Dinner party recipes Pt 2: Indian and Thai

Finally I'm getting around to posting the rest of the recipes I used for my dinner party in April. The first two courses were Japanese and Malaysian, and the recipes are here.

Third Course

Recipes for the Indian course came from two books; The Essential Asian Cookbook and Fresh Indian. I've already posted the recipe for the least successful dish, the spinach dhal, and what I did with the leftovers. The other recipes from Fresh Indian were as follows:

Chickpea Curry

Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp grated root ginger
2 tbsp medium or hot curry powder
1x400 g can of chopped tomatoes
1 tsp grated jaggery or palm sugar
2x400 g cans chickpeas, rinsed and drained (I cooked my own dry ones and guessed at the amount)
salt
low-fat yoghurt to drizzle
small handful chopped coriander leaves, to garnish.

Method
Cook the chickpeas if you're using dried. Drain them.
Heat the oil in a large pan and add the garlic and ginger. Stir-fry for 30 seconds and add the curry powder. Stir and cook for 1 minute before adding chopped tomatoes and palm sugar. Bring the mixture to the boil, cover, reduce heat and simmer for 10 - 12 minutes. Stir in the chickpeas and mix well. Simmer for 3 - 4 minutes.

Up to here I did in advance and froze. I reheated it in a pot on the stove on the night of the party.

Season, remove from heat. Drizzle with the yoghurt and sprinkle with the coriander.


Pea and Potato Bhaji

Ingredients
1 tbsp light olive oil
2 tsp black mustard seeds
1 tbsp fresh root ginger, peeled and cut into fine strips
2 tsp cumin seeds
2 dried red chillies
400 g fresh or frozen green peas
400 g potatoes, boiled and cut into 1.5 cm dice
2 - 3 tbsp water
salt
grated coconut, to garnish (I omitted this)

Method
I had all of the ingredients ready to go, and cooked this at the last minute.

Heat the oil in a large pan and when it is hot add the mustard seeds. Stir fry for 2 - 3 minutes, until they start to pop. Add the ginger, cumin, chilli, peas, and potatoes. Stir fry over a high heat for 3 - 4 minutes, add the water, cover and reduce heat to low. Cook gently for 2 - 3 minutes and remove from the heat. Season and sprinkle with coconut.


South Indian Pepper Chicken

Ingredients
1 tbsp oil
1 bay leaf
4 cloves
1/2 tsp crushed cardamom seeds
2 tsp crushed black peppercorns
1 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 tsp grated garlic
625 g boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into bite-sized pieces
150 ml chicken stock or water
1/2 tsp tumeric
350 ml low-fat natural yoghurt

Method
Heat the oil in a large pan and when hot add the bay leaf, cloves, cardamom and peppercorns. Stir fry for 30 seconds, then add the ginger, garlic, and the chicken. Stir fry over a medium heat for 4 - 5 minutes before adding the water or stock and the tumeric. Simmer gently for 10 - 12 minutes until the chicken is tender and cooked through.

Up to here I did the night before. I reheated it in a low oven in a covered casserole dish for 2 hours the night of the party.

Remove from the heat (or oven in my case) and drizzle over the yoghurt.


The rest of the recipes for this course, except for the Butter Chicken, were from The Essential Asian Cookbook.

Coriander Chutney

Ingredients
90 g fresh coriander, including the roots, chopped
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
1 tbsp soft brown sugar
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 small onion, chopped
2 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1-2 small green chillies

Method
Process everything in the food processor until finely chopped. Serve chilled.

This was truly delicious. People asked for the recipe and took away the leftovers!


Mint Raita

Combine 1 cup yoghurt, 1/3 cup chopped fresh mint, and a pinch of cayenne pepper and mix well. Serve chilled.

Lamb Kofta

Ingredients
Meatballs
1 kg lamb mince
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 green chillies, finely chopped
3 tsp grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp ground cardamom
1 egg
1/3 cup fresh breadcrumbs
2 tbsp oil

Sauce
1 tbsp oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 green chilli chopped
3 tsp grated fresh ginger
2 cloves garlic, crushed
1 tsp tumeric
3 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp chilli powder
2 tbsp white vinegar
1 1/3 cups water
3/4 cup yoghurt
1 1/4 cups coconut milk

Method
Mix all the meatball ingredients, except for the oil, until combined. Roll level tablespoonsful into balls.
Fry the meatballs in the oil in two or three batches until browned all over. Rmove from pan and put in a bowl or something.

