The Kachori surprise

OK, another meeting ... this time with a handsome attendance happened at Dhwani's place. This was on the 7th day of the year 2007 and was a lunch meet. We all attended the meeting except for Sarang - who was sick, Fakhruddin - who just arrived from India and hence could not get the details on time, and Prince - who was enjoying his vacations with his family in India.

Sarang was supposed to teach Paneer Tikka Masala in this session but unfortunately because he was not feeling well, he was excused. Aditya took up this last minute change by substituting Sarang's dish with Karnataka curd rice. So, the finalized menu for the day was:

• Bread Upma as the starter
• Karnataka Curd Rice & Dal Kachori as the main dishes
• Fresh-N-Fruit cream as the dessert

Now before I describe what happened, let me tell you something about the dish Dal-Kachori. This Kachori thing was a bit of a surprise because it was very different from the kachori or kachaudi that we have in the Northern part of India. The dish was very different with a unique combination of minty aloo bonda with spicy dal mixed with onions and a couple of chutneys. This was prepared by the host Dhwani who had actually pre-prepared it!!! The purpose of home meetings is to actually see the person demonstrate the recipe in front of us, so that was a bummer. Anyhow, not everybody is informed.

Since the Dal Kachori was pre-prepared, we started off with Aditya showing us how to make Karnataka curd rice. Curd rice is consumed pretty regularly (sometimes on a daily basis) in the south part of India. However, all the 4 southern states have their own versions of curd rice. The one Aditya taught us was a more spiced up version of the curd rice that comes from the state of Karnataka. Aditya got all stuff cut nicely arranged and cut from house that saved time. Once made, the curd rice was cooled for later consumption.

The kitchen was now free for me to demonstrate the starter - bread upma. The dish was demonstrated in completeness from start till comsumption :) It was well appreciated with Aditya telling that they were aware of a similar version and Ashwini informing of a completely different way of making a dish that involved defacing bread slices in a similar way. We would schedule this second way of making bread upma in a later session.

Ritu had come all prepared with a variety of fruits for her fruit cream recipe. It took considerable time to cut all the fruits. In the mean time cream and sugar were being introduced to each other who seemed to enjoy each others company. Once the fruits were all cut, Ritu completed the demonstration but informing about the other ingredients and in what proportions they went into making the dessert. The fruit cream then joined the curd rice in the fridge as it is best consumed cold.

With all the demos over, it was time to enjoy the main dishes. We started off with dal-kachori to be followed by curd rice. It was ample delicious food to be topped up with the cold fruit cream. Everybody was pretty full and thoroughly enjoyed the gathering.

Just before leaving we finalized on the next meeting date and discussed the club rules. The club rules have been simplified and finalized to everybody's delight. Accounts were settled and the suggestion to pre-populate the club kitty for a month was given. We would be implementing this in our next club meet. I also shared the Ajuma tip along with Ajumas :) with everybody. Everybody was given 2 Ajumas (A red and a yellow one) to take home and give it a try.

So that was it. Another meeting successfully completed with members to take home 4 new recipes.