Monsoony Mouth Watering Magnificence

A Party -- A Gourmet Party -- What for ?  Do we really need a reason for that! No, not at all. Friends just want to party and that's it.

 
    We, Delhites were sweating it out at Forty Five Degrees scorching heat and no respite was in sight except to cool ourselves in an AC Room. But nobody can do that for 24 hours a day. So, we were just praying and expecting the Sun to be a bit polite on us.

    And Wow! 'Surya Dev' probably asked his friend 'Indra Dev' to shower his blessings on us all. We experienced an unexpected cool shower and continued light downpour. The whole atmosphere changed. The scorching heat was replaced by clouds and cool breeze. This sudden change awakened my grey cells and some friendly feelings. Just like 'Surya Dev & Indra Dev'!

    I wished to host a legendary gourmet party on that very day. Thank God it was morning and I still had 7-8 hours to plan the party. I had to plan fast!

    I would've called up my friends but I wanted my invite to be a bit poetic. So this is the E-invite I sent them.

Oh Monsoon!

You come to life like a boon

But why do you leave so soon?

Oh Monsoon!

Titter - tatter drops on the window sill

And it does the roads with aqua fill

Giving a sense of an adventurous thrill

And inking it in our memories with our own quill

And so your onset calls for a 'Gourmet Party'

With everyone so hale and hearty

Finding within their best side arty

And being adjudged a 'Pants Smarty'

While rainbow hues seem befitting for such a theme

And come alive all such colorful dreams

With faces sporting a beam

As pals donning multicolored raincoats form a team...

   The next step was quite easy. My hall room was good enough for our informal yet classy party. The rainy feel worked by my side to the perfect ambiance and used my colorful family umbrellas as corner-of-the-room decorations. For Music, I obviously relied on all the lovey - dovey monsoony songs from our very own Bollywood.

    When we all pals meet, talks ensue and entertainment follows... And when we meet monsoon fun ensues too...

 
     So with none of us wanting to miss out on the rain fun with the 'Raindrop Race' and 'Lightning Chairs' with 'Puddle Fun' and 'The Best Dressed', 'The Craziest' and 'The Rainiest' as some titles, I banked upon The Best i.e. The One And Only ITC Kitchens Of India's sumptuous dishes with some of my own tried and tested 'Rainy Day Bests'. And here we embark on our Culinary Trail...

• The Ice Breakers were our very own Blue Lagoon, BlueBerry, Blue Curacao, Asian Pear Sparkler Mocktails with cute little topping umbrellas along with the tried and tested all time favorites -- Assorted Pakoras to suit every palate -- be it Chatpata Cheese, Mirchila Mushroom, Slurpy Spinach or oily Onion with an assortment of Kitchens Of India Chutneys.
  
  
  
  

Basmati Rice Pulao enriched with Veggies and Nuts alongwith Red Kidney Beans Curry.

Malabari Chicken Stew with Malabari Paranthas served with onion, tomato, corn & cucumber salad.

To top it all, we had steamy Jodhpuri Moong Dal and Hazoori Petha Halwas.

     An amalgam of aroma of Kitchens Of India, sound of falling raindrops mixed with our favorite tunes, the sight of a cloudy sky and children merrily jumping in puddles of aqua added lots of enigma to our legendary rainy day Gourmet Party.

This post is my entry for the 'My Weekend With Gourmet Food' Contest organised by ITC Kitchens Of India in association with IndiBlogger.

Legendary Gourmet Weekend Encounter

* EW ERA YRGNUH *

* EVIG SU DOOF *

* ESLE EW LLIW TAE UOY *

* EW ERA TON NI A DOOG DOOM *

       Shrilling shouts started surrounding us, we gave a look around and were shocked to see six of them surrounding us -- my family and me. They were quite strange looking, wearing so called "clothes" of some strange material, having weird looking head gears, weapons in their hands and shouting an alien language repeatedly (as written above).

       Actually, last weekend, we went for a weekend long picnic to a forest reserve to find ourselves being close to nature. Probably, nature made it go overboard as we never expected to be surrounded by aliens who came from God knows where! We were baffled and frightened by their harrowing looks and screams. On top of it we were unable to understand their language. We looked at each other to gain strength and held hands. We tried to sense from their actions and understood that they were hungry. So we had no other alternative to save ourselves from them except to provide them food. So we offered them some fruits but they declined by shaking their heads in the dissident.

       They tried to snatch the piping hot handis and kadais of Basmati Rice Pulao with Vegetable And Nuts, Butter Chicken Curry, Spinach and Cottage Cheese Curry, Fish Curry and Hyderabadi Chicken Biryani all from Kitchens Of India, which we had kept aside for our dinner.