Sauce
Heat the oil in the pan. Add the onion, chilli, ginger, garlic, and tumeric. Cook, stirring, over a low heat until the onion is soft.
Add the coriander, cumin, chilli powder, vinegar, meatballs, and water and stir gently. Cover and simmer for 30 minutes.
Stir in the combined yoghurt and coconut milk and simmer for another 10 minutes with the pan partially covered.

I did this all the night before. I reheated it in a low oven in a covered casserole dish for 2 hours the night of the party.

Beef Vindaloo

This is how I did it, in a slow cooker. The recipe calls for browning of the meat, frying of onions and other soft ingredients, and long simmering on the stove.

Ingredients
1 kg gravy beef
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp coriander seeds
1 tsp ground fenugreek (I omitted, didn't have any)
2 tsp chilli powder
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp mustard powder
2 tbsp oil
3 medium onions, sliced
3 tsp grated fresh ginger
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 cinnamon stick
1/2 cup beef stock
1/3 cup malt vinegar
1 tsp sugar

Method
Cut the beef into 3 cm cubes. Put it in the slow cooker.
Add the onion, ginger, garlic, cinnamon, vinegar, stock, and sugar to the slow cooker
Put the rest of the ingredients into the blender, and process until finely ground. Fry in the oil until fragrant, then add to the slow cooker.
Stir everything around and cook on low all day. Check it an hour or so before you want to serve it and if it is too wet, remove the lid and turn it on to high for the last hour to let it reduce.


This next recipe is a mishmash of every butter chicken recipe I've found, adjusted to suit my pantry and purposes. I don't like to use food colouring, and I don't have leftover tandoori chicken lying around!

Butter Chicken

Ingredients
1 kg skinless chicken thigh fillets, cut into bite sized pieces
1 onion, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped finely
1 tbsp fresh ginger, chopped
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 fresh red chilli, chopped
2 tsp garam masala
1 x 400g can of tomato purée
100 g butter
100 ml cream
300 ml natural low fat yoghurt

Method
Heat a large pan. Fry the chicken pieces and onion gently in the butter until the onion is soft and the chicken has changed colour.
Add the garlic and spices, stir around some more on the heat.
Add the tomato purée, cream and yoghurt, and simmer gently, uncovered, until the chicken is cooked and the sauce is thick.

I did this all the night before. I reheated it in a low oven in a covered casserole dish for 2 hours the night of the party.

And the only other thing in this course was a heap of basmati rice; three cups of it, cooked in batches in the microwave and reheated in the microwave just before it was served.

Microwave long grain rice

This does not cook any faster in the microwave than on the stove, but it cooks prerfectly every time! You need to use a large bowl, because it tends to bubble up quite a lot.

For one cup of rice:
Put one cup of rice, 1 tsp salt, and 2 cups boiling water into a large microwave proof dish which has a lid. Nuke it, uncovered, for 16 minutes on high, stopping it to give it a stir half way. Remove from the microwave and cover. Let it rest for 3 or 4 minutes, then remove the cover and fluff it up with a fork.

For two cups of rice:
Double everything. Cook for 17 minutes, the rest as above. Because the boiling water is cooking the rice, and you have more water this time, you need an extra minute of cooking time to get the water back to boiling point after it's been cooled down by adding it to rice and bowl.

Dessert

There were four Thai desserts, two came from Appon's Thai Food (Peridot Crystal Balls and Golden Haired Rice).

The third dessert was merely fresh fruit, chopped into bite sized pieces, and served in plastic bags with bamboo skewers to pick it up with. This is how you buy fruit from the street stalls in Bangkok, and it is delicious. I served rock melon, paw paw, and pineapple.

The fourth dessert was that old favourite, sticky coconut rice with mangoes. Again, I read lots of recipes and came up with a version of my own:

Sticky Coconut Rice with Mangoes

Ingredients
1 cup long grain glutinous rice
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 x 400 ml can coconut cream or milk (approximately - it was just what was left from everything else)
1 x 400 g can mangoes (couldn't find fresh ones)

Method
Soak the rice in water for a couple of hours.
Put the drained rice into a muslin bag, and the muslin bag into a steamer over a pot of boiling water. If you have a Thai steamer you don't need to wory about the bag, but rice will just fall through the holes in a European one. Steam until the rice is translucent, about 20 mins - 1/2 hour. It's a lot quicker in a Thai steamer I think, because the rice sits down inside the pot.
Heat the coconut milk or cream with the sugar, and tip the steamed rice into it. Give it a good stir (the rice will have stuck together in a big solid lump), put the lid on the pot, and let it rest and soak up the liquid for 10 minutes or so.
Serve with slices of mango. Fresh is best, but canned will do.

