Curry Condiments....

[Suvir Saran]

It took Chuck some time to accept that part of being Indian. People calling the day of the party to ask for directions, to ask if they could bring a guest or three with them, to ask what they should wear.... you know we can be very casual with friends.... but now, he is well aware that any given party of 12 can become a party of 30. I always have extra stuff in the pantry. While I would not be able to have extra vegetables, I will quickly prepare new dishes using lentils, beans, yogurt etc... and if you know Indian cooking, one is never afraid, with some clever thinking, you can plan within 15-20 minutes of good thought, and an hour or three of more work, an additional set of dishes that would go with your menu and beef it up to feed the extra guests.

I remember Panditji would always be ready to receive at least 5-10 extra guests at any given meal time. I asked him this last trip how he managed for waste and left overs. He said that he never worried. For if there were left overs, he would not cook more for the staff. And if we had the usual "jhamghat" (army of people) the food would get eaten and as he was preparing the chapatis and parathas for the meal (flatbreads) he also was preparing the staff meal.

Mind you, nothing about our home is Lavish. It is comfortable and welcoming and that makes it special. Friends know they can be here, they can bring their friends and that they can relax here and be themselves. We do not judge nor care about the results when we are. There will always be those that complain, we ignore them as best as we can. They learn with time to either accept the rest of us, or they move on, on their own.

The magic of entertaining at home does not lie in the grandeur of stuff. Not often can one compete in a home setting with what a restaurant of great repute could offer in a contrite and clearly business minded setting. While as a caterer I have all the paraphernalia that goes with being decadent and over the top, not always do I use every trick I know. I leave that for my work. I have a few hundred platters and bowls. Antiques collected from across several continents. Our apartment houses fine china that as my mother says, would be enough for the wedding trousseau of 5 brides from very rich homes. I have glass ware that would shame the collection of most any snob, I have sterling beyond what I would ever use even in all my entertaining. But these are things I collect. Not for me to use. In fact I use my precious stuff for those very unfortunate meals we HAVE to have. For the best meals, and the magical ones, I have 80 plain white dinner plates, same amount of dessert plates and classic flatware in stainless. All of these can go into the dishwasher. Similarly I have beautiful dishwasher safe glassware. This makes it easy for me to insist that the guests not worry about my having to clean the stuff by hand. It gives an air of ease to the evening.

A clever host know better than to impress by using trivial stuff. A clever guests knows better than to only be moved by antiquity in a setting of far greater merit. Those parties where I use gilded plates, sterling flatware, sterling frames for glasses and china, gold accents and silver and gold leaf as garnishes are those few but occasional meals where we seat a very small group of people that want to eat with my collection of antiquity and I know are coming to our home to see what I do with the stuff I collect. These are the clinical meals. And while some could fill pages defending their beauty, I enjoy them for that moment and then they are gone from my collective memory. They are poor in soul.

The other parties have a life of their own that exists beyond the realm of the temporary and the superficial. They are about a package that was once a very basic fabric of life and has been slowly lost in a world that has become too busy to be in touch with the very basic necessities of life. It is magical to be able to enjoy the decadent and extremely precious, but even more magical is to know them and yet know that they offer not more than what is on face value. If you know that difference, you can then enjoy life in a very subtle but fulfilling manner. Our home affords are friends and theirs that special luxury. One of complete sharing but at a very simple and human level. Where children, infants, adults, seniors, sick and in good health, frail in mind or over excited, young and old, of many cultures and ethnicities and religions, can come together with no fear. The parties are a way for all of us to collectively at that time create a new world within this apartment where we forget all those superficial things that separate us and for at least several hours, we live in a world that brings us together in our passion for living a life of great beauty of spontaneous expressions.

[Sandra Levine]

Maybe you can test them for my cookbook.  .

I'm sure there are many cooks here who would be happy to test your recipes.

[Damian]

I love the threads on this board, always.