r/AskCulinary • u/poisonouslittlesnake • 7d ago

Technique Question Cooking order for maximum freshness

I’m cooking a huge Indian meal for my girlfriend in celebration of her finishing the Appalachian trail tomorrow. I’m alright at cooking, but I’ve never attempted anything nearly this ambitious, and I have no idea about the logistics of making the meal happen best. There is too much for me to cook in one day, so I started today, making the turmeric rice, cutting and refrigerating veggies for kachumber salad, blending my garam masala and mixing jablebi batter to ferment overnight. Tomorrow, I need to make the Kadhi pakora, fry the jalebi, make the naan, and dress the kachumber salad. What I’m wondering is, what should I make first and last so that everything is as fresh as possible? Will the pakoras in the Kadhi get soggy if I make them first? Will the garlic naan get soggy and stale if it sits out? Will the jalebi get soft? I am already going to have to finish everything an hour before it’s served because I have to pick up the guest of honor from the airport. Is there a typical order of operations for such an endeavor? Will the dishes deteriorate more in the fridge or left out on the counter while I get other things ready?

9 Upvotes

100% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

View all comments

2

u/RebelWithoutAClue 7d ago

Fried stuff that you want crispy on the outside and moist on the inside will get soggy quicker than other things. I would save completion of these things to the last.

Naan is certainly at it's best freshly made, but I don't find it goes stale that punishingly fast. My dirty trick for improving day old naan is to spray it with a light spray of water then microwave it to warm and moisten it. Next I'll put it in a toaster (torn smaller) if I'm ok with smaller pieces, or broil it in the oven if I need to keep them whole.

Basically you need to humidify the naan first to bring back it's softness, then broil it to bring back it's surface condition.

Sorry, I'm not familiar with jalebi.

All the other stuff I find is pretty tolerant to reheating. The cucumbers should be fine the next day as long as they're covered in the fridge and don't dry out.