If you’re hosting a dinner party, it can either be thrilling or overwhelming. Perhaps a little of both, right? I’ve hosted all kinds of dinner parties, and often, the hallmark of an Indian dinner party is the diverse array of dishes, flavors, and textures. However, sometimes one special dish can make the entire evening. Think of it as a centerpiece. It’s one dish that is self-contained and doesn’t require any side dishes. Now, it has to be memorable and worthy of the title ‘signature dish.’ What’s an example? Nearly every cuisine has its signature dishes but I’m talking about something that is a stand-alone like a Spanish Paella of aromatic rice stewed fish, seafood, garlic, tomato, ground paprika, and saffron…or a French Beef Bourguignon braised in red wine with carrots, onions, garlic, herbs, pearl onions, mushrooms, and bacon. Such dishes require high quality ingredients, focus, and time. However, in other ways, you’re zeroing in on a single dish, so it can also mean less work for you…with a little creativity and planning.

We recently hosted our friends Shirley and Tim for dinner at home here in Harlem. Sean and I knew we wanted to go with one impressive dish and we knew instantly what to make: Lamb Korma Pilaf. If you’re familiar with Big Apple Curry, you know that it’s my all-time favorite Indian cookbook recipe. I’ve given it my own twist, and it’s a dish that will make any dinner party sing. It will knock the socks off your guests. I’m not kidding. What exactly is Lamb Korma Pilaf? You might have heard of one or more of these words if you’ve eaten a ‘chicken korma‘ in an Indian restaurant or a ‘rice-based pilaf’ in a Middle Eastern home. Korma is a type of Indian curry that is made with meat or vegetables and is cooked down with spices, yogurt, tomatoes, and water, which thickly coats it; korma is often served with rice or flatbread like naan. Pilaf is a Middle Eastern rice dish which steams long-grained rice with water and spices, and combined with meat or vegetables. And so, Lamb Korma Pilaf combines the two ideas. At first glance it’s deceptive, Sean says, because it just looks like some meat mixed with rice. On the contrary, it’s an incredibly complex and balanced dish with many layers of flavor.

With Lamb Korma Pilaf as the signature dish, here is the menu that Sean and I created for a real show stopping dinner party:

A Big Apple Curry Dinner for Shirley & Tim

Harlem, New York

Appetizers
Vegetable Samosas; Camembert Le Chatelain; Raincoast Crisps; and Cracked Pepper Water Crackers

Signature Dish ~ Lamb Korma Pilaf
Local pasture-raised boneless lamb slow-cooked with browned onions, whole and ground spices, ginger, garlic, yogurt, and tomato then folded with saffron basmati rice, served with tamarind-date chutney, saffron yogurt sauce and fresh mint

Dessert
Pistachio-kulfi cardamom ice cream

In addition to putting out some crackers, cheeses, and fresh vegetables, we chose a couple of interesting appetizers that complement one another. First up were small-sized samosas filled with mixed vegetables and lemongrass and served with mint chutney. We made things much easier for ourselves by outsourcing it to our online grocer FreshDirect, which makes a great cocktail curried vegetable samosa tray. This way, all we would have to do is pop them into a 350F oven for 15 minutes et voila! 

Next up we decided to make our all-time favorite baked French camembert, which is topped with caramelized onions combined with crushed red pepper, rosemary, and mango chutney. The result is a deeply rich, sweet, piquant, oozing spoon of hot camembert that follows perfectly after your guests devour a platter full of samosas and mint chutney. I usually wait to serve this until 15-20 minutes after the samosas disappear in order to pace out the evening.

By choosing a couple of easy appetizers, I was able to turn all my attention to preparing the Lamb Korma Pilaf. The beauty of focusing on a signature dish is you have the time and space to get it right. In this case, the basis of the Lamb Korma Pilaf is formed by four finely chopped large red onions (yes, four) that are slowly browned for nearly one hour. Then, freshly grated ginger and six garlic cloves make their appearance (yes, six) as do whole spices like cinnamon stick, whole cloves, and green cardamom pods. This is followed by pieces of boneless lamb. Nearly 15 ground spices come next, which each add their own dimension of flavor, nutmeg, coriander, fenugreek, and more. Adding fresh tomatoes, plain yogurt, and salt, the whole thing comes to a boil and then simmers gently on a low flame for at least one hour more.

At the end, the pieces of lamb are richly coated in a shiny glaze, as pictured here.

While the lamb korma is simmering, in another pot, white basmati rice is sautéed with whole cumin seed, and bay leaf, and then steamed in water, kosher salt, and saffron. Then, you put it all together by folding the aromatic lamb with fragrant saffron rice. It bakes in the oven to seal in the flavors.

When serving, we plate the Lamb Korma Pilaf individually for each guest, and top it with fine fresh mint leaves. Served table side are tamarind-date chutney and saffron yogurt sauce, which are drizzled on top. I love pulling out our wedding china and serving the saffron yogurt sauce in our creamer.

To complete the menu, we had glasses of buttery Chardonnay and richly dark craft beers, ending with a frozen kulfi cardamom pistachio for dessert and finished with chilled Canadian ice wine. Tim and Shirley loved it.