Mary's Dinner Club Stories - Pakistani Night

And yet‚ another favorite evening‘of mine… Saturday’s Pakistani Dinner. First of all because of the cooking - I have declared the making of flat bread my new passion. The new kind I tried this time (made with butter Ghee) actually ballooned into an almost perfectly round shape in the hot pan before being ‘pushed back into shape’ - great fun and oh so tasty!

The making of the red lentil curry to go with it was equally exciting as the flavors and spiciness kept changing.

Fortunately the first tasting had taken place in the late morning with an adventurous friend coming for brunch. The bag of the Indian curry I had found in one of the fantastic Asian shops in town said it will add a ‘mild spiciness’ to curry dishes – hmm mild according to whose taste buds I asked. But in the end, with the help of some ‘secret ingredients’ of which I have a great many, it turned out beautifully. Actually one guest managed to wipe his plate so clean with the warm bread, that for a moment I thought he hadn’t wanted to try it.

The chicken Masala had undergone a similar adjustment of flavors plus a little ‘emergency treatment’ for added yoghurt that had a ‘curdling wish’. Here too all was taken care of and the outcome was so good that I ended up wishing I’d made even larger quantities since duplication seems highly unlikely.

Fortunately the balcony season has now started for good as several guests had to escape outside on several occasions due to minor ‘heat waves’. The mood was especially cheerful on that evening with a great mix of Scottish, German and Russian nationals and ‘Scot jokes’ abound. In fact, I ended up having such a grand time chatting and joking that at one point one gentleman finally enquired if we weren’t supposed to be having ‘pudding’. An expression I particularly loved as it should clearly be ‘dessert’ to my mind. So for ‘pudding’ we had another Pakistani specialty - Kheer - a bit like rice pudding, made with angel hair pasta fried in butter, then boiled in milk, and refined with cream, raisins and brown sugar. And no, I did not say it would be low-calorie.

And yes, I am sure Tina Christoudias-Spyrou would agree. Tina is a clinical dietician at Cyprus Diet Coach www.cyprusdietcoach.com and had kindly offered to provide us with a little more information on some of the meal's ingredients. Fascinating - such beneficial foods (apart from the fried pasta maybe): cumin, a good source of iron, ginger is actually a pain killer and can help with muscle aches, and turmeric has anti-inflammatory properties.

A big thank you to Tina for sharing this information and of course to my lovely, fantastically witty guests who not only walked away healthy but also very happy and having made new friends. Here’s to many more such healthy and fun evenings!

On June 23rd you’ll actually be able to walk away also having made new business contacts. It'll be a 'networking dinner' that has been in the planning for several weeks now for a few of us like-minded networkers to brainstorm ideas on how to work together/help each other out/promote the many different skills & talents...

My fabulous next door neighbor Mike Flett and his wife Wilma will be hosting the dinner and Mike’s company L.Gnaftis & Co. Ltd www.gnaftis.com has kindly offered to sponsor this event. We’ll even have the place decorated by Florentina Panayi from BRILL events www.brill-events.com! The food, finger food from around the world, will be made by Mary's Dinner Club of course. If you'd like to participate (or know of anyone who would) please contact me with details at maryanglbe@hotmail.com or 96 58 90 22.

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