The Ultimate Guide to Indian Festive Platters: 5 Tips and Ideas for Every Celebration
Festivities in India are a considerable portion of the land’s tradition and culture. Known to celebrate each festival with as much pomp and pride, the people always look forward to the year-end, especially since the calendar ends on a flourishing note with New Year.
Not surprisingly then, food becomes a central topic of discussion during such festive gatherings, attracting almost all the guests’ attention. If a large gathering is being hosted, it is important to keep the weather, location of the venue, and age group of the guests in mind (not to mention individual dietary preferences).
Here are a few important pointers while curating customised festive platters for special occasions.
Incorporating Seasonal as well as Regional Staples
It’s always a best practice to keep in account the season in which the festive gathering is to take place. This opens up multiple opportunities for the event planner or host to incorporate symbolism and themes, all the while drawing inspiration from the season.
Thanksgiving and Halloween for example are steeped in Autumnal themes, with the colour orange and pumpkin dominating food platters as well as decorations. Using such seasonal produce (in terms of herbs, fruits, and vegetables) makes the festive platters much more authentic and attractive.
Balancing the Sweet and Savoury Elements
It’s crucial to always aim for a balanced meal. Sweet elements like cakes, cookies, fudges, and the like should always complement the quiches, sandwiches, and cheesy delights if the festivity is a non-traditional one.
For traditional events or other similar occasions, the platter should consist of sweetmeats like laddoo, kaju barfi, sonpapdi, along with samosas and spicy pakoras.
A platter that has elements seamlessly flowing from one taste profile to the next also symbolises the cultural emphasis on balance and abundance during festivals.
Featuring Popular Regional Curries
It’s always a good idea to include curries on the platter, especially when Indian festivities are being highlighted. Dishes like chana masala, paneer tikka masala, or even a generously buttered rajma are a welcome change to the dried-out, one-biters that platters generally consist of. Scrumptious Indian breads like Tandoori Roti or Naan go brilliantly with such curries, making the platter more authentic, tasty, and filling.
Adding a Selection of Festive Rice Dishes
Indian festive platters seem sort of incomplete without rice dishes. A staple grain in the country, rice dominates the food chain in many parts of India. Hence, delicacies like pulao, biryani, jeera rice, or even lemon rice should undoubtedly find a place in the assortment of foods served during the festive gathering.
Each Indian rice dish, with its plethora of ingredients including vegetables, nuts, and saffron, is bound to become the fulcrum for any Indian platter considering it will be the vehicle on which the side dishes and other curries will depend.
Highlighting Festive Snacks and Starters
Indian platters should most definitely have a subsection under snacks and starters, considering the country’s cuisines have so much to offer in these segments.
From aloo tikki, dahi puri, kachori, phuchka, to papri chaat, jhalmuri, and vada pav, the guests will surely be more than spoilt for choice. Each dish could be crafted as a one or two-biter, their sweet and spicy hit paving the way for the main course.