        Now, we were enlightened by the fact that the heavenly aromatic fragrance from these dishes was driving them nuts. We heaved a sigh of relief to find that 'Kitchens Of India' would come to our rescue (although we felt a little gloomy that we had to share such mouth watering delicacies with those aliens).

        We all sat in a circle after keeping the utensils in the center and made them sit too using actions. They seemed to still be very excited but were now composed a bit. My daughter's Ipod turned out to be the saving grace with respect to the music department when she played soothing music from albums composed by A.R. Rehman. Even the 'outsiders' turned out to be great fans. Now, they seemed to be in a jolly good mood. As we didn't have any idea about their Meal Preferences, we served them both non-veg and veg delicacies as follows :-

• For drinks we had Aam Panna, Nimbu Paani and Seb Sharbat.
  
  
  
  
• For starters, we had Hariyali Kebabs and Chicken Skewers on tandoori sariyas alongwith Shredded  Mango Chutney and Papaya Raisin Chutney respectively.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Hyderabadi Mutton Biryani with Mild Chilly Pepper Curry.
  
  
• Basmati Rice Pulao enriched with Veggies and Nuts alongwith Red Kidney Beans Curry.
  
• Mughlai Paneer with Hot Butter Garlic Naans and Laccha Paranthas.
  
• Black Gram Lentils Curry with Yakhni Pulao.
  
• Malabari Chicken Stew with Malabari Paranthas served with onions and Tamarind & Date Chutney as accompaniments.
  
  
   
• For desert, we had Apricot Pudding accompanied with Mango & Saffron Conserve, Hazoori Petha Halwa and Sheermal (saffron flavored flatbread which is an Awadhi delicacy). 
  
  
  

     We all relished the sumptuous meal. The cool breeze with melodious sounds produced by rustling of leaves added an additional tinge to the music being played. Now, we were all feeling sleepy. They bowed and shouted " GNIHTYREVE ROF UOY KNAHT " but this time their shouts were very melodious with a big smile on their faces.

They retreated  & after some steps just vanished in thin air the way they had appeared.

     We shall never be able to know who they were! But that party was truly a Legendary Weekend Surprise Party  which can never be recreated. That was one party in which... 

We didn't send any invite...

had a natural ambiance of greenery and scented flowers around and Moon & Stars in the clear blue sky...

 music of chirping birds and rustling leaves mixed with the Ipod style which got enhanced by their musical voices and...

we all relished the palatable and savory dishes courtesy Kitchens Of India and made such good friends ( although for few hours but they got etched in our hearts & souls for a lifetime ).

This post is my entry for the "My Weekend Party With Gourmet Food" Contest organised by ITC Kitchens Of India in association with IndiBlogger. You can vote for my post here.

