried Aloo curry( optional). Again we prepared pulao, curd rice and raitha. We prepared milk payasam also. Came out very well an d easy to prepare. We also prepared corn soup(adding corn grits, onion, piece of ginger in a cooker, then grinded into a smooth paste in food processor, then heating in large pan. Adding pepper powder, salt, and cut onion stems). Also store bought ice-cream was there). Hope u have some ideas.
@Sweety82 - was this for big party? wow corn soup.. i love it so much. Patties - I used to make them a lot , i love it but my oven is not working unfortunately so sticking on stove cooking food. I think its fun feeling I will cook myself but really hectic task and you end up exhausting by the time guests arrive.
