Ideas For Pot Luck

Hi friends,
I would like to getsome ideas for potluck lunch. usually, if it is among our indian friends, we make our dishes and i enjoy taking chitvish recipes to the potluck. But when it comes to americans in the office,i have no idea as of what they would prefer in our dishes,-not heavy, hot or spicy i think we have so many restrictions. what do you do if it is ur case? do come up with some suggestions pls...

Priya

You could take a salad (I like the madarin orange one with poppy seed dressing), casserole (maybe a broccoli, chicken bake one?), vegetable lasagna, home made dip ( and crackers), cake, kheer etc...

I have a thanksgiving luncheon every year in the office and I have 95% goras there.

Once i had taken home made samosas with mint and cilantro chutney and it was a big, big hit. But I had not put too much chilli in the samosa.

Once I took aloo puffs (the veggie patty that you can make with puff pastry sheets)..that also everybody liked. Again, I put all the usual spices, like dhania powder, garam masala and amchur...but only very little green chillies.

One year I took carrot halwa. That also people liked. I just called it carrot pudding.

This year, I made shahi tukre (fried toast, put a mixture of condensed milk+whole milk+ corn flour on it, then put lots of peaches on top and then some melba sauce). It looked really pretty and was gone in minutes.

Hope this gives you some ideas...

Hi Dear,
Never mind Americans, they relish our food like anything but it should not be too spicy...
We had potlucks several times in our office and I am the only Indian.....
So, I used to take only Indian food. I remember the first time, I took egg fried rice (not the regular one but with lots of nuts/dry fruits) and around 60 Gulab jamuns and thought probably nobody will like that, but these were the items first to be taken and finished in the menu and even Americans asked for the recipes.....
Next time I took Stuffed paratha and Paneer Butter masala and it was a hit among all....
So, even the core Indian dish is also great for office potlucks.....
Even the samosas as Arushi suggested are great......
Anyways, let us know what you have in mind......

Hi Aarushi and Meeta,
Thank u very much for ur sugestions. i think u both r gud cooks. but i am not. do u make samosas at home? interesting. do u mind giving fewrecipes of the dishes u have mentioned. to be frank. i am learning cooking only now with the help of ILites. will be gratefulif have them. thanks in advance

Priya

hi Priya,

Most Texans eat very spicy food ( Mexican food!). So, check it out..

If you are a veggie: vadai-sambaar is a big hit. They called it spicy doughnut with veggie-lentil soup! Or just sambaar is good. They'll love it. Puri-Cholae is good. Puri-Aloo is good. Or just Cholae / Spicy Aloo curry is good. Pao-Bhaji is good. You can use dinner rolls cut into half as Pao. Zafrani Pulao is good. Sameya(Vermicelli)payasam is good.

If you are a non-veggie: any non-veg with a lot of gravy is a very big hit. They will eat your hand out! You will have to take rice or naan with it. Any biryani is great. I never tried veggie biryani on them, though.

Make a good presentation of whatever you make. Show them how it is eaten. They will appreciate it. Keep ghee and limes with you. If anyone feels your food is too spicy, just add lime and ghee. Also, they love the smell of curry leaves.

hope this helps,
regards,
Sharada

Thanks Sarada. i'll surely take that into consideration.

Priya

Priya,
since you said that you are new to cooking, my time tested suggestions are :

1 Fruit chaat......nicely cut up pineapple, green melon, muskmelon, bananas, pomegranate seeds and place in a bowl. sprinkle with fruit chaat masala just before serving and toss well. You can get the fruit chaat masala from indian store. It will be gone in minutes.

2. Any flavor of ice cream and get a can of qurbani (khubani) sauce from indian store, Top a scoop of ice cream with qurbani sauce and serve......If you have difficulty in finding the premade sauce, you can buy dried apricots, soak them for few hours make a fine paste by grinding and simmer in a nonstick pan with a little butter and sugar to taste. the consitency should be of a thick syrup. Alternatively you can substitute pudding(made with pudding mix any flavor) with icecream and layer in a rectangular pyrex pan 1 st pudding, then qurbani sauce then cool whip. Chill for six hours.

