Deepavali party -- Fun, Friends and Fireworks!

It was a lovely weekend for us. We had a Deepavali dinner party at a friend’s place on Saturday night. It was a potluck party, and we were around 50 guests including children. It was a packed house no doubt, but was a lot of fun, because that’s what Deepavali is about right, getting together, laughter and lights!

I also got the pictures of the Deepavali pooja back home in my dad’s older brother’s place. This time’s pooja decorations are good too. Some pics from there.

Back to the party here,I made Peas and Spinach Rolls for appetizers, Rajma curry in the Entrée category and my favourite, Trifle Pudding for Dessert. The food table was a glorious one with so many varieties. We had to have a separate table for the desserts and sweets!

I was first assigned with Cutlets for appetizers, I of course wanted to make something different than plain regular cutlets. I remembered mom used to make a kebab kind of thing, with peas and spinach so I decided to try that. I had to get hold of my mom on the phone in their pooja and festival schedule (which I did, thankfully!) and ask her for the recipe, because I was sure I had only eaten the rolls but not once seen how they were made. Finally got the recipe and gave it a try. I had to make atleast 55 of them to ensure one per person. They came out very well and they were so good that it was all gone in minutes! While I was making them, hubby dear was hankering that he would eat all of them right away …hehe….I did have a hard time trying to keep him off the rolls.

Peas and Spinach Rolls

You will need:

3 large bunches Spinach, chopped

1 Cup fresh or frozen Peas

2 cups Boiled grated potato

¼ tsp Amchur powder (Dried Mango powder)

1 tsp Cumin seeds

3-4 tbsp Corn flour

¼ tsp Corriander powder

3 Green chillies (ground into a paste)

¼ tsp Ginger Garlic paste

2 tbsp Oil

Salt to taste

Oil for frying

Clean and boil spinach in boiling water for 5-6 minutes till soft and still green. Drain and squeeze out all water, keep aside. Boil peas, mash and keep aside. Heat oil in a pan, add the cumin seeds and when it begins to splutter add the ginger garlic paste and green chilli paste. Saute for a minute and then add the spinach, mashed peas and grated potato. Toss to combine. Add the coriander powder, amchur powder, corn flour and salt to taste. Saute well to blend for around 4-5 minutes. Turn off heat and let mixture cool.

Now make small tubular rolls from the mixture. If the mixture is not binding enough then add more corn flour to the mixture and then make the rolls. Alternately, you can make the rolls and then lightly coat in corn flour. Deep fry the rolls till light brown on the outside. Drain excess oil and serve hot.

Trifle Pudding

This dessert has some good memories associated with it. When I was in a residential Christian school, we had a grand Christmas party every year and we all looked forward to it with a lot of enthusiasm for several reasons. One, because such parties allowed us to be ourselves without too many restrictions. Second, we got to dress up in party wear which was a huge change from the drab boring uniforms! Third, the food, particularly this dessert which was served in the end and in very limited quantity. The fact that it was less probably made us want it more! No second servings of the dessert because they had to serve 300 of us kids. I have always craved for that dessert ever since then (a decade or more to be precise) and the taste of it lingered in my mouth all along. I knew it was a layered dessert which was too yummy to pass up. I decided to re create it when I came here to the US and to my luck was able to replicate the same thing.

You will need:

1 Sponge cake (my recipe here)

1 8 oz box Jell-O Strawberry/Raspberry flavour

Custard (recipe here)

3 Apples

2 Bananas

Few chunks of Pineapple (preferably canned)

1 tbsp Lemon juice

3 tbsp Sugar (for fruit salad)

Large bowl or dish for dessert assembly (glass)

Prepare cake, let cool and make thin slices. Prepare Jell-O as per box instructions and refrigerate. Prepare custard and refrigerate.

Skin the apples and chop it. Chop banana also into small pieces. Toss both with sugar and 1 tbsp Lemon juice, this prevents apples and bananas from turning black and also adds a nice zing to the fruit salad. Mix in the pineapple chunks. Keep covered if not using immediately. Break the jell-o using a fork, kind of mashing it up.

Assembling the dessert is quick and easy. Take the serving dish. At the bottom place a layer of sliced cake, cover the bottom completely. Pour custard on top of the cake, enough to wet the cake and cover it, not too much. Then spread an even layer of the prepared fruit salad. Create layers so that its visible from the outside. Now spread a layer of jell-o. If the dish is big, then you can repeat the layers. Remember to make the Jell-o your top layer so it doesn’t require additional decoration.

This makes a light tasty dessert. The combination of cake with the custard and bites of fruit in between makes it wonderful.

Trifle Pudding is my entry to the event "What's Your Favourite (WYF): Dessert" hosted by Hima of SnackORama

I also made Rajma curry, the recipe is here

All in all it was a fun party… food, friends and fireworks, the perfect Deepavali!! :)