It seems I am running behind a bit with this whole blogging thing. It is Thursday (which is the second dinner night of the week) and I haven’t even written about last Mondays dinner yet. Last Monday was the first time that I was having a dinner-club on a Monday, so I was not really expecting too many people to come. However, surprisingly 8 guests attended. I made a curry with roties and cucumber raita (which is a bit like an Indian tzatziki) and people seemed to enjoy it. This meal combination was great for a a big group of people, because you can make a curry ahead of time, in truth, curries take a good couple of hours to adsorb the flavours from all the different spices. The display of the food looked nice, with 1 big bowl of curry, one with jasmine rice, one with cucumber raita and a flat plate with roties. In this way every one could dish up for themselves and it made the vibe a bit more casual.

Now that I have found a good reason to use the word casual, I have a good reason to say ‘on the topic of casual’ and in turn I can now tell you about the lay-out of my home. We don’t have a table, and we have 1 futon for a couch. We do, though, have nice wooden floors (okay, parquet wood) a nice green mat, and plenty of pillows in all sorts of shapes, sizes and colours. So the point was, that at my dinner clubs, people sit on floors with plates on their laps. But actually this is only a positive thing, as it eliminates any arrogance and conversation is not forced. I find that there is something quite challenging about facing each other at a table, especially if one doesn’t know one’s ‘opponent’ very well. It is like you are seated at this table, and are expected to have an intellectual sparring match with the first ultimate loser being the one who cannot overcome and fill the silences. However, when seated on the floor, one choses who to sit next to and how much distance remains between. This of course is not always the case, one can also have a romantic candlelit dinner seated at the table of a fancy restaurant, or be happy at a table when surrounded by ones family at the end of a busy fast-paced day. But I right now I am one in a couple of thousand students, I am bad at forced conversation and I prefer the floor.

So for your own casual dinner you need nice people and:

Curried potatoes with Cauliflower & Peas:

5 tsp butter

2 large onions (diced)

one whole garlic (peeled & grated)

5 tablespoon medium curry powder

4 tsp cumin

4tsp mustard seeds

3 tsp sugar

10 Potatoes (peeled & cubed)

2 cauliflowers

2 cups peas (fresh or frozen)

6 tomatoes (peeled & chopped)

Salt & Pepper to taste (In my opinion it needs quite a lot of salt)

Fry onions untill browned, then add garlic & spices and cook for further 2 minutes, stirring continuously Add potatoes, 4 cups of water & sugar and cook on high heat. Add cauliflower florets when potatoes are almost done Add peas & tomatoes & simmer on low heat for about 15 minutes Prepare Jasmine rice according to pack instruction (as it varies from brand to brand) and ladle curry on top of hot rice.

I am embarrased to say that I have not yet tried to make Roties myslef, and for this dinnerclub simply bought a pack from the grocery store. I will let update you as soon as I have succesfully made a batch.

Cucumber Raita:

1 liter plain yoghurt

1 cup finely chopped, peeled & seeded cucumber

½ cup minced onion

½ cup mint

1 tsp ground cumin

lemon juice to taste (the more the better)

Salt & Pepper to taste

Mix all ingredients, season w salt & pepper.

Dessert/ Lassie:

3 cups yoghurt

3 cups ice-cream

2 cups of banana or other fruit

Blend & serve with pretty garnish