Hi Karen, in one of those strangely optimistic moments I've arranged an Indian dinner party for 12 at my house. I'm pretty comfortable cooking Indian, but just realized that I have no clue what to make for dessert! All the Indian desserts I know are carbohydrate bombs: for example my favorite is/was farina cooked in butter and sugar instead of milk. No way can that be adapted to low carb!

Do you have any suggestions? The only thing I could think of is to make panna cotta with Indian dessert spices like cardamom. Which could be a logistical problem (despite how wonderful your panna cotta recipe is) to set up 12 of them in my kitchen, with all the other food I'll have in the fridge. So I'd be eternally grateful for other ideas.

Luckily I have a couple of weeks to figure this out before the party.

You don't want to know how many gulab jamun I could pack away in one sitting.

I have 2.5 ideas...

Take the Chocolate Bourbon Frozen Cheesecake and "kulfi-ize" it. Omit the bourbon, chocolate and nuts and add cardamom, rosewater and a bit of lemon rind. If you're daring, add a pinch of saffron. Freeze in individual bowls and garnish with silver leaf if you can find it.

Chai Panna Cotta. Use 1/2 brewed chai and 1/2 cream - you may want to bump up the chai spices - and pour into champagne flutes. They don't have to be unmolded and will take up less space.

You could probably come up with an interesting barfi type thing by using butter, whey protein isolate and some coconut. I was playing around with something else tonight and started with blending whey protein, a bit of cream and melted butter in a food processor. Before I added all the butter, the texture reminded me of barfi.

What else are you making for dinner?

Karen

Thanks Karen, these ideas are great! I just knew you'd know what to do. I especially like the frozen one, think I may have to do that. There was a sale at the gourmet food store so I bought the rosewater today, yay!

We're going to do buffet style because it's a Bollywood party, we'll eat and watch dance numbers from Bollywood movies. As for the menu we're still working on it but here's the basic plan: we'll have lamb korma, I have a recipe I really like with crispy onions on top. Also shrimp in cilantro/green chili sauce, saag paneer, cauliflower. Also saffron rice for the carb eaters among us and several condiments of course. I guess we'll make a cucumber salad too, and maybe some chunks of melon, to cut the spiciness.

Also a few of the guests can cook and they're bringing a vegetable curry (not sure yet what's in it ), a chicken dish, and a lentil dish. Another guest is bringing naan from a local restaurant. We'll have Kingfisher beer and Shiraz wine (recommended by the snooty Colin Cowie to go with Indian). I'm a little alarmed by the prospect of feeding 12, but looking over this menu I think we'll be okay

Hey Karen, I read through the chocolate bourbon frozen cheesecake recipe -- without the bourbon what keeps it from freezing too hard? I have used xantham gum in ice cream with good success, but it does end up a bit gummy.

The menu sounds great! Saag panir is one of my all time favourites.

Are you going to dress up Bollywood style and dance in unison? I watched a scene from Bollywood movie being filmed at the top of the Peak in Hong Kong. I thought it was so cool that it was happening while I was there.

Anyway, you can use vodka or because the dessert is being served all at once, you can put it in the fridge for an hour before serving it.

Shiraz with Indian eh? The interesting thing is that one particular wine from a certain producer may be great with a certain food. It doesn't mean that the varietal goes well with the food. But that's how great pairings come about...by being daring!

Karen

Hi Karen! I wanted to post yesterday about my party plans but we had no net access because of the hurricane

Anyway the party was this evening and the dessert was a hit! I made the frozen cheesecake, left out the chocolate and vanilla and added cardamom, rosewater and saffron. Used a kulfi recipe to get the proportions right and froze it in little dessert cups. Everyone loved it; several people asked me for the recipe!

We had 12 people but I made enough food for an army. The funny thing is, I made this huge pot of rice, but not much of it got eaten because 5 of us were low carbing! I had only known about one other. It seems like more people are doing it all the time!

Indian leftovers are a pretty good thing to have around.
Ah, you're on your way to becoming a LC cooking goddess! Bask in the glory!

Karen