Dinner Party and New Arrival

Those who know me well know that I love to cook. I don't know why it has taken me eight weeks to invite people over for a party. I invited Chandan, Avinash and his wife Sowmya, and belatedly, Suresh, to dinner on Saturday. I had great plans to travel all over town getting what I wanted to cook, but decided to try to make a meal from what I have in my cupboard and what I could buy from the FabMall in the apartment complex.

I had such a surprise when I started to cook. The new houseboy I have here on the 4th floor saw me smashing garlic as I started to cook. I was making a chicken dish and had already brined the chicken. Adrian taught me that chicken always tastes better if you start by brining (soaking in salted water.) Since I wasn't sure of the quality of the chicken, this sounded like a great idea.

Anyway, Santhos, the houseboy, asked if he could help me peel the garlic. OK. Then he looked at me and said, "Onions?" Of course. So as I browned the chicken, Santhos cut onions for the chicken, then peeled and cut cucumbers, washed tomatoes in bottled water then sliced those, peeled and cut carrots into thin slices. That was salad, beautifully arranged on a plate. Then he cut cantaloupe and seeded it. He did put that in the freezer, so we had beautiful blocks of flavor. He seeded a pomegranate and put the seeds over the frozen cantaloupe.

I added dried fruit and chicken bouillon (from Per) and green olives and vermouth to the chicken and let it simmer for a long time. I sauteed shrimp, or rather Santhos did, and then I added pesto from Per and that was the appetizer. The rest of the meal was basmati rice that I cooked and two veg dishes that I got in packets at the store for the vegetarian Sowmya.

Yes, too much food and it was wonderful. The food was good, but the feeling of preparing it and working in such harmony with Santhos was wonderful. He came back when we were done eating and cleaned up. Then he prepared the dessert, mangos with vanilla ice cream. Chandan manned the bar. I didn't have to move much and as the evening went on, I couldn't. Avinash brought an excellent red wine from India. So there was plenty of reason to be immobile.

I did help Santos put things away, but he never let me clean. That is his job. Sauteeing chicken is such a messy business without a splatter screen. When I started to clean up when I was done with that, he told me that was his job. OK.

The next day we picked up Laura from Chicago from the airport. She had taken a long flight from Chicago to New Delhi, stayed 12 hours in Delhi (we had convinced her to go to a hotel, too long in that little airport) and then flew a domestic airline to Bangalore. For someone who hates to fly, that was an exhausting trip.

We got her at 9:30 and then went to the Leela Palace for brunch, as we like to do for new comers. I've become so tired of Citrus, even its excellent brunch, we went to brunch at Zen. They bring sate' to your table - lamb, chicken and shrimp on skewers. They brought dim sum and tempura shrimp and vegetables. The buffet was filled with sushi and marinated vegetables. It was fabulous. I think that will be the last of the Leela. But it was a great last hurrah. After brunch, Laura and Nancy went back to the apartment and I stayed to have a massage. Teena joined me for a facial. It was great. We all got to meet Teena's husband. I liked him in their wedding picture. He is better in person. Maybe we will get to meet and talk for longer than 2 minutes sometime.

Busy weekend. Fortunately, we took Monday off for Memorial Day. The ladies came over for tea and cookies (Nancy brought them to the party from a shop at The Forum. Really good.) It was a quiet day. A good day for memories.