Monday, Dec 15 2008:
So today it was my day to get some snack to the office. I choose to get the great Indian delicacy called Rasmalai (my mouth starts watering even if I'm just writing about it). Not only I decide to get it to office but I also gave it flavor of my hands.
This is not the first time I'm making Rasmalai but definitely this is the first time when I'm making it in such a volume. My roommate AT and I counted number of people in the office. It came out to be 22. We had 3 boxes of the rasmalai patties, which made it total of 30 pieces. AT thought this would be less, even I thought that too but I told him it would be difficult to prepare more than that. I said we would restrict everyone for a piece each and at the end whoever gets the second would be lucky.
We got the ingredients a week before itself. We go the Indian market here fortnightly, so we didn't want to make a extra trip just for rasmalai. Initially I had thought we will prepare the sweet on Saturday itself so that we can keep it in the fridge for a full day which will help condense the dish to enrich the flavor more. Somehow we did not get time on Saturday (had to take a friend leaving for India for shopping).
On Sunday as usual in afternoon, AT and I were watching American football match on TV. AT said when are we going to prepare rasmalai. I gasped, "Oh man, I totally forgot about it". I couldn't believe myself, how in the world I could forget it? The most important activity of the weekend and I just forgot it, what a fool of me. So after finishing lunch I did the 3 hours preparation hoping others would like it.
Monday morning I woke up and went to kitchen. Unlike every morning today I went to see the rasmalai first before I drank some water. It's intact and still looking good. I moved the dish to other container for carrying it to the office. The container was filled upto the brim, or may be 1 cm below the edge. I suspected that the dish would spill while carrying so I covered the edges of the lid with aluminium foil, so that the lid would fix tightly to the container.
All set and ready to leave home I picked up the dish and was waiting for my other roomate KN to lock the door. As he was locking the door I looked down at my dress to make sure nothing has been spoiled. Well the thing has already spoiled my jacket, trouser and shoes. Oh my God! I asked KN to pick up some paper napkins from inside. I decided I would clean myself later, first I need to get the container to the car. AT was already waiting in front of the stairs in the car, so that we can avoid walking in the rain as much as possible. Carefully I walked down the wet slippery wodden stairs, but AT didn't see me coming down. I stood in front of the car door but both of my hands were occupied and I could not open the door. AT could not hear me inside the car as all the windows were closed and he was looking for something inside. I had to knock the door with my leg to get the door open.
As I sat inside in slow motion I realised I could not place the container on the seat as the seat is tilted. The car leather seats, which are easy to clean plus I had put a pile of newspaper at the base to avoid any spill getting on the seat. I just wiped my clothes and shoes with the paper napkins as I didn't have time and patience to change my dress. All of these precautions but still at turns and brakes I had to struggle a lot to avoid spilling. Not wise enough, was what I learned from this experience. I should have taken a bigger container.
Finally it reached office. I didn't open it until the lunch time. In fact people we expecting it so they came looking for it and started opening it even before I planned to open it. Some of them had meeting so they suspected they would miss it, hence the rush. I had to literally pull away everybody. I quickly finished my lunch, put on some last minute garnishes and then let everybody attack it. Also I did make sure I mention tha everybody is suppose to take one piece only as the quantity is limited. Intially people followed but later they ignored.
It was nice to see anxiety and enthusiasm around but I did want it to be unfair for the people who were not in office that time. I think at the end of the day everybody got atleast one piece of it, which was good. Not to forget, everybody did praise it :)
So today it was my day to get some snack to the office. I choose to get the great Indian delicacy called Rasmalai (my mouth starts watering even if I'm just writing about it). Not only I decide to get it to office but I also gave it flavor of my hands.
This is not the first time I'm making Rasmalai but definitely this is the first time when I'm making it in such a volume. My roommate AT and I counted number of people in the office. It came out to be 22. We had 3 boxes of the rasmalai patties, which made it total of 30 pieces. AT thought this would be less, even I thought that too but I told him it would be difficult to prepare more than that. I said we would restrict everyone for a piece each and at the end whoever gets the second would be lucky.
We got the ingredients a week before itself. We go the Indian market here fortnightly, so we didn't want to make a extra trip just for rasmalai. Initially I had thought we will prepare the sweet on Saturday itself so that we can keep it in the fridge for a full day which will help condense the dish to enrich the flavor more. Somehow we did not get time on Saturday (had to take a friend leaving for India for shopping).
On Sunday as usual in afternoon, AT and I were watching American football match on TV. AT said when are we going to prepare rasmalai. I gasped, "Oh man, I totally forgot about it". I couldn't believe myself, how in the world I could forget it? The most important activity of the weekend and I just forgot it, what a fool of me. So after finishing lunch I did the 3 hours preparation hoping others would like it.
Monday morning I woke up and went to kitchen. Unlike every morning today I went to see the rasmalai first before I drank some water. It's intact and still looking good. I moved the dish to other container for carrying it to the office. The container was filled upto the brim, or may be 1 cm below the edge. I suspected that the dish would spill while carrying so I covered the edges of the lid with aluminium foil, so that the lid would fix tightly to the container.
All set and ready to leave home I picked up the dish and was waiting for my other roomate KN to lock the door. As he was locking the door I looked down at my dress to make sure nothing has been spoiled. Well the thing has already spoiled my jacket, trouser and shoes. Oh my God! I asked KN to pick up some paper napkins from inside. I decided I would clean myself later, first I need to get the container to the car. AT was already waiting in front of the stairs in the car, so that we can avoid walking in the rain as much as possible. Carefully I walked down the wet slippery wodden stairs, but AT didn't see me coming down. I stood in front of the car door but both of my hands were occupied and I could not open the door. AT could not hear me inside the car as all the windows were closed and he was looking for something inside. I had to knock the door with my leg to get the door open.
As I sat inside in slow motion I realised I could not place the container on the seat as the seat is tilted. The car leather seats, which are easy to clean plus I had put a pile of newspaper at the base to avoid any spill getting on the seat. I just wiped my clothes and shoes with the paper napkins as I didn't have time and patience to change my dress. All of these precautions but still at turns and brakes I had to struggle a lot to avoid spilling. Not wise enough, was what I learned from this experience. I should have taken a bigger container.
Finally it reached office. I didn't open it until the lunch time. In fact people we expecting it so they came looking for it and started opening it even before I planned to open it. Some of them had meeting so they suspected they would miss it, hence the rush. I had to literally pull away everybody. I quickly finished my lunch, put on some last minute garnishes and then let everybody attack it. Also I did make sure I mention tha everybody is suppose to take one piece only as the quantity is limited. Intially people followed but later they ignored.
It was nice to see anxiety and enthusiasm around but I did want it to be unfair for the people who were not in office that time. I think at the end of the day everybody got atleast one piece of it, which was good. Not to forget, everybody did praise it :)
Merry Christmas!! (Sorry had to edit the picture for some posters in the background).
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