Potluck

A potluck is a gathering of people where each person or group of people contribute a dish of food prepared by the person or the group of people, to be shared among the larger gathered group.

We had arranged a potluck in our team which consists of 11 members. As our team contains many people from different parts of India ranging from the northern part to southern part, we had a chance to taste authentic cuisines form each part of the country. Here goes the menu for our potluck:

Chapathi

Chicken Biriyani

Raitha

White rice& Palak Dal

Paneer Mutter

Chicken Dry item

Veg Pulao

Coconut Barfi

Kheer

Payasam

Prawns

Icecream

Curd Vada

Paan

Papad& Pickle

Of these,Papad and Picke which does not require any preperation was obviously done by bachelors in our team.My contribution was Payasam , which is made of unakkalari.

Ingredients

1. Unnakkalari / red rice / payasam rice – 1/2 cup( or one handful of rice)

2. Sugar – 1 cup

3. Milk - 4 cups

4. Cardamom powder – 2 pinches or 2 cardamom pods slightly crushed

Method

In a pressure cooker, add the washed unnakkalari, milk and sugar.Close with the lid and cook at medium-low flame. When the steam starts coming out, put the pressure cooker weight and cook for about 20 mts (without any whistles) at very low flame. Switch off.Keep it aside for a minimum of 30 minutes – 1 hour, before opening. Open the pressure cooker, check the sugar .If the pal payasam is very thick, dilute it by adding milk. Serve warm or cold.

The recipe shared above can be used for preparing semiya (vermicelli) ,palada and so on.The difference is that you don't need to put the vermicelli/palada into the cooker.Instead,it has to be cooked seperately (as per the cooking instructions in the packet).Finally, this can be added to the milk which was cooked in pressure cooker. I have used here roasted vermicelli from Bambino.

#appetizer #dessert