The pre-Diwali office pot-luck...

I've always landed up in offices where people love to eat... IETS has been no exception. The gang from the BKC office has transported their urge to eat all things nice to the Saki Naka second office untarnished and if anything enhanced :)

Sharp at 1 I got a call from Ophi summoning me to the second floor for the lunch...

The alluring part for me about this feast was the fact that almost everything was home-made...

The spread on the table started with Farrari Patties. Now this is something that is had during उपवास/upwas, so it came with a bowl of smooth and sweetened whipped dahi...

Farrari Patties

The term farrari relates to all things that are used during upwas. The potato enclosed and deep fried roundels themselves had a yummy filling of flaky hand grated coconut shavings with an interesting blend of fresh shredded herbs.

Inside the Farrari Patties...

The staples like chappatis and rice were bought to save the trouble for everyone...

To go with the rice Rajesh's wife had made a very nice and homely Sindhi Kadi (सिन्धी कढ़ी) 

Rupa had brought some Undiu--the quintessential touch of Gujarat. Awesome to eat, nightmarish in terms of logistics to make...

Aishwarya made and got a light and fragrant pulao (पुलाव)

A fragrant pulao

... and to go with it, a light and interesting mixed vegetable curry...

Shobha introduced the flavour of the Southern reaches of India with Idlies and Mulaga Podi (also know as Gun Powder, Sambhar, and some awesome coconut chutney. 

Idly

Mulaga Podi aka Gun Powder

Gingelly Oil

Idly, Gun Powder (Mulaga Podi), in Sambhar

Awesome coconut chutney

I'd contributed a simple Bengali style Methi phorondiyey Phulkopi aar Palngshaker Torkari (মেথী  ফোড়ন দিয়ে ফুলকপি আর পালক শাকের তরকারি)  (Palak and Cauliflower Curry) ... Most of which was devoured by the time I landed up to click a photo for posterity... So I am guessing it was liked :)

মেথী  ফোড়ন দিয়ে ফুলকপি আর পালক শাকের তরকারি  (Palak and Cauliflower Curry)

After the spread was done, I moved on to the sweet bit. Ophi had made her hugely popular (and trademark :P) Mangalorean Coconut Cake

Ophi's Mangalorean Coconut Cake

A piece of Ophi's Coconut Cake

Sujyothi and Beni contributed and got some yummy Kesar Jalebis

A box full of Jalebis

Jalebi

The to end the desert section, Abhijit and Venkat enleashed tubs of Fruit Salad with Ice-cream from Aditi

Of course good things in combination taste divine... So I dolloped some of the fruit salad with some coconut cake to make things happier still :)

Combo of Fruit salad, ice cream and Ophi's Coconut Cake...

Zero Oil Egg Curry...

A lot of people in office are on a 'dieting' spree to become trimmer. So a lot of 'harrumph' happens when we share lunch and I get questions about 'how many teaspoons of oil' is in whatever I cook. Since a litre of cooking oil lasts me for months (even after using oil in some muffins), this irks me no end.

So one fine morning I decided to cook up some egg curry without any damned oil!


I 'd already hard boiled a few eggs the night earlier... So, in the morning I took out a couple of tomatoes, a little haldi, dhania, and jeera powder, a few cloves of garlic, and little nub of ginger. 

I puréed all of this together into a neat little paste before I did anything else...

I slapped the purée into my trusty non-stick pan...

... and simmered till I'd got a nice little 'reduction' happening that had imbibed all the flavours....

I also had come palak (spinach) that I washed and chopped up (almost as an after thought).

I put the palak into the reduction and added a wee bit of salt to get the palak to sweat out a bit...

And then I added the boiled eggs and I had my curry ready :)

Quick Wok Tossed Noodles with Spinach & Broccoli

I'd told Subha that I'd try and stir fry something in the wok and give it to her to taste when I met her next. When Guru and Subha said that they'd meet me on Saturday, I remembered what I'd promised.


I opened the fridge and saw nothing besides eggs, spinach, and some broccoli to toss with the noodles.

I sliced and smashed some ginger and garlic to start things off...

All this while the noodles dunked around in some boiling water...

The noodles soon were out and got rinsed in some cold water to prevent them from cooking further..

I warmed little oil in the wok

And then tossed in the ginger and garlic mince.

It is not a happy thing if you want to cook and photograph when you are using a wok since the searing heat cooks things in seconds... This got over browned in about 5 secs!

I quickly added the veggies and tossed them around

I added the noodles

... and rounded things by adding a splatter of toasted sesame seeds.

Guru and I gobbled up most of this.


While packing the noodles for Subha, I grated some lemon rind on top..

... And... We have some nice (and very quick) noodles :)

Cholay Palak

I met my favourite 'leafy veggy seller' in Mahim bazaar today on my way back home after meeting Peter. Since it was evident that sales had not been good, I felt sorry for the guy and bought two bunches of palak (spinach) just as he was shutting shop and starting on his way back.


I came back and remembered that I had soaked cholay (chick peas or garbanzo beans). So I started by putting out some spices. I tried a different combo that would have a "sweetish" taste with a jhal/tikha/fiery undertone...

I had soaked 250gm of chickpeas. After a day of soaking in the fridge, they now weighed in at 526gm after draining the excess water.
I kept the water and the soaked chickpeas aside for the while...

I ground the roasted whole spices in the pestle and mortar ...

Next I tended to the tomatoes, ginger, and garlic...

 A few whirrs in the grinder and I had some ginger-garlic paste

I added this and the ground spices to the tomatoes and  puréed the mix a bit to work everything in.

Till I got it to this consistency...

I added this to the chickpeas and added the water that I had set aside from the soaking phase of the chickpeas and used it to wash down the remains of the purée from the grinder. I pressure cooked the mix for about 20 minutes (four whistles). I did not want too much liquid for the next stage and wanted to save some gas as well. 


So, I turned of the gas and let the chickpeas cook in the pressure cooker while I worked on the palak...


I thought that there was a lot of palak and I wanted the cholay to dominate, So I took one and a half bunch and roughly chopped the palak, leaving quite a few large bits in. I prefer palak that you can feel while you eat instead of the green paste that you get in restaurants when they serve you anything made with palak.

The ginger and garlic went into the oil with a few bay leaves (tej patta)

I wanted to taste the ginger even after I'd cooked things through, so I did not bhunno it too much, besides I wanted the palak to absorb the garlicky-gingery taste, and lose its own intrincic typical 'acridity' in the process... Anyways, then, the palak joined the ginger and garlic.

I par-cooked the palak till it wilted just a little bit and started releasing water...

I then added the chick peas (cholay) from the pressure cooker and let everything cook and combine.

I covered everything and let things cook till it looked like this...

The cooked cholay and palak

Now, it is 1 AM, the cat has woken up to try and play with the chapptis while I eat 'dinner'... Hmmm.


The morning update... Now this is how the leftovers look in my lunch box :)