Indian Food Night! (part 1)

(Again, I'm supposed to finish an assignment due on Friday, but instead I chose to blog... hehehe)

I miss cooking Indian Vegetarian dishes, so for a family gathering we had yesterday, I cooked an array of Indian vegetarian dishes and desserts.


Here's my menu list:

1. Chickpea dahl (Chole)
2. Sweet rice
3. Yellow rice
4. Sooji Halava (Sweet pudding made from Semolina or Farina in Filipino)
5. Eggplant Pakoras (Fried battered eggplant)
6. Tomato chutney (for the pakora)
7. Lemongrass-basil-mint-ginger Iced tea (not really Indian but was part of the menu)
8. Chocolate cake (not really Indian also and it was not part of the menu, it was an order )

Anyway so I started preparing around 1PM, bought the ingredients first at a nearby supermarket, then proceeded on cooking.

boiling the leaves

I first cooked the lemongrass for the tea- I boiled 3 stalks of lemongrass with enough water to cover it, then waited for it to boil. After boiling I placed about a cupful of each basil and mint leaves, waited for it to boil again then placed about 2 tablespoons of grated ginger. After it boiled again, I placed 1/2 kg of brown sugar, and mixed to the solution while it was still hot. When it cooled I included a kilo of fresh calamansi fruit juice. The concentrate was good for 2-3 liters of water. It's very nutritious, and yummy I assure you, as even my 12 year old brother who hates teas liked it!

It's a very good alternative to the store-bought artificial flavored iced-teas we have in the market nowadays.

Cardamom seeds

Afterwards I cooked the sweet rice, which was made of rice, milk, cardamom seeds, and washed sugar (I don't use white sugar since it is stripped of all its nutritional value). Basically you cook half a kilo of rice and 3 pcs cardamom seeds, peeled of its outer skin, in lots of water (like making lugaw or congee but for this recipe you only use ordinary rice, not the malagkit or the glutinous one). Just cook it for about an hour or more on medium heat, stirring occasionally to prevent the rice from sticking to the bottom of the pan. Then when it has the consistency of congee and is on a rolling boil, incorporate 500gms of powedered full cream milk and 600gms of washed sugar diluted in water. Keep stirring until it boils again. Don't leave it as it will overflow!

Just wait for it to boil again, then voila! Your sweet rice is ready. :)

To be continued....