Dinner party recipes Pt 1: Japanese & Malaysian.

First Course

The first course of the dinner party I had on the 18th April was Japanese. Most of the recipes are pretty standard and available on the net somewhere - there was inari-zushi with toasted sesame seeds in the rice; smoked salmon nigiri-zushi made using a mould; tonkatsu; hamaguri-zushi using umeboshi vinegar in the rice and bits of pink grapefruit on top; tamagoyaki with nori in it; bought seaweed salad; and slow cooked shitake mushrooms, the recipe for which follows.

Slow-Cooked Shitake Mushrooms (adapted slightly from Japanese Cooking)

Ingredients
20 dried shitake mushrooms
3 tbsp vegetable oil
2 tbsp shoyu (soy sauce)
1.5 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp toasted sesame oil

Method
Soak the mushrooms in water overnight.
Drain the mushrooms, saving the soaking water. Remove the stalks and discard.
Heat the oil in a large pan and stir fry the mushrooms for 5 mins, stirring continuously.
Reduce the heat to very low and add the soaking water, the shoyu, and the sugar. Cook until there is almost no moisture left, stirring frequently. Add the sesame oil and remove from the heat.
Leave to cool, then slice and arrange on a plate.

This keeps well in the fridge - apparently for a couple of weeks.


Second Course

The second course was a choice of four dishes from Malaysia (or so The Essential Asian Cookbook assured me, it's where all the recipes came from)

Mixed Vegetables in Mild Curry Sauce ( serves four to six, adapted somewhat)

Ingredients
1/2 kabocha squash
1 purple skinned sweet potato
1 orange sweet potato
(the original used pumpkin, sweet potato and yellow squash)
a good handful of green beans
1/4 of a cabbage
oil
1 onion
1 clove garlic
1/2 can chopped tomato
1 red chilli, chopped
3 strips lemon rind
4 lime leaves (supposed to be kaffir, but I used the ones from my tree)
1 block palm sugar (about 3 x 1 x 2 cm)
1 tsp salt
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 400ml can coconut cream
1 cup vegetable stock (supposed to be chicken stock, but I was feeding a vegetarian who will eat fish sauce)
juice of a lemon

Method
Heat the oil in a medium pan, add the onion and garlic and cook until soft.
Add the tomato, chilli, lemon rind, lime leaves, sugar, salt, fish sauce, coconut milk, stock, and lemon juice. Simmer for 5 mins to intensify the flavours.

Up to here you can prepare in advance. I did it a couple of days ahead and froze it.

Peel the squash and sweet potatoes and cut into sensible sized bits, 1 cm thick. Top, tail, and halve the beans. Cut the cabbage into 1 cm wide shreds. You can do this slightly ahead of time, say in the morning. Before the guests arrive anyway.

Add the kabocha and sweet potatoes (and pumpkin if using) to the simmering liquid and cook for 8 mins. Add the beans and cabbage (and yellow squash if using) and cook 6 mins more.

Supposed to be served with rice, but I served it as more of a soup.


Prawn Laksa (serves four, adapted slightly)

Ingredients
Spice Paste
4-5 dried red chillis
1 medium red onion, chopped
5 cm fresh galangal, chopped (I used bottled stuff)
4 stems lemon grass, white part only, sliced
3 red chillis, chopped
10 candlenuts
2 tsp shrimp paste
2 tsp grated fresh tumeric (I used dried)
oil
----
500g frozen cooked prawns, tail shells still on (supposed to be raw with shells)
oil
1 400ml can coconut milk
10 crab sticks cut into 2 cm lengths (supposed to be ready made fried fish balls)
1 cucumber cut into short thin strips
100g bean sprouts
mint leaves (supposed to be Vietnamese)
1 1/2 litres fish stock (you were supposed to make stock from the prawn shells)
(and I didn't put noodles in it because I didn't want to fill people up too much, so it wasn't really laksa at all)

Method
Spice paste
Soak dried chillis in hot water for 20 minutes. Drain, and chop in a food processor with other spice paste ingredients until very finely chopped.
---
Heat 2 tbsp oil in a wok or large pot and cook the spice paste over a low heat for a few minutes, stirring regularly. Stir in the stock and coconut milk, bring to the boil then simmer for 5 mins.

