Universal food festival in our Church

Last weekend (September 15) our Church, St.Cecelia's Church, Iselin, NJ organized an 'Universal food festival'. The parishioners were requested to bring a dish from their heritage. Also we were asked to send some recipes for the booklet the church printed.
I was very much excited to prepare a food from Indian cuisine. Hubby dear suggested me to make something with a story behind to share. Then he looked at my menu list and picked sarkkarai pongal (sweet rice pudding), as it is prepared on the Pongal day, the day of thanks giving celebrated by Indian farmers. I prepared the pongal using almost 2 lb rice. I needed a very big heavy bottom vessel to prepare this quantity of pongal. So I used my huge 10 liter pressure cooker my Father in-law presented us during our wedding :)  I used it as my stirring pot and it took me nearly 3 hours to get the pudding like consistency. The next thing puzzled me was the serving tray, as the pongal was very heavy and the disposable tray we bought couldn't hold it. So I kept a tray as base and set the disposable tray over it and poured the pongal into it. Now the whole serving tray was safe and I covered it with a foil. Then carried it carefully and presented it to the person in-charge (our favorite choir singer Ms. Mary Jane).
Other dishes from India were Vegetable briyani, chicken tikka, veg samosa and everything tasted fabulous.

The buffet was delicious with many choices from Cuba, Dutch Indonesia, Germany, Hungary, India, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Philippines, Poland, Polynesia / Hawaii ,  Slovakia, Sri Lanka, Ukraine , Vietnam, All American Classics.

Dessert buffet was opened around 7.30 pm and I was very much delighted to see the guests liking our Sarkkarai pongal along with all the dishes. Whenever someone asked about this 'sweet rice pudding', I told them the festival associated with pongal and we all enjoyed the party.

As soon as the party started I was very surprised and happy to see my recipe printed in the festival booklet.

The next happy thing was the gift they presented us by randomly choosing the ticket numbers. The gift is a beautiful Angel , named as Bright Star Angel made by 'willow tree gifts'. We both were very much thrilled to get that precious gift and consider and thank God as it is His blessings.

Bright Star Angel.

Totally the food festival was a very pleasant experience for all of us and looking forward to participate in all the festivals in Our St.Cecelia's church in future.


Thanks for reading this post my friends, this festival means a lot to me.
Thanks,
Viki.

Avarakkai varuval (broad beans fry)

Usually my veggie stir fries used to be less spicy and less oily. But here is a spicy recipe for a simple stir fry with broad beans. We can substitute avarakkai with snow peas (tastes almost same).

Spicy Avarakkai Varuval.

Ingredients:
Broad beans (avarakkai) - 250 gm
sesame oil / olive oil - 3 tbsp
fennel - 1 tsp
shallot onion - 2
red chilly powder - 1 tsp
cumin powder - 1/4 tsp
turmeric powder - 1/4 tsp
curry masala powder - 1 tsp
curry leaf - 1 sprig
salt - to taste

Method: 

Wash the broad beans (avarakkai) very well. Remove the two tips and thick fiber in edges. Slice the broad beans as thin as possible.
 Heat oil in a wok and fry the fennel seeds till red. Then add the finely chopped shallot and fry till it wilts. Add the chopped broad beans and cook covered in low heat for 5 minutes. Stir in between. Add the salt, curry leaf, all the powders mentioned above. Sprinkle a tbsp of water and cook covered for 2 minutes. Switch off.
Avarakkai varuval is ready!

Serving suggestions:

Serve as side dish with sambar rice or any rice.
Makes a good side dish with chapati.
I serve some raitha also with this fry and chapathi.