Mini Diwali get together
so on Sunday, we had a mini Diwali get together at a friend's place or more appropriately a Dhantaras get together.
Honestly, I had never heard it till i saw it on random friend's FB status, and now that i know about it, i keep repeating/writing/saying it out - it just sounds so exotic.
uhm....i was talking to AD, who was like 'oh yeah that festival that my aunt in Pune celebrates"...we were thinking how its funny that whole Diwali just gets a nodding pass in Kerala
Anyhoo, point of post was mini Diwali get together was a pot luck dinner with 'chaat' theme
and I made
Pani Puris (or as the boy keeps saying Puschkas) and Shirkhand.
and can i just say it is my crowning culinary achievement - the Shirkhand, i mean not the blindingly easy Pani puris.
Gawd making that base curd for the Shirkhand was hell!!!
you first have to take the yogurt, mix it with toasted saffron and cardamom powder, and let the whole thing drain over cheesecloth or muslin cloth for hours (don't let the F&w fool you, one hour is just not enough) & voila, you have the base curd.
We tried it twice - once with paper towels - ugh! what a joke! i never saw the whey
and then with coffee filters because i couldn't bother to drive to Target to get the cheesecloth.
It was thick but not as thick as I wanted and sweet but not as sweet as that first shrikhand I ever tasted, way back as a kid in Madras.
yumm....
i just remember walking with family friend that summer and her telling me there was something she really wanted me to taste.
and getting me Shrikhand.
ok, it might have been an AMul packaged thing but never before or since, had i tasted anything so deliciously creamy yet thick.
it was so full of goodness that i kept raving about it months after the vacation and since none of my folks were with me during my evening trek with family friend and since i could not for the life of me remember the word 'Shrikhand', they kept making fun of my imagined phantom food.
i was also reading random book that summer, which had the phrase 'god's nectar' and tht really is the best description for Shirkhand - god's nectar.
so took dishes, the puris, the panis (2 of them) and the stuffings and the shirkhand, which the boy put in a big cardboard carton which he lined with plastic and then placed on a plastic liner in his car, just because we had just washed car in morn (by freaking hand in glorious fl weather)
the pani puri was so-so, until host friend graciously and v.subtly showed me what was missing - a squeeze of lemon and sprinklings of home made chat powder
How happy am i that i am getting to try out diff. recipes with peer group than old odd relatives - v. happy!!!!
the shirkhand was a freaking hit - i was quite amazed !!!
quite.
people even took it home.
sweet.
and today, i need to get to the freaking gym to work out all the extra pounds.
i am reading this book called 'The year of living biblically' , which is such a nice secular examination of if we can actually live according to letter of the bible.
& one of the things the author discovers is that most times instead our outer actions affect our psyche as opposed to the other way around.
I know, i know - old discovery.
but i keep sitting on my behind waiting for inspiration to hit for me to hit the gym.
but have discovered the days that i actually just do it, i get all motivated to just keep doing it.
so that's my principle for today - forget stinking inspirations and just do it & let inspirations come as they come.
Honestly, I had never heard it till i saw it on random friend's FB status, and now that i know about it, i keep repeating/writing/saying it out - it just sounds so exotic.
uhm....i was talking to AD, who was like 'oh yeah that festival that my aunt in Pune celebrates"...we were thinking how its funny that whole Diwali just gets a nodding pass in Kerala
Anyhoo, point of post was mini Diwali get together was a pot luck dinner with 'chaat' theme
and I made
Pani Puris (or as the boy keeps saying Puschkas) and Shirkhand.
and can i just say it is my crowning culinary achievement - the Shirkhand, i mean not the blindingly easy Pani puris.
Gawd making that base curd for the Shirkhand was hell!!!
you first have to take the yogurt, mix it with toasted saffron and cardamom powder, and let the whole thing drain over cheesecloth or muslin cloth for hours (don't let the F&w fool you, one hour is just not enough) & voila, you have the base curd.
We tried it twice - once with paper towels - ugh! what a joke! i never saw the whey
and then with coffee filters because i couldn't bother to drive to Target to get the cheesecloth.
It was thick but not as thick as I wanted and sweet but not as sweet as that first shrikhand I ever tasted, way back as a kid in Madras.
yumm....
i just remember walking with family friend that summer and her telling me there was something she really wanted me to taste.
and getting me Shrikhand.
ok, it might have been an AMul packaged thing but never before or since, had i tasted anything so deliciously creamy yet thick.
it was so full of goodness that i kept raving about it months after the vacation and since none of my folks were with me during my evening trek with family friend and since i could not for the life of me remember the word 'Shrikhand', they kept making fun of my imagined phantom food.
i was also reading random book that summer, which had the phrase 'god's nectar' and tht really is the best description for Shirkhand - god's nectar.
so took dishes, the puris, the panis (2 of them) and the stuffings and the shirkhand, which the boy put in a big cardboard carton which he lined with plastic and then placed on a plastic liner in his car, just because we had just washed car in morn (by freaking hand in glorious fl weather)
the pani puri was so-so, until host friend graciously and v.subtly showed me what was missing - a squeeze of lemon and sprinklings of home made chat powder
How happy am i that i am getting to try out diff. recipes with peer group than old odd relatives - v. happy!!!!
the shirkhand was a freaking hit - i was quite amazed !!!
quite.
people even took it home.
sweet.
and today, i need to get to the freaking gym to work out all the extra pounds.
i am reading this book called 'The year of living biblically' , which is such a nice secular examination of if we can actually live according to letter of the bible.
& one of the things the author discovers is that most times instead our outer actions affect our psyche as opposed to the other way around.
I know, i know - old discovery.
but i keep sitting on my behind waiting for inspiration to hit for me to hit the gym.
but have discovered the days that i actually just do it, i get all motivated to just keep doing it.
so that's my principle for today - forget stinking inspirations and just do it & let inspirations come as they come.
2 comments:
Yeah I just love shrikhand too. 'Twas a childhood delicacy on visits to an aunt in Pune. The best thing is not to add the sugar etc. to the curd before draining. The ideal is to drain the curd through a thin cloth kept in a colander and leave it in the refrigerator over night. Then add whatever you plan to add. A great idea is to use low-fat yoghurt and then slice tinned mangoes or litchis and place the fruit around it.
btw, about Diwali--it's because we have no winter here and it's essentially a beginning of winter festival.
OOoh...that does make sense ... both about Diwali and Shirkhand!!!
Thank you:)
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