Some dear friends of ours gave us a fabulous gift for Christmas this year – a West Indian Dinner from Culture Kitchen SF. I’d never heard of this San Francisco business before receiving this box, but I’ll definitely be interested in trying this again!

They do both in-person cooking classes in a variety of cuisines and dinners in a box. Our Indian dinner came with recipes, rice, dal, and all the spices needed to make a complete Indian dinner. All I had to buy were the perishables – chicken, dairy products (yogurt and heavy cream), and the fresh vegetables.

January was a super busy month and I never had time to devote to all the chopping and preparation this meal was going to require. But as soon as the Bobbin’s Nest brick and mortar store was closed, I put the making of this feast on the top of my list of things to do!

Once everything was chopped and organized, this meal came together amazingly easily. In the above photo you can see the entire spread – chicken tikka at the top left (best chicken tikka I have EVER had, by the way!), moong dal on the bottom left, spiced vegetables in the center (broccoli, carrots, potato, and red pepper), and saffron rice with cashews and golden raisins on the right. Accompanied by cilantro for garnish, a red onion pickle for the chicken tikka, and my requisite plain yogurt (the key to tolerating spicy food, in my opinion).

And here it is on my plate! This was really spectacular. The recipes are all keepers, and the bonus is that I actually own most of the spices already, though there are a few that I’ll have to make a trip to the Indian market for (I don’t have amchur powder, tava masala, or asofoetida, but I’m sure they’ll have them).

I’m looking forward to making this meal for company sometime!