In my last blog I wrote about planning a small dinner party for some close friends. After doing loads of research, browsing through many blogs, I decided to keep it simple and make one of my favourite meals I grew up with and still love now: Surinamese Roti!
I did most of the groceries with my cousin in the morning and met up with my friend Cleo afterwards. We started the cooking process while her wonderful boyfriend was crowned “please buy the forgotten groceries”- man. In the meantime the rest of the company arrived and helped us with drinks and an occasional stir in the many pots and pans we used.
Roti is originally an Indian dish, that consists of a roti-pancake (a large flatbread like pancake) served with curried potatoes, pumpkin, eggplant, beans, a curried egg and or curried chicken. I tried to make “healthier” version, including loads of veggies minimizing on the fat content and skipping the chicken of course.
I wasn’t surprised to get some complaints about the missing chicken and I had to explain once more why I decided to become a vegetarian. Since I didn’t wrote about it yet, I feel now is good opportunity to share my opinion about (not) eating meat. First of all, it is important to know that I ate meat my entire life, and loved it, till December in 2009. What most people don’t know about me is that I always wanted to be a vegetarian for the sake of the animals. I just think it’s cruel the way animals are being abused, stuffed with hormones and then slaughtered for us western humans to eat. No living creature deserves to be treated this way. On the other hand, I also know that animal products contain nutrients that are very hard, sometimes impossible, to replace completely. This is why I first decided to minimize my animal-produce intake. I still eat eggs and other animal based products like milk and yogurt. Every once in a while I also eat fish, just to make sure I’m not missing out on vital nutrients.
A second reason I decided to lay off the meat, was to stimulate mindful eating. With mindful eating I mean being aware of the stuff you eat and what your body needs. Once I decided to skip on the animal stuff, I automatically started making more healthy food choices to make sure my body got all the stuff it really needs. This doesn’t mean I don’t indulge every once in a while, I am merely human after all. The difference is that instead of buying store-bought chips and cookies, I now prefer to make my own! This way I know exactly what goes in and how much and for some reason I now just enjoy food more.
But than again, this is merely my opinion. I’m just doing what feels right to me. Everybody can decide on their own what they want to eat, or not. I’m not going to tell you what’s good or bad for you, unless you ask my direct opinion ;). Please note that even I craved meat once, and sometimes I still do. What keeps me from eating and craving it is my stomach, which simply won’t bear the heavy load anymore…
And now, back to my dinner party! For starters I made corn fritters served with mojitos, made by the “please buy the forgotten groceries”- man ;). For dessert we had (not so healthy) chocolate puffed pastries with balsamic strawberries and whipped cream. After a whopping three hours of cooking we were finally done, ready to plate up and serve. It was delicious.
To wrap thing up, here are some pictures that will maybe get you inspired to host your own dinner party. I always say: Good food, happy people.
Some prep work:
The final results:
Stacey
