Monday Menus

Chicken dopiaza

Mango lassi

We had a really delicious lunch on Saturday with a friend who showed me how to cook some of her excellent native Indian dishes. A basic urud dhal, a crumbled paneer dish, and chicken dopiaza, all with rice and roti, and mango lassi as dessert. It sounds all fancy-exotic, and it was in its way, but it was also earthy and flavorful and right up my alley. I had never cooked with paneer before, and probably would never have dared use such copious amounts of fresh ginger if I hadn't watched her do it and tasted the result; but there weren't really any ingredients there that I had never worked with otherwise. (Well, there was a specialty pepper or two, but they were sorta optional...)

So, I'm excited to try myself sometime soon. Even having spent two hours in the kitchen helping her, those first bites were really magical -- I couldn't believe those ingredients became that amazing food. As a side note, I'm proud of my kids too, they all dug in and loved the food, and it was really a fun time with the two families eating together. We were all very full when we went home.

So, tonight we get to enjoy some awesome leftovers she sent home with us.

Today: Leftovers
Tuesday: Sesame noodles
Wednesday: Baked potato bar
Thursday: My husband's fortieth! He requested 'something delicious with vegetables, especially eggplant', and blitz torte. So I'll go with ratatouille and poached eggs, and possibly a kale salad mix from the store.
Friday: Ramen for the kids, while S. and I are going out for another guy's surprise 40th birthday party. Pretty sure he won't read this blog and ruin the surprise. :)
Saturday: Baked sweet potatoes, fish sticks
Sunday: The Usual, but with bacon instead of scrambled eggs

We also tried these really cool little Indian candies, local to our friends' childhood home, that are apparently not in US stores anywhere.