Graduation Party Weekend

[Suvir Saran]

Any ideas what one should expect at the Graduation weekend in an Indian household?

Are there things Indian do differently from others in the US?

Are there things that are similar?

Does such an event even matter in an Indian household?

Are their parties that happen? Guests that sleep over? Special foods that are cooked?

What gifts does one take the family?

What should one expect?

[Monica Bhide]

My 2 cents worth. I catered a party a few years ago for a friends son. SHe had me make 23 dishes (he graduated engineering school) -- each dish focused on a year in his life and signified either a favorite or a family joke or a family vacation. We had a lot of fun with that

[Suvir Saran]

My 2 cents worth. I catered a party a few years ago for a friends son. SHe had me make 23 dishes (he graduated engineering school) -- each dish focused on a year in his life and signified either a favorite or a family joke or a family vacation. We had a lot of fun with that

Sounds wonderful Monica!

Would you have a menu? It would make for fascinating reading... If you can find time, I shall be grateful, and I am sure others would feel the same way.

Indians do know how to "Live Life King Size."

[Monica Bhide]

No menu, this was done a long time ago. I remember we had a great reception to it. It was a unique idea. We did place cards with each dish that talked about why it was there and what his connection was to it. One was for a simple thing like white butter (home made) -- him mom made it and put a note card that talked about how when he was two, all he wanted to eat was this butter on anything and everything. One dish was papaya layered with a saffron cream sauce -- a note card that said, when you were 1, your grandad fed you mashed papaya with malai (or milk cream) and you loved it.

Anyway you get the idea

[Suvir Saran]

Thanks Monica!

[Schielke]

Next Weekend I am going to visit an Indian friend who is graduating from Med School. I am staying over at the family's place and I cannot wait to try some home cooked food!!!

I will be sure to report back.

A little birdie advised me about gifting for such an event, I think I am going to make some homemade cookies: Dark Chocolate Sparkle Cookies and Jeffery Steingarten's awesome Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe. I am also going to buy some local treats to bring down.

Again, I cant wait!!!

Ben

[Suvir Saran]

I think I am going to make some homemade cookies: Dark Chocolate Sparkle Cookies and Jeffery Steingarten's awesome Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.  I am also going to buy some local treats to bring down.

Again, I cant wait!!!

Ben

Woof! You are spoiling these people. If they are like the majority of us Indians, they will love the stuff. We love chocolates.. and we love sweets. Local treats would be appreciated... What kind of stuff were you thinking? Now I am getting curious... You can always report after the fact.....

It would be great to have you post about your weekend. Looking forward to your after party post. Thanks in advance Ben.

[prasad2]

My 2 cents worth. I catered a party a few years ago for a friends son. SHe had me make 23 dishes (he graduated engineering school) -- each dish focused on a year in his life and signified either a favorite or a family joke or a family vacation. We had a lot of fun with that

Sounds wonderful Monica!

Would you have a menu? It would make for fascinating reading... If you can find time, I shall be grateful, and I am sure others would feel the same way.

Indians do know how to "Live Life King Size."

Monica !

Thats quite a concept and i can imagine the prep you had to go thru.

How did the guests receive, you must have had quite a few good compliments.

Prasad

[Monica Bhide]

Prasad2, thanks for the sweet note. We did get a lot of compliments for originality of thought and the food turned out to be great. It was not only Indian, the family had traveled to Malaysia when he was fifteen so we had a Malay dish ... it was a lot of fun. Generated income I could use as I was a broke college student then!

[Schielke]

Just a quick report back from my trip to Kansas City for Indian Graduation Parties. It was awesome! I had the best time and ate some superb Indian food. I took some pictures and will try to scan them and upload so you can all see.

More info to come later.

Ben

[Suvir Saran]

Ben, thanks for posting.

Looking forward to more details and pictures.

Where are the Dosa pics from?

[prasad2]

Sunday was probably the best day as far as the weather was concerned for this past holiday weekend.

I had the opportunity of catering a Graduation party this past Sunday in NJ under a tent for about 100 guests.

Oh! Once we had it going, we had it going.

Dosa and uthappam station with four griddles going on at the same time.

A kabab and Bread station with live Tandoor going on one side. Romaali Rotis, filled kulchas, Achari Tikkas and Seekh Kababs)

A paratha / Alu tikki / Ragda station. (Nothing like fresh aloo parathas) Guests were grabbing them like they were going out of fashion, specially the aloo parathas.

Main course: Dum Biryani (Goat) with mint and cucumber raita.

The Host managed with dessert, a cake and some peanut chikki. (The best peanut chikki, I ever had)

[Suvir Saran]

Sounds amazing Prasad!

Did anyone take pictures???

How many cooks did you have making Dosas? How many do you thiny you all made in total?

Were the Uthappams equally popular?

[prasad2]

Yes, it was fun.

Two Dosa cooks. Nope, uthappam was not as popular as Masala Dosas.

Rough count would be between 250 and 275 Dosas.

I had one Tandoor cook and another cook making fresh alu parathas. Did you know the paratha dough was made on site while guests watch you.

I know the host took pictures. Not me.

I have a very similar graduation catering coming up soon, will do some pictures on that day.

[BettyK]

Prasad, may I ask what are those cakes/patties on your website?

Second page (right after the intro) - first pic on the left. They look

similar to some breadfruit patties but I bet they're not. Are they?

Suvir, sorry to be off topic.