I did this much couple of days in advance then froze it.

Add prawns and crab sticks to the simmering sauce and cook until heated through (or until prawns are cooked, if using raw).

Divide cucumber and bean sprouts (and prepared noodles if using) among four plates.

Add the soup, garnish with mint leaves.


Fish and Herb Salad (serves four to six)

Ingredients
Salad
500g smoked fish
3 tbsp lime juice
1/2 cup flaked coconut (I didn't use this, to make it suitable for the "no saturated fats" diet of one guest)
1 cup of jasmine rice, cooked and cooled
1/2 cup chopped mint (supposed to be Vietnamese, plus 3 tbsp ordinary)
1/2 cup chopped fresh coriander leaves
8 kaffir lime leaves, very finely shredded (I used Tahitian lime leaves from my tree)

Dressing
1 tbsp chopped fresh coriander root
2 cm fresh ginger, grated
1 red chilli, finely chopped
1 tbsp chopped lemon grass, white part only
3 tbsp chopped fresh Thai basil (I used ordinary)
1 avocado, chopped
1/3 cup lime juice
2 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp soft brown sugar
1/2 cup peanut oil (I used light olive)

Method
Poach the smoked fish in a large pan with the lime juice and water to cover for 15 minutes, or until the fish flakes easily. Drain and set aside to cool before breaking it into bite-sized pieces.
Place the fish and other salad ingredients into a bowl and mix to combine.

Dressing
Place all ingredients into the bowl of your food processor and combine until smoth and creamy.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to coat the rice and fish. Serve immediately.


Mixed Vegetable Salad (serves four to six)

Ingredients
Salad
300 g chopped fresh pineapple
1 long cucumber, chopped
1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
150 g green beans, finely sliced
150 g bean sprouts

Dressing
1/3 cup rice vinegar
2 tbsp lime juice
2 red chillis, very finely chopped
2 tsp sugar

Garnish
300g dried shrimp (I didn't use, to make suitable for the vegetarian)
small fresh mint leaves

Method
Toss together the salad ingredients, cover and refrigerate to chill.
Combine dressing ingredients and stil until sugar is dissolved.
If using the shrimp, dry fry until light orange and fragrant, grind in food processor until finely chopped.
Arrange salad on platter or plates, drizzle dressing over it and garnish with mint (and shrimps). Serve.

The Dinner Party

Jo the new PhD doing flowers in the afternoon:


Jo loves cooking and often comes out to help if I'm having a party. She always does flowers; she's rather more artistically talented than I am.

Here is the Japanese first course:


The platter in the middle has shitake mushrooms at one end, tonkatsu in the middle, and seaweed salad at the other end. The other two platters are identical; they have, from left to right, hamaguri-zushi, smoked salmon nigiri-zushi, seaweed salad, tamagoyaki, inari-zushi, and shitake mushrooms. The hamaguri-zushi has grapefruit fragments instead of salmon roe, which I couldn't find anywhere. Maki suggested either the red slivered ginger or grapefruit instead; I tested both, and the grapefruit was much nicer. The rice was made with umeboshi vinegar and that flavour was too similar to the ginger. There were no leftovers from this course.

Next up was the Malaysian salads and soups course:


From left to right there are four plates each of laksa; fish and herb salad; vegetables in a mild curry sauce; salad with pineapple, cucumber, beans, tomatoes etc. The laksa is not really laksa, as I decided not to put noodles in it. Too fiddly at the last minute, and people needed not to get too full yet!

The Indian course:


Left to right is pea and potato bhaji; beef vindaloo; spinach dhal; pepper chicken; pile of plates hiding the mint raita; butter chicken; coriander chutney (at the back, scrumptious); lamb kofta (in the front); chickpea curry; rice. Lots of leftovers, as planned. I made this course almost entirely from things that freeze well, and I think I now have about two weeks worth of dinners stashed.

On to the Thai desserts:


Left to right: bags of fresh fruit, a la Bangkok street stalls; hot coconut rice pudding with mango slices (yum); peridot crystal balls; golden haired rice. It was amazing how fast the golden haired rice got snapped up - by blokes when I said it wasn't vegetarian!

