Dinner Party: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan

One of the downsides of living outside of a city - and one of the things that we miss about Boston - is the lack of ethnic diversity. While there is great Mexican food in this area, you have to go to Portland for most other types. (For example: there aren't any Middle Eastern, Indian or South Asian restaurants anywhere in The Gorge. Period.)

That has never deterred us, though; we'll just do it ourselves, at home. But rather than go it alone in the wilderness, we have cultivated a cadre of similar-minded foodies and participate in ethnic food parties. Previous ethnic-themed dinners have covered Thai, Spanish, and German. For this one, we were inspired by our favorite restaurant: The Helmand, an Afghani restaurant in Cambridge, MA. (If you are ever in the Boston area, we highly recommend it.)

For our dinner party, we expanded the scope to include a few of the surrounding countries: Iran, Iraq, Afghanistan, Pakistan. We made two of our cookbooks available as inspiration: Afghan Food and Cookery and Cuisines of the Axis of Evil and Other Irritating States: A Dinner Party Approach to International Relations. We invited a few dozen friends, made a few recipes ourselves, and just let the dishes roll in.

• Chalau Sof / Afghan style baked rice (Afghanistan)
  
• Koufta Chalau / Meatballs (Afghanistan)
  
• Nani Afghani / Flatbread (Afghanistan)
  
• Borrani banjan / Eggplant (Afghanistan)
  
• Sfiha / Arab pizza (Syria/Lebanon)
  
• Helawat al Jazr / Sweet Cardamon Carrots (Iran)
  
• Chelo Kebab Barg / Roasted goat (Iran)
  
• Lawang e Samaruq / Mushrooms in Yogurt (Afghanistan)
  
• Channa / Chickpea curry (Indian)
  
• Hummus / Hummus (everywhere)
  
• Chicken Jalfarezi / Chicken curry (Pakistan)
  
• Achaar Chicken / Tangy curry chicken (Pakistan)
  
• Naan Berenji / Persian Rice Cookies (Iran)

Interestingly, only a few of the dishes used meat, which made the vegetarians in the group very happy. There were probably a few more dishes as well that didn't get included in this list. (Most of the recipes that aren't linked are from one of the two cookbooks above.) Here was the resulting spread, in all its splendor:

We encouraged people to bring beverages as well, with the stipulation that "all drinks must comply with the local customs in these countries" (aka "think twice before bringing beer or wine"). The resulting beverage list included two kinds of chai; Ouzo that was homemade by a friend of one of the participants (technically it isn't from one of the countries indicated, but how do you turn away a homemade liquor?); and Johnny Walker with water. That last one is apparently what all the Indian men drink in the backrooms. Yes, technically outside of the indicated countries, but it's a great visual, isn't it?

We love these parties. They give people an opportunity/excuse to expand their cooking experiences, but more importantly, we all get to help eat the results.

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Pancake Revival

Who doesn't have fond childhood memories of having pancakes? Anders, that's who. We have never made him pancakes. When we were first married, we tried several pancake recipes but were not impressed with any of the results. For us, waffles and french toast beat out pancakes any day. So pancakes were never on our breakfast menu.

But now that Anders is around, we have started to feel guilty. Have we been depriving him of a quintessential American adolescent experience? If it weren't for daycare, Anders wouldn't even know what a pancake was. So we came up with a plan. We were sure that some of our parent friends must make pancakes for their kids, and they can't all be as dull as ours, right? Time for another themed food party: Pancake Revival!

We invited some of our friends-with-young-children to brunch and asked them to bring a pancake recipe, either one of their favorites or a new one to try. We would cook up a batch of each different recipe and let everyone enjoy the variety, including the kids.

We had pancakes of all sorts: buckwheat, whole wheat; pumpkin, strawberry, blueberry, spiced; thick, thin. And lots of them. We had griddles going simultaneously for at least an hour. All of the kids, including Anders, got their fill of pancakes that day.

It certainly wasn't a contest, so I won't declare a "winner". But we did come away with a recipe for Buttermilk Pancakes that all three of us liked. It turned out to be a recipe from the cookbook of the Wildflower Cafe, a longtime favorite restaurant in the Gorge that closed several years ago.

Since this event was really all about the kids, here are some of the participants:

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders

Ethan's 3rd Birthday

Anders recently attended the 3rd birthday party for Ethan. The party was actually held outside in a local park - Toll Bridge Park in Parkdale, OR. We're considering stealing that idea since it makes cleanup (both before and after) a whole lot easier!

Anders hasn't had soda before. In fact, he hasn't really even had juice that much since we've tried to steer him towards water and milk instead. But we figured that a birthday party seemed like the right place for him to "live it up". I figured that he probably wouldn't like the Izze Sodas that Corinne and I were drinking; as a kid I remember disliking anything that had any sort of carbonation in it. But apparently it isn't genetic.

There were also juice boxes there which were for the kids. But interestingly, the Izze's Sodas had less sugar than the juice boxes! Anders did eventually switch to juice and managed to guzzle down at least two over the course of the party.

Ethan's birthday cake was actually constructed of individual cupcakes. Amy found a silicone cupcake kit that came with instructions for arranging individual cupcake molds on a baking sheet in various patterns. After baking the cupcakes would blend together on the top so that they could be frosted as one, but they still separated into cupcakes in the end. Pretty clever! And tasty.

- Mike, Corinne and Anders Rocket

Catherine's Birthday

(This is another 'archival' post from summer 2010.)

Our friend Catherine celebrated her 30th birthday recently. At the party, there was a cardboard 'stage' and a box of miscellaneous costume accessories: hats, mustaches, etc. Fun!

- Mike, Corinne, and Anders Rocket

6 June 2010