All cooked up – Diwali weekend!

Happy Diwali to everyone… 🙂

Pinch wasn’t around but I did my part this week. Got out the lovely diyas that Mom-Dad got, turned on the cute Home Depot lights dutifully every night, took the necessary pictures… 🙂

Best of all was all the food and cooking we did this weekend! Friday was Lakshmi Puja and so on Pinch’s behest, I made the simplest of all desserts – semiya paayasam. Off late, I have been using a li’l bit of saffron here and there and the sight of the red threads floating in the creamy pink paayasam made my heart sing! I could have gazed at it all night without even tasting it… it looked that wonderful – and tasted equally fantastic too! Well, that was the offering for the Lakshmi Puja at our home that Friday night of Diwali.

Saturday was the day for karanji and puran poli. I have always LOVED puran poli but it struck me as something tough to make. That myth was dispelled this weekend. It is the simplest thing to make and they turned out really nice. No pictures for that one. The surprise element was karanji and it was Pinch’s idea to make it this time. We used filo dough (Uma’s recipe) and the end result was fairly okay. The filling was delicious (how can you go wrong with milk, coconut, raisins, almonds and cashewnuts??!!) but the dough was tough to handle. It was an interesting experiment and I think we’ll make it again – maybe with hand rolled dough of maida.

Saturday night was a Satsang at a friend’s home with lots of delicious food and great singing and fun with kids. Some pictures of the dinner table…

And to top off the weekend, dal dhokli was made this afternoon. It was hearty, delicious and perfect for a sunny and cool Sunday afternoon!