Various guests insisted on doing a bit of cleaning up, so I let them. By this time all I wanted to do was sit down - I'd been on my feet all day.


After most of the guests left (about midnight I think), the ones who were staying the night had a few quiet drinks. We got to bed about 2.30ish.


Absinthe is evil stuff. Some of us weren't feeling particularly healthy this morning.

Here is the wreckage:


Not too bad at all, considering. The house was back to normal by midday, thanks to Jo who slaved away in the kitchen while I did the clearing away, discarding of rubbish, sorting of recycling, vacuuming, and rearranging of furniture. The men slept.

I'll post recipes in a couple of weeks when I get back from Australia.

On target for dinner party

My kitchen at 7pm Friday (dodgy colour balance):

What a mess!

Then at 8.15pm (dodgy panorama stitching, my walls really aren't that crooked):


From left to right: chickpea curry, butter chicken, spinach dhal, pepper chicken, lamb kofta. This lot was all done by 8.15 …


… but then it took another two hours to make the tapioca balls. The bean and coconut insides were a breeze …


… but wrapping the green tapioca around them was soooo tedious. And sticky, and just plain difficult!


They're cooking now though; simmering in a very sweet syrup and looking rather gorgeous.

I've also cooked the potatoes for the bhaji, and the vindaloo ingredients are sitting in the slow cooker waiting to go. Good thing the nights are cold at present.

Dinner party timeline

It's about time I started seriously thinking what has to be done for next week's dinner party. Catering for a lot of people in an ordinary kitchen and an ordinary house requires a bit of juggling with cutlery and plates. Many years ago I bought six identical four-place dinner sets ridiculously cheaply (about $100 all up I think), so I can serve everyone in matching plates, but only one course at a time. I need to use dessert plates for some of the Malaysian course and also for the dessert course, so they'll need to be washed in between. I think I'll use saucers for the Japanese course so I don't need to wash the side plates for the Malasian salads. Chopsticks for the Japanese course solves part of the cutlery problem, but I'll have to wash spoons between Malaysian and dessert, and forks between each of the last three courses.

I also have to fit packing for my Australian holiday in the gaps, and I'm playing bridge on Thursday evening!

Day	Time	To do
Saturday 11th April		Make shitake mushrooms. Rearrange furniture in living room and hall. Vacuum, clean floors, wash big dinner set and cutlery.
Monday		Construct shopping list. Check pantry for supplies.
Tuesday	day	Do grocery shopping.
	evening	Make tonkatsu and freeze.
Wednesday	6pm onwards	Make soup part of laksa, and soupy part of vege curry
Thursday	6pm	Soak chickpeas
Friday	6pm onwards	Make pepper chicken, butter chicken, lamb kofta. Make chickpea curry, spinach dhal. Cook potatoes for bhaji. Make tapioca dessert. Tonkatsu out of freezer. Ingredients for beef vindaloo into slow cooker. Make oshi-zushi.
Saturday	am	Turn slow cooker on. Make black rice dessert and custard. Cut up fresh fruit. Soak white glutinous rice. Cut up veges for laksa, and mild curry. Prep both salads. Set table with plates for Japanese course, small tongs, and chopsticks.
	1pm	Make sushi rice, egg skins for hamaguri-zushi, and tamagoyaki. Cut oshi-zushi.
	2.30pm	Make raita and chutney. Pick and grate wasabi.
	3pm	Prepare sushi, shred cabbage for tonkatsu, slice mushrooms, arrange on serving platters.
	4pm	Plate out desserts. Put in laundry, covered. Prep mangoes. Coconut cream and sugar mixed. Glutinous rice into steamer, ready to go. Cook basmati rice.
	5pm	Laksa soup in pot ready to heat. Prawns etc ready to add. Ditto mild vege curry. Prepare spices for bhaji in wok.
	6pm	Butter chicken, lamb kofta, and pepper chicken into oven to warm up. Have shower, get dressed. Plates for Malaysian course on bench. Veges in laksa plates.
	7pm	Guests arrive. Do drinks - delegate to some bloke - Wil or Richard. Or both. Delegate some sober driving person to be on coffee duty later. Show them how.
	When everyone is here 7.30?	Heat tonkatsu in panini press. Heat laksa. Put veges in mild curry and start cooking. Slice tonkatsu, arrange on cabbage, sauce it. Japanese course on table. Remember shoyu and wasabi.
	All finished eating 8pm?	Collect crockery and chopsticks. Into dishwasher. Put spoons and forks on table. Prawns in laksa. Noodles. Plate Malaysian salads.
	+ 30 mins?	Dish up laksa and mild curry. Put these and salad plates on table. Dhal and chickpea curry on to heat.
	when eaten 9pm?	Collect plates. Into dishwasher second drawer. Empty first drawer. Heat big plates, put them and knives and forks on table. Put raita and chutney on table.
	+30	Put glutinous rice on to steam. Nuke basmati to heat. Make pea and potato bhaji. When that's ready and everything else is hot put vindaloo, bhaji, dhal, chickpeas, rice, into serving plates. Take all food into table.
	When ready	Remove Indian course debris. Do the rice and coconut milk thing. Plate it with mangoes. All desserts to table - remember spoons, and plates for fruit.
		Someone else will now take over for coffee and cake.
Sunday		Clean up everything and get ready to go to Australia on Monday morning.

