Vegetable Manchurian Gravy - Diwali Dinner 2015

Diwali - My favorite festival. Diwali opens a flood gate of memories each year with the glittering shimmering lights all around. After shifting to Mumbai, I was introduced to the Diwali delicacies or Faraal  that my colleagues get from home. My favorite is the Poha Chivda. I just love that. Even though in Assam also we have a variant of the dish, I have not tried making the Maharashtrian way yet. Need to go to my colleague's house to learn the trick soon!


This Diwali I thought of trying out something which I have not tried before. Cabbage Manchurian gravy! I thought since the Chinese lights have become an integral part of Diwali, what's the harm in having an Indianised Chinese dish. So here goes my version of Cabbage Manchurian Gravy.


It's an easy and no fuss recipe.


Ingredients :


For the Vegetarian Balls


One small Cabbage - (grated)
One medium Carrot - (grated)
One medium cup Besan ( some use Corn Flour and Maida but I used only Gram flour or Besan)
2 Green Chillies Chopped
2 Garlic cloves Chopped
Salt as per taste
Oil to fry the balls.


For the Gravy


2/3 strings of Spring Onions - both white and green parts
One full pack of Tomato puree
4 table spoons of Dark Soya sauce
3/4 Garlic cloves chopped
Salt as per taste
2 table spoon of oil


Mix all the ingredients for the vegetarian balls and shape these into round balls. I could make 5 balls of the size of table tennis balls. I suggest not to keep these balls for too long as they will get soggy otherwise. Heat the oil in a wok and place the balls as you round them. I deep fried them since I don't have any air fryer. But I plan to try baking them next time!! Once fried, put them on tissue so that the excess oil is soaked out.



Now for the gravy. I used 2 table spoon from the oil I used for frying the balls. Add the chopped spring onions ( please keep some green portions to garnish) and the chopped garlic cloves. Once they turn slightly golden, pour in the tomato puree and add soya sauce into it. Stir well. Add half a cup of water if you feel the gravy is too thick. Add salt as per taste and mix everything well. As the gravy comes to a boil, add the cabbage balls. Let them simmer for 5 minutes. Switch off the gas and garnish with chopped green spring onions.


Serve hot with fried rice or noodles. I served with plain noodles.


I just boiled the noodles. Then added little olive oil and freshly ground black pepper into the plain noodles.

P loved the dish.


Happy Diwali.

And I was Home...

"Sorry Papa, we won't be able to make it this time" I uttered and #lookup at my husband's face. He was staring at me too.
"Oh; ok if it seems difficult. I thought this year may be all of us could be together in Diwali" - I could clearly hear the disappointment in my father in law's voice over the phone. I felt bad. This was supposed to be my first Diwali after marriage and Papa was looking forward to the presence of the elder daughter in law. In fact this was to be the first Diwali with the presence of a woman in 16 years at my new home. My mother in law expired that many years ago and since then, every function or festival has been observed by these 3 men all by themselves. These 3 men ; who are my family now - my father in law, my brother in law and my husband.

I was just back to work after a long leave for my marriage. I would not have got another leave that soon. So husband asked me to explain the situation so that he was not disappointed if we did not turn up. I was not really convinced that papa would not be sad. But then it's better to be honest than lie that we would be home for Diwali.

But as they say "Where there is a will; there is a way". Next day in office colleagues were discussing about their Diwali plans. Diwali holiday fell on Thursday, not exactly a long weekend! But most of them had made plans for short visits. I asked " But Friday is working right?" My colleague Suchi said " Friday I will apply for work from home ; simple. We are going to Nashik to my in law's." How foolish of me. This option went completely out of my mind. Problem solved. I would also do the same.

I called P (my husband) and yelled " we are going; we are going to Dibrugarh for Diwali" He was surprised and happy and then decided to keep this as a surprise for Papa!

Finally on the day of Diwali both landed in Dibrugarh in the afternoon. Brother in law was waiting to receive us. Of course he knew; but he also kept that secret. While coming from airport to home; I called up Papa and casually chatted about the evening plans. He said like every year brother in law has put lights everywhere in the house and if someone drops by the evening he had got some sweets ready. When he inquired about our plans; I said we would be" Home" only. He of course thought I was referring to our home in Mumbai.

Then after 20 minutes we reached Home. Pepper, the dog that my husband had got all the way from Pune 10 years ago was barking and jumping with joy. Papa came out to see why Pepper was so happy. He saw us and he was elated and happy and surprised. He smiled and hugged me and my husband tight. Never in life will I forget that moment. Papa was like a small boy who just got a box full of his favourite crackers for Diwali. He started calling everyone, his sisters , his brothers families about how P & I and my brother in law "tricked" him.

That evening before we switched on the lights that brother in law had put everywhere over the house; I lit up the earthen diyas; one in front of the God and one near the Tulsi and few in the verandah ;our Diwali was complete.
I was Home, completely; totally.

My Diwali this year

 

 

 
 Amidst the glittering and shimmering lights, I too light a small "Maati Saaki" ( Earthen lamp /diya) and I pray as this small diya lighten up the darkness near the windowsill; this festival of lights to chases away the darkness from my mind, my home and from my loved ones.

