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Foto Friday: a feast for the Boothes. 2 January 2009 11:43 pm

Posted by Tracy in : cooking,pictures,vegetarian , trackback

So one of the reasons I’m always relieved when January rolls around is that December’s fraught with giving and receiving gifts, and I’m terrible at both. Not only do I never know what to get people, and hate being put on the spot, but I feel like I have way too much stuff, and it’s CRUSHING THE EVER-LOVING LIFE OUT OF ME, ARRRRRRGH. Even if I ever managed to get my possessions down to a manageable level, I think I’d rather do stuff than give stuff. Anyway. Along those lines, this year when I ran out of gift inspiration, I offered to cook a big feast of Indian-style food for Peter’s family, and I think that turned out to be a winning arrangement for all of us. Peter helped me make sure everything turned out fabulous, even if I failed to get a good picture of it (beige flatware plus curry equals no focus). Thanks Peter! You’re the best sous-chef ever. Peter’s brother Dan took a bunch of the pictures used in this post (click through to my Flickr for the full credits and more pics), and I’m writing this sentence so I don’t forget to give him credit. Thanks Dan!

On with the food: The menu was based mostly on recipes from my beloved copy of Indian Cooking by Madhur Jaffrey: vegetable pullao, a dal (red lentils with cumin seeds), and frozen spinach with potatoes (the recipe specifically calls for frozen spinach, and the Boothes just happened to have some that needed using up, so that was perfect). I rounded out the offering with Michael Natkin’s Five-Minute Indian-Style Cabbage, which I cannot praise highly enough but I suspect Dad Boothe might be willing to help out with chanting “OM NOM NOM NOM NOM.”

Anyway. Pictures! First, putting the final touches on the cabbage:

Indian feast for the Boothes.   Peter is the best sous-chef ever.

Elsewhere in the kitchen:

Hot electric frying pan action.   Contents of electric frying pan.

That’s spinach with potatoes in the electric frying pan, and the laptop set up with the cookbook, and a stove full of dal and pullao.

Dal in the front, veggie pullao in the back.Cookbooks (yes, laptop counts).

Finally, I’ll leave you with Peter, making chai (such a big hit that it’s worth a whole post for later), and the big bowl of cabbage.

Just a few last touches to finish it all up...   Five-minute Indian-style cabbage.


  • MomBoothe

    It was indeed fabulous!