On Sunday morning, Jac and I made raita to take along with us, which we garnished with pan-roasted cumin seeds.

My assigned task was cooking the pappadam. We’d bought two varieties of mini pappadam from Coles supermarket. The garlic pappadam cooked up kind of curly:

The plain ones looked a little less *interesting*! I cooked the pappadam in the microwave, two at a time placed on opposite sides of a paper towel on a dish, on High for 45 seconds. I cooked a dozen of each type so there would be plenty for everyone. I thought both varieties tasted quite similar.

As per the menu, we started off with the samosas, served warm.

They were filled with a mixture of potato and sweet potato. We ended up taking half a dozen or so home with us that day, and I really enjoyed them cold, straight out of the fridge. It was difficult to not simply gorge myself on these as they were so yummy – I just love pastries with savoury fillings! But I knew there was so much more to come.

Pattycakes brought out a dish of spicy lamb chops as well. These weren’t on the menu, but she thought they fitted in very well with our lunch. They were very spicy but I happily gnawed my way through a couple of chops, as I love lamb.

A fantastic spread, eh? In the square dish is mango chutney.

The tomato, mint, coriander, parsley and red onion was very refreshing.

E had also made raita, so we decided to eat hers and take ours home for later. The recipe we used was heavier on yoghurt than E’s, which was more cucumbery.

Dhal:

Beef curry:

Chicken tikka, my favourite of the meat dishes.

The potato, pumpkin and carrot dish:

You know, cashew nuts, fried onions and ginger make a most delicious rice dish.

The kids had their ham and pineapple pizza. I secretly thought this looked really good too, and was quite tempted to ask if I could have a slice. Seriously though, with all the delicious things on offer, I really didn’t have any space to spare for pizza. :)

My plate, round one. Everything was tasty. Even though it was a hot day, our curryfest was a roaring success! I love curry on a scorching hot summer’s day almost as much as I love curry on a rainy, cold winter’s day. Thank you to everyone who helped cook up this fantastic meal.

Jac had requested an ice cream cake for her birthday cake. Unfortunately, due to a technical glitch, it wasn’t as frozen as it should’ve been, so we had to serve it out of the container it came in using a spoon rather than cutting it into slices. The kids thought this was pretty cool. :)