 

 

 

 

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I am not bursting any crackers this year. Not even a simple "phool jhari". I wish to keep this Diwali simple only with lights.

The smell of mustard oil burning  in an earthen light is so soothing. It is the smell of those many diwalis of my childhood. I have written about that here

Yesterday while coming from work I found a stray dog sitting ; rather hiding from all the noise; in the stairs of our building. This has never happened. Even though there are many stray dogs in the neighbourhood , I have not found one coming inside the building in my last 2 diwalis spent here. It looked so scared as it looked up to me as if to plead not to chase him away. I felt guilty! Many are bursting crackers everywhere. I cant stop them. But there is something I can definitely do; I myself am not bursting any crackers.
 

 

 
I look out of my window and see those flickers of lights everywhere.  I revel in this festival of lights.

May this light spreads to all the corners of the world.

Diwali of Love, Light and Life

Have you seen the wonderful film made by Pepsi ?

#GharWaliDiwali ..Yeah Ghar Wali, the one spent at home, with family.

I came across this last night. The daughter who is now a wife and a mother, her parents who are now left with the memories of many diwalis of her growing up years; who now see , "touch and feel" their daughter's presence through video calls! This lovely film brought back so many memories. Memories of a childhood spent in a quiet sleepy little town tucked in the North Eastern part of the country, Dibrugarh. Of course Dibrugarh is no longer the little town it used to be; but my and my siblings childhood were spent here. Dibrugarh plays an important part in our lives and will always remain.

Our dad was not good at showing or expressing his emotions. Busy with his work, he would often forget our birthdays and at times which standard we were in! We ; I and my younger sister and brother. Ma would make it up. Being the wonderful cook she is, she would cook up a storm in all festivals, birthdays or just impromptu girls gang get-togethers in our teen years. In an Assamese family Diwali was not celebrated like the way it was celebrated in Northern or North Western part of India. No special sweets or laddoos were made. We did that during Bihu, the mail festival of Assam. In fact in Eastern India, during Diwali Goddess Kali is worshipped; not Goddess Lakshmi ! For us Diwali was more of a festival of lights and crackers and having fun with neighbours.

In Dibrugarh, we had a big house with a big kitchen garden. During Diwali dad would ask Madhu, our house help those days, to get a Banana tree ( which is actually a stem) cleaned and decorate it with bamboo hollows cut into 2. That decorated Banana tree/stem would be placed near our gate. In the evening Ma would get the diyas ready on the dining table. We used to light small earthen diyas ;  maati saaki as they are called in Assamese. I and my siblings would get busy in rolling cotton and then filling up the diyas with mustard oil. In big plates we would get the diyas and place them one by one on those bamboo hollows which were embedded into the banana tree. And then as darkness would fall, we would start lighting the diyas one by one. Madhu would help in lighting the diyas placed on top. The gate would be thrown open. Every house in the neighbourhood would light the same earthen diyas.  All our friends would go from one house to another to see the lights.Our small neighbourhood would lit up like a star.

Then came the fun part. Bursting crackers. Dad always maintained that too much of noise and air pollution must be avoided. He would get us very basic stuffs like phool jharis , flower pots , chakras, twinkling wires etc. He would get us those small red phataka which in Assamese we referred to as "Jolokia bomb". Jolokia meaning chilli as they resembled long thin red chillis! No big sky rockets or those fancy sparklers which burst into a big bouquet in the air; as he would say that those sky sparkles might fall on  someone's thatched roof and it might lead to disaster. Not that it never happened. There was a colony of people near our area, who mostly had thatched roofs. In one such case, a family had lost all their belongings. And guess what; almost every neighbor uncle would say the same thing to his children and we all would end up with similar crackers. Talk of being dad!

I and my sister were scared of bursting those jolokia bomb or red chilli phatakas. Our brother was even smaller. Again Dad to rescue; he asked Madhu to cut a bamboo piece into 4 sticks. Then there would be a small cut in one end of the stick. You were supposed to hold the stick from one end and fix a Red Chilli Bomb in between the small cut in the other end and then light it. Simple. Its safe ,far from you and you also had the fun of bursting a bomb! Much like the way these days people carry those fancy sticks ( sorry but I don't know what they are called) to place their mobile phones or small cameras to click selfies.

Spread the Light...!

Our family albums are full of Diwali photographs. Over the years, we moved to a bigger city; eventually sold off that place and settled in Guwahati. Then slowly we; I, my sister and my brother, all started moving out. First for higher studies, then job and then finally marriage. As dad would say " leaving the nest to fly into the horizon". The cities got bigger; but the houses got smaller. While studying in Gwalior, I celebrated hostel Diwali. While working in Delhi,I celebrated Diwali with room mates and friends. Now in Mumbai its with husband. In Diwali, we try to be at home together. I still light up few maati saaki / earthen diyas. I try to make sure they do not get lost in the glittering, shimmering lights pouring in from all over. And then of course the Kandil. Every year for last 3 years, we both would go and get a Kandil for our home. That's now a part of my #GharWaliDiwali.

Dad left us 9 years ago. Thank you PepsiCo for this wonderful little film for taking me back to those many diwalis from my childhood.

May this festival of light spread love and togetherness everywhere.

https://www.gharwalidiwali.com/