Dear,

I am not at all a good cook, in fact, I am cooking since last 1 year .........
I never cooked before marriage and took advantage of my sweet hubby for whole of the first year but then felt guilty to ask him to cook always, so learnt cooking from him, from websites and now IL site.......
I made my stuffs from searching websites as that time I was not an IL member. So, these are the recipes of following things:

Samosas:

For the Pastry

1 1/2 cups all purpose Flour

1/4th cup oil

1/8th cup water

Salt 1 teaspoon

Red Chili powder 1/4 th teaspoon

For the filling

4 medium Potatoes, boiled and mashed coarsely

1/2 cup green Peas, cooked

1/2 tsp Garam Masala

1/4 tsp Pepper

Salt to taste or 1 teaspoon

1/4 tsp Red chili powder

1 tsp Dry Mango Powder or Amchur

1/2 tsp Cumin powder

3 Tablespoons Oil

1/2 Cumin seeds

A pinch of Asafoetida

1 finely chopped Green Chili

1 teaspoon lemon juice

Oil for frying

First make the filling. Heat oil and season it with cumin seeds, Asafoetida or "Hing" and finely chopped green chilies. Then add the mashed potatoes and the peas.

Now put in all the masalas like the garam maslala, pepper, red chili powder, dry mango powder and cumin powder. Mix well and let it cook for 5-6 minutes covered. Add the lemon juice and mix well. Then remove and keep aside. Let it cool.

Now make the pastry. Mix the flour, water, oil, salt and red chili powder to make a stiff dough. Keep aside.

To put the Samosa together

Cut the pasrty dough into 4 equal parts. Take a piece of one of the 4 parts the pastry dough. Roll it out into a round about 6 to 8 inches in diameter.

Cut it in two parts (like semi-circle). Moisten the straight edge with a finger dipped in water. then take one semi circle and fold it in a shape of cone .

Stuff about a tablespoon of the potatoes-peas mixture in that cone and seal the top edge with a drop of water on your finger and press the edges together. Make all the Samosas this way. Keep both the samosa and dough covered with a towel.

Heat oil and deep fry the Samosas. Fry 4 to 5 at a time for about 2 to 3 minutes turning once after 1 minute or Fry the samosa to a rich golden brown. Makes 8 samosas.

Stuffed Paranthas:

Fillings:

Potato: 1 large potato

or Radish: 1 large daikon radish

or Cauliflower: 1/4 medium head

If using potatoes, boil potatoes, mash, add salt and chili to taste. Add garam masala and mango powder. If using radishes, grate the radish, add salt and leave for 1/2 hour. Squeeze out all the water, add grated ginger, chili, and pomegranate seeds. If using cauliflower, grate cauliflower, add salt, pepper, garlic, and garam masala. Roll out 2 small chappatis. Add filling on one, cover with the second, seal edges and cook as for paranthas.

Paneer Butter Masala

Ingredients

Paneer - 20 cubes

Tomatoes - 1/2 kg (puree)

Onions - 7 medium size

Garam Masala - 1 tsp

Chilli powder - 2 tsp

Ginger-Garlic paste - 3 to 4 tsp

Coriander Leaves - 1/2 bunch

Dhaniya Powder - 2 tsp

Cream - 1/2 cup

Red Colour Powder - 1 tsp

Ghee - 3 to 4 tsp

Oil and Salt

Method:

1. Fry paneer in ghee/oil until it becomes golden brown. I brought Parampara Spice pack for Paneer Butter masala and did as per the instruction on the pack.
2. Otherwise, it can be made by this procedure:
3. Fry onions in oil till golden brown and add the chilli powder, garam masala and ginger garlic paste .
4. Put the dhaniya powder in the gravy two times in the ratio 1:1
5. Now add the tomato puree to the gravy and allow it to boil.
6. Now add the paneer cubes to the masala, sprinkle the food colour and allow it to boil for 5 more mins.
7. Add the coriander leaves after switching the gas and decorate it with fresh cream available in market.

Happy cooking!!!

Dear Blondie Ma'am,
Your recipes look so good but most of the people love to have something home cooked in Pot-lucks especially in my office, where we have people from many countries.........even this is a way to know our tastes/food variety.....so I think these dishes are good for Indian pot-luck but for office Pot-lucks, will not be it gr8 to have something Indian.................
Regards.

My dear Meeta,

the two items that i suggested are very much indian; infact khubani/qurbani ka meetha is a hyderabadi speciality.

I was paying heed to Priya's own saying that she is a new cook and not used to cooking a lot. So the 2 very simple but delicious suggestions suitable for office potlucks. (they are home made/assembled if not cooked :)).

.....so I think these dishes are good for Indian pot-luck but for office Pot-lucks, will not be it gr8 to have something Indian.................