Amina's Shower/Henna Night

Last Friday, we had Amina's shower/henna night at Khatija's. It was a potluck and we had many delicious things to eat. What follows is a small sampling of the offerings.



This is Elif's famous fried vegetable dish. It is a combination of fried patatoes, eggplant, zucchini, red and green frying peppers topped with a delicious tomato sauce. Everything is meticulously cut into tiny tiny pieces, so that a spoonful of it contains all the different kinds of vegetables. Although Elif (who is humble to a fault) says that anyone can do it, none of us so far have been able to make it the way she does.



This gift tray was contributed by the same family who brought the petit feurres I extensively wrote about in La Patisserie Jerrahi. I was handling myself quite well in terms of my food intake until this basket appeared. But then again, who can resist homemade puff pastry? There were two kinds, the ones with sesame seeds had a feta cheese filling, while nigella seed ones had a ground meat filling. They were both excellent. Since I thought that puff pastry is out of my league, I did not ask for the recipe, but I have seriously started to think about giving it a try soon. If mine turns out half as good as this one, I'll consider my effort worthwhile.



This tray of stuffed mushrooms were made by my friend Guzide. Although they appeared later in the night when people were quite full, they did not last long. Guzide is an inspired cook who can never make the same thing twice, but I'll try to get the recipe out of her.



These spicy chicken cubes and lamb patties were excellent. They were served on a bed of lightly sauteed onion rings, and there was an equally excellent tamarind sauce to go with them. I have the recipes in my Indian cookbook, and will add them here in the near future.