A Lovely Iftar with Friends

Assalamualaikum! I hope your days are going well. The last ten nights of Ramadan are here. The time flies so fast, it feels like we just started fasting yesterday. Alhamdulillah, I was blessed with the opportunity to have a small gathering of friends over for iftar. It was a night filled with conversation, laughter, and fun.

You know you're desi when your invite was for 8pm and people start trickling in around 8:45pm (and you're secretly glad because your prep is also running behind schedule). ;)

Today, I am sharing the iftar and dinner menu of the night for inspiration. With my husband's support and encouragement, I was able to put together this menu. Thanks, once again, to all of my lovely friends for joining us and please keep me and my family in your duas. Please let me know if you would like any of the recipes of the food items below. Enjoy!

Here is the food spread. We started with a simple iftar of chocolate dipped and cream cheese filled dates along with water and roohafza milk. 

After prayer, we served dinner. Appetizers were ...

Fruit. I was trying to channel my baby sis here. She has the neatest fruit presentations ever and I got a few pointers from her. I will convince her to do a guest blog post soon.

Chicken Sandwiches

Meat puffs (some were chicken and some were beef) ;)

Stuffed mushrooms by my wonderful friend

Stuffed bread pockets by another gorgeous friend 

A side of condiments - raita (yogurt sauce), and kachumber (onions with salt and pepper and lemon juice)

The main dishes were...

The most amazing yukhni pulao made with goat meat by my lovely friend. (a flavorful rice dish cooked in meat broth) 

Butter paneer (a slow cooked butter sauce with paneer cubes and peas)

Chicken jalfarezi (meat on bone cooked with green and red peppers)

Bihari kabob (spicy marinaded thin steak meat cooked till tender and smoked with charcoal)

Desserts were ...

Rose kulfi

Tres leches cake

Mango tart made by another lovely friend.

I hope you enjoyed this traditional desi dinner menu. I would love to hear from you so make sure to leave a comment below.