Food For Thought ----- Bon Appetite ----- An Evening To Remember

~~~

It is always fun to organize a party but when family is involved, it demands responsibility too. But my endurance faced a test when I had to impress my would be brother-in-law and his family. Actually my sister got engaged last month and I welcomed my would be brother-in-law and his family for dinner.

I wanted it to be a homely affair - so venue had to be my home's hall room. So, The First Step - Venue was quite easy to decide.

The Second Step to take was the Ambience. It had to be mushy, fresh and romantic. So I chose my georgette curtains, fresh roses, orchids and red anthuriums along with mushy room fragrance. To give it an ethnic & traditional touch, my daughter made a beautiful rangoli at the house's doorstep.

The Third Step - Music, was quite easy and tough both - easy because songs and music had to be soft music and romantic songs for the would be couple. But tough as out of so many songs the best ones were difficult to choose. I took my hubby's help (who himself sings well and remembers so many songs of all the times) and my daughter for the present day genre songs. So I selected the following numbers:

1. Aaj unse pehli mulaqat hogi, phir aamne saamne baat hogi... (आज उनसे पहली मुलाक़ात होगी, फिर आमने सामने बात होगी ...)
   
   
   
2. Phalak tak chal saath mere, phalak tak chal saath chal (फलक तक चल साथ मेरे, फलक तक चल साथ चल ...)
   
   
   
3. Tujh mein Rab dikhta hai, yaara main kya karun... (तुझमे रब दिखता है यारा मै क्या करूँ ...)
   
   
   
4. Tere haath mein mera haath ho, saari jannatein mere saath hon... (तेरे हाथ में मेरा हाथ हो, सारी  जन्नतें मेरे साथ हों ...)
   
   
   
5. Mera man kehne laga, paas aakar tu na dur ja... (मेरा मन कहने लगा, पास आ कर तू न दूर जा ...)
   
   
   
6. Aisi chale jab hawa, ishq hua hi hua ... (ऐसी चले जब हवा, इश्क हुआ ही हुआ ...)
   
   
   
7. Khuda jaane ke main fida hun, khuda jaane main mit gaya, khuda jaane ye kyun hua hai, ke ban gaye ho tum mere khuda... (खुदा जाने के में फ़िदा हूँ, खुदा जाने मै मिट गया, खुदा जाने ये क्यूँ हुआ है, के बन गए हो तुम मेरे खुदा… )

         All young couples at the gathering enjoyed dancing to these soft melodies.

Lots of music! Naah.......... Music is the soul of life. These songs playing in the background enlivened the romantic feel. 

Ok. So entertainment part was 80% dealt with and for the rest 20% we chose a skit with light jokes which my daughter and her young cousins decided to show their talent with.

Last but certainly not the least - The Menu - to savour everyone's taste buds - a must for my gourmet party to be a big hit.

To start with in this scorching heat, Chilled Khus and Phalsa Sharbat followed by a round of a round of snacks - Aloo Tikki with Tamarind & Date Chutney and Besan Chillas with shredded Mango Chutney proved to be a hit as I trusted Kitchens of India for the task.

Now for the Main Course also I put my bet on Kitchens of India's curries so that I could also get some time to spend with everybody to enjoy the evening.

I served Dal Bukhara, Mughlai Paneer and Chicken Darbari along with Mirch Ka Salan to server with Butter Naans, Paneer Kulchas and Rice Pulao.

Everybody loved the food (as expected Thanks to the Kitchens Of India).

Then the last sure shot hit item - Jodhpuri Moong Dal Halwa from the Kitchens of India did the trick and everyone looked pleasantly satisfied with the lip-smacking delicacies. They asked me if I had given my sister the tips!

"Will we be getting such tempting delicacies daily?", I smiled and winked at my sister to interact silently (about the Kitchens of India's magical culinary delights).

The evening proved to be a smashing hit. What else could I have asked for? Yes, Kitchens of India helped me a lot in achieving my target.

This post is my entry for the "My Weekend Party With Gourmet Food" Contest organised by ITC Kitchens Of India in association with IndiBlogger.

This post was adjudged as one of the winning entries by Kitchens Of India for a Rs. 1000 Voucher here.

Thanks to KOI and IndiBlogger.

My Gourmet Party: West Meets East

My friend, a French citizen, came to visit me last week. She was really anxious to see and feel everything about our beloved India which I shared with her for the last six months when we became friends on Facebook.

I took her for 'Delhi Darshan' to start with. She was really excited to see all the historical monuments - Lal Quila, Qutub Minar, Humayun's Tomb, Lotus Temple etc. which she had seen only in pictures so far.

Then came the turn of culinary skills. On Sunday we decided to have our gourmet party with our other friends. I decided to give her a surprise of Indian food as she always talked ravishingly about her burgers and pizzas. Her favorite dialogue was "How you Indians eat such oily and spicy curries daily?". So I wanted her to have a taste of our relishing curries and change her mind and dialogue too. But it could not have been possible by using my daily recipes. I stormed my mind and then the best idea flashed in my mind. I rushed to the market and bought Kitchen Of India's delectable curries and to give it the titillating turn I bought their sweet and tangy chutneys. In curries I selected Mughlai Paneer, Murg Methi, Paneer Malai, Mirch Ka Salan and Daal Bukhara. I selected Shredded Mango, Tamarind and Date Chutneys.

Dinner was served and my friend was surprised

to see all these dishes on the dining table. She gave a hesitant look to me as if saying that she won't be able to even try them. I assured her that she could certainly taste a bite of each of them and then decide to which she agreed. I served all the dishes to her - a spoonful of each with fried rice. The aroma of the dishes brought a smile on her face. I got my 30 marks then and there. Then

I saw a twinkling shine in her eyes when she tasted the first serving. I got my 30 more marks. She kept on asking for more and more servings and relished each and every curry, dal and chutney. Result was obvious as it was a magic from Kitchen Of India for which I was dead sure to get 100% result.

But my 40% was yet left. So I served her the dessert - Delicious Gajar Ka Halwa and Moong Dal Halwa. That worked as icing on the cake. She couldn't control herself and hurled all the adjectives - tempting, delicious, palatable, yummy and savory. She persuaded me to gift her lots of packets of each of these dishes from Kitchen Of India to take back home and surprise her family too.

Hence I got my full 100 marks. Actually not me but Kitchens Of India is the winner.

This post is my entry for the "My Weekend Party With Gourmet Food" Contest organised by ITC Kitchens Of India in association with IndiBlogger.
You can vote for my post here.