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Saturday, November 20, 2010

Thanksgiving potluck at school

Thanksgiving is a big holiday here in the US. It falls on the last Thursday of November. It is celebrated as a harvest festival and giving thanks to all those who helped with it. It is also the 'turkey day'. Most people roast a whole turkey with stuffing and carve the bird at table side. It is an occasion when the whole family comes together enjoying fun, football and food.

Yesterday, we had a thanksgiving potluck lunch at Srihari's school and parents were welcome to have lunch with their kids.. There was lots of food and so many varieties (including idly, lemon rice, 5 varieties of pasta, pies and fresh fruit) which made the kids want everything... I had a lot of fun with my son. I was cooking the whole morning (thanks to my sis who dropped in early to help) and then was rushing to the school, that I did not have time to click pictures. Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera to school... So no pictures... except for those I clicked the previous day!!!

I prepared two varieties of wrap.
1. Creme cheese wrap with sun-dried tomatoes
2. Green chutney and potato filling wrap
Check out the details (from my older post) here.

I prepared the green chutney on Thursday, to save some time on Friday morning.

Ingredients:
Mint leaves - 1/2 a bunch
Cilantro - 1 bunch, roughly chopped
Onion - 1 small piece, diced
Ginger - 1 inch piece chopped
Green Chillies - 3 slit at the middle (this batch was very mild - and they did not make the chutney spicy at all)
Urad dal - 2 tbsp (optional)
Channa dal - 2 tbsp (optional)
Juice of 1 lime
salt to taste


Method:
The usage of dals or peanuts in the chutney is optional. It gives it some thickness and texture.  Some kids at school are allergic to nuts, so, I resorted to dals instead of peanuts.
Heat little oil in a skillet, add green chillies, ginger and onion and fry them until onions turn transparent. Add channa and urad dal and fry until golden brown.  Now add mint and cilantro, mix well and remove from heat. The leaves will wilt in the remaining heat and this keeps them green. Let it cool and grind with salt, lemon juice and little water to a thick consistancy.


To assemble the wrap, I spread this chutney on lavash bread (from Trader Joe's), sprinkled pieces of sauteed mashed potato, onion and peas mixture and rolled it and cut into 3 pieces.

I also prepared baked sweet potato wedges... What's thanksgiving without sweet potatoes???

Overall it was a meal thoroughly enjoyed meal with kids and parents at school.

3 comments:

  1. Great to see you had a great thanksgiving party with Srihari at school. :)

    And yeah. the wraps are indeed loking good (in the older post) ;P

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  2. Thx Suku. These wraps are not only good looking... they r yummy and easy to make too!!

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  3. Hey pics are great in this post.. What all did u cook other than the bread/chutney?

    ReplyDelete