Thanksgiving Post-Mortem

Posted By elissa on Nov 26, 2011 | 3 comments

I’m baaaack! Didn’t post for the last couple of days, as I was busy cooking. Our traditional Thanksgiving is typically untraditional… if it’s unusual and sophisticated enough to qualify as a “feast,” then we’ll give it a go.

We opted for Indian food this year. This was Number-One-Son’s idea. He came up with it while we were dining at an Indian restaurant in Spokane last month… the food was decent, but I opined that I could probably do better. So naturally, he challenged me to do so. For Thanksgiving. John and Nick liked the idea, so I was on the hook.

I ended up tackling most of our favorite dishes: Dal Makhani, Chicken Korma, Tandoori Lamb Kebabs, Mushroom Matar, Aloo Chole, Saag Paneer, naan, steamed basmati rice and Kheer. And yes, it took two full days, as some items (like the paneer) had to be made in advance, while others (like the Kheer, dal and naan) could be made in advance.

Everything turned out great! I used these recipes:

• Dal Makhani: http://chefinyou.com/2011/02/dal-makhani/
• Chicken Korma: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/chicken-korma-ii/detail.aspx
• Lamb Kebabs: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/wolfgang-puck/lamb-tandoori-recipe/index.html
• Mushroom Matar: http://www.monsoonspice.com/2008/11/creamy-mushroom-matar-curry.html
• Aloo Chole: http://www.nandyala.org/mahanandi/archives/2005/11/22/chole-with-potatoesaloo-chole/
• paneer: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/paneer/detail.aspx
• Saag Paneer: http://www.thehungryengineer.com/cooking/indian-comfort-food
• Kheer: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/alton-brown/indian-rice-pudding-recipe/index.html
• naan: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/naan/detail.aspx (note: we used whole wheat flour for this, which makes the naans more dense – but they were still yummy)

All in all, it was a lovely feast and – best of all – there are leftovers! This is actually my favorite part of holiday cooking: there’s nothing like coming home hungry after a workout to a savory collection of “heat-‘n-eat” dishes.

Hope our US-based visitors had a great Thanksgiving too! Back to regular posting tomorrow.