[prasad2]

Prasad, may I ask what are those cakes/patties on your website?

Second page (right after the intro) - first pic on the left. They look

similar to some breadfruit patties but I bet they're not. Are they?

Suvir, sorry to be off topic. 

BettyK:

First picture on the left on home page is Alu Tikki (Potato patties) and the crepe is Masala Dosa (Crepes with potato filling). BTW those Alu Tikkis (Potato Patties) were served at the graduation catering on Sunday. All these pictures are taken at the restaurant.

[BettyK]

Thanks Prasad. They look delicious.

[Schielke]

Let me say first off, my trip to Kansas City was fantastic. I had an amazing time. The family I stayed with were excelent hosts and displayed incredible hospitality.

My friend's graduation was very nice and everybody was so proud of him, which was well deserved.

I stayed for 5 days and went to about 6 parties. Between the parties and the bounty of food offered to me at my friend's home, I was stuffed the entire duration of my stay.

I had a sheet of paper where I tried to write down everything I ate that week, but I seem to have misplaced it. The following is from memory. I hope to have some pictures soon, but I have to go scan them first. All of these items were homemade and vegetarian. Unfourtanetly I was not able to witness all of the cooking or get many notes on each dish. I might be able to request recipies, but they are mostly from the cook's memory and with indian terms for ingredients.

Mutter Paneer- This was so good, it had a nice warming spicyness to it and everything good about an indian gravy type dish. The paneer as well was homemade and did not have the harsh vinegar taste that commercial paneer does. It was rich and milky. A favorite of mine.

Dosas- The dosas were filled with a potato/onion mixture and served with sambal and a yoghurt based dipping sauce. I practiced making my own dosa and it turned out pretty good. I do have a long way to go before I reach expert status though. I think I ate about 5 dosas that night...I did not regret it one bit.

Vegetable Medley- I dont remember the name of this so i am making one up. It was a mix of vegetables such as carrots, eggplants, potatoes and onion. Perhaps some more. They were stewed lightly with spices. Very good.

Black eyed peas- The black eyed peas were of a smaller indian variety. They were soaked and then stewed with spices.

Chapatis- Ate with most meals. They were used as the utinsels. Much thinner and more delicate than my own chapatis, but I am getting better.

Poori- A group of about 10 women were involved in the process of making these (among other dishes), but I was fortunate to be able to watch the process. They divided the dough up in to golf ball (slightly smaller) balls and went to task rolling them out. They used small wooden rolling boards and little rolling sticks that had a taper in them. Each poori was perfectly round. The dough had a bit more oil and a bit less water than chapati dough. The rolled dough was then deep fried until the poori puffed. I really enjoyed eating pooris.

Crispy Goodness- Again, I dont konw the name. This was a 'bread' that looked like a chapati, but it had the texture of a potato chip. Very crispy and flaky. We usualy ate them for breakfast. They were so good, I looked forward to them every morning. Aakash's Grandmother makes them and they are supposedly very labor intensive. Believe me, they are worth it and I appreciate her efforts immenseley.

Breakfast Crunch- Deep fried shredded potatoes mixed with golden raisins and nuts. Very crispy, crunchy, slightly spicy, sweet, and salty. This was not a hot dish. It is made ahead of time and kept in a tin.

Various mysore pak varieties- I think they had a different term for these, and I know the base flour changed in some of them. All of them were amazing though. One was topped with pistachiaos, one had coconut in it, and another was topped with a silver leaf foil.

Baklava- One sheet pan type variety and one individually rolled variety. Some of the best baklava I have ever had. Even though this is not realy an indian dish, they did an amazing job with it. I can still taste it.

Falafel- Another non-indian dish, but great nonetheless. They were topped with a yoghurt/red pepper sauce.

Stuffed Okra- Raw okra was stuffed with a mixture of ginger, onions, and a multitude of spices. The okra was then baked in an oven. These were so addictive. I was always kind of neutral on okra, but these turned me around.

Stuffed Potatoes- The same stuffing was done with potatoes. The potatoes were boiled lightly and then cut from one tip down 3/4 of the way twice in an X pattern. The stuffing is placed down in these cuts. After this, the potatoes were oven roasted.

Raw Mango Chutney- This was a very interesting one and I am going to request the recipe. It is a mixture of raw (unripe) mango, chilis, and sugar. The mixture is cooked in the sun instead of on the stove. I was told that it tastes completely different if you do it on the stove. This was very delicious.

Chai Tea- They made chai tea every morning for the adults. Aparently I was a very unique young person since I liked chai. My friend and his younger sister cannot stand the stuff and I even got a lecture from his sister about how chai is for old people who have creaky joints and stuff. I must be getting ancient, since I loved this stuff. They made it fresh each day from a Chai Masala. Amazing.

Holy Food- All of the following food was considered holy food since it was offered during a Hindu prayer I was fortunate to attend at the home. All of the food had to be eaten and none could be thrown away.

Cream of Wheat mixture- Cream of wheat cooked with coconut shavings, sugar,nuts, and perhaps some ghee. Nicely sweet, yet light.

Fruit Salad- Oranges, grapes, mango, pear, cantelope, and bananna.

Raw Coconut- Split open and removed from the shell.

Coconut milk liquid- Coconut milk mixed with ghee and perhaps something else. Sipped out of the open hand.

Cardamom water- Water infused with cardamom sipped out of the open hand.