Writing it all out like this is very helpful - I'll probably be running back to add bits I forgot every ten minutes though.

Dinner party planning

I've invited 20 people for dinner on the 18th April to celebrate my friend Jo getting her PhD. And I'm going to Australia on the 20th, first thing in the morning. It all requires a bit of forethought and planning.

I'm having four courses and decided to have a sort of Asian tour - the first course will be Japanese nibbles, the second will be Malaysian soups and salads, the main will be Indian curries, and the desserts will be Thai. There will be at least one vegetarian, and another guest who has had a quintuple bypass (despite being thin and fit - bad genes) and eats virtually no saturated fat. And is also allergic to shellfish, now that I think about it.

I can't seat that many people, so it's going to be a buffet. Unless eight of them can't come, in which case we'll sit at the table. Or rather tables - two pushed together.

Most of the food I choose needs to be able to be made ahead and reheated, and I need to keep in mind the number of elements I can use, and the number of pots and pans I have.

My tentative menu goes like this:

Japanese nibbles	tonkatsu, inari-zushi, tamagoyaki with nori, hamaguri-zushi, oshi-zushi, fukumé-ni (shitake mushrooms, slow cooked in shoyu)
Malaysian soups and salads	prawn laksa, mixed vegetable salad, fish and herb salad, vegetables in mild curry
Indian curries	butter chicken (love it, must have), lamb kofta, South Indian pepper chicken, beef vindaloo, chickpea curry, spinach dhal, pea and potato bhaji, basmati rice, coriander chutney, mint raita.
Thai desserts	peridot crystal balls, golden haired rice, fresh fruit chunks (melon, pineapple, papaya), mango and coconut rice pudding

The things that need to be made at the last minute are: the coconut rice pudding, the prawn part of the laksa, cooking the veges in the mild curry, the pea & potato bhaji.

Things that can be made well in advance (maybe even frozen) then heated up are: the pepper chicken; beef vindaloo (can be made in slow cooker even); butter chicken; lamb kofta; chickpea curry; spinach dhal; soup part of laksa, and prepping the prawns and veges; mild vege curry sauce; tonkatsu (which I can reheat in the panini press).

The fukumé-ni can be prepared days in advance - it keeps for a couple of weeks apparently.

The basmati rice can be made in the afternoon and reheated in the microwave. Apart from the coconut rice pudding, the desserts are served cold and can be made the night before at least. The sushi things and the shredded cabbage for the tonkatsu need to be prepared lateish in the afternoon.

As far as serving dishes go, the Japanese course will be served on big white plastic trays I bought for a party once, and people can help themselves onto saucers I think - I could use the small plates but then some of them would need washing before the next course. The Malaysian course will be plated in the kitchen and people can choose which dish they want, and share if they want to. It'll be using two big pots and two bowls. The dessert will be done likewise, and will be stored in plastic apart from the medium pot and steamer for the rice. The Indian course will be a help-yourself one, and will need my three white casserole dishes for heating and serving the butter chicken, the lamb kofta, and the pepper chicken. The vindaloo will be in the slow cooker so I'll just need a serving bowl for it - or I could use the slow cooker bowl I suppose, although it won't match. The pea & potato bhaji can be cooked in a wok, while the chickpea curry and spinach dhal are reheating in the pots vacated by the Malaysian course. I have enough non-oven-proof serving dishes for all of these. The rice can be nuked in my big pyrex dish and then served in a wide white bowl.

That's my thinking so far anyway.