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For Eid Milad un Nabi – the day that marks the birth of Prophet Muhammad, it is marked as a joyous occasion in the Islamic calendar. Apart from the prayers and recitations of the prophet’s great work, festivities also include enjoying community-style meals where there is an exchange of special preparations that are made for the day. While most special occasion are community style festivals that involve a group of people coming together to enjoy traditional dishes, streamline how food can be made and served in the middle of the week, by hosting a four-course dinner.
Whether it is making a few dishes at home and out-sourcing the rest, it is always better to have specific decisions made about what you’d like for your guests to enjoy in the spirit of Eid. Hence, we’ve designed a four-course meal that encapsulates the essence of Eid – with rich and indulgent meat dishes, juxtaposed with soothing desserts and a comforting bowl of Haleem.
Course 1: Gosht Ke Sev & Peshawari Naan
No special dinner occasion for a festival is complete without serving some delicious Peshawari Naan and Gosht Ke Sev. The Peshawari naan is a delicious stuffed traditional flatbread that is fluffy and soft in texture. Typically, the filling constitutes a mixture of raisins, slivered almonds, desiccated coconut and butter – which is embedded into a sheet of dough and layered with a second sheet, before baking in a tandoor or skillet. Usually eaten with a savoury or spicy meat-based accompaniment, these naans pair beautifully with tender, boneless mutton kebabs – seasoned with a mixture of garam masala, red chilli powder and ginger-garlic paste, and cooked on a hot, greasy tava.
Course 2: Mutton Haleem
A paste-like slow-cooked stew made with ground mutton and grains of whole wheat or barley, the mutton Haleem is deeply flavoured, and replaces the need for a ‘soupy’ element in a dawat pretty well. Made with a medley of exotic spices like saffron, cardamom, caraway seeds and dry fruits like figs and almonds, the Haleem has the perfect balance of complex savouriness, meatiness and a mild sweetness. Usually cooked overnight, in order to let it achieve the perfectly semi-solid consistency, it is garnished with freshly chopped coriander, fried onions and a wedge of lime, before eating.
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Course 3: Shahi Mutton Biryani/Muradabadi Yakhni Biryani
A fragrant dum biryani that cooks fragrant grains of long-grain basmati rice in an aromatic, fatty stock of mutton – the Muradabadi yakhni biryani is the perfect main course for an Eid feast. Pair it with a delicious kachumber made of finely chopped cucumber, onions and a smattering of chaat masala, for extra zing. What’s also perfect about this biryani is that it can be made a day ahead of the actual celebrations and reheated when your dinner companions are ready to begin feasting. Alternately, you could also opt for the classic Shahi mutton biryani scented with whole spices and finished off with ghee, dry fruits and saffron milk.
Course 4: Sheer Khurma & Rice Phirni
Let your guests take their pick between a warm bowl of sheer khurma or cold and creamy phirni garnished with chopped pistachios. Since both are milk-based desserts consisting of similar flavouring agents – saffron, cardamom and almonds, among others, your friends can enjoy a dessert course based on what they feel like indulging in. With the nutty flavour from the toasted vermicelli in the sheer khurma, to the creamy-crunchy textural play of the phirni – this is the most perfect way to end a feast that is fit